Bounce rate is a key metric in Crazy Egg that helps you understand how engaging your website is for visitors. A high bounce rate can be a red flag or perfectly normal, depending on the type of page and its purpose.
Bounce rate is the percentage of sessions where a visitor lands on your page and leaves without interacting further within 10 seconds — no clicks, no scrolls to another page, no additional engagement.
Why Bounce Rate Matters
Bounce rate helps you answer questions like:
- Are people finding what they expected?
- Is my landing page compelling?
- Are visitors encouraged to explore more?
While a high bounce rate isn’t always bad, it can signal issues like:
- Slow-loading pages
- Misaligned visitor intent (wrong traffic)
- Unclear calls to action
- Poor mobile experience
When a High Bounce Rate Is Normal
Not every high bounce rate is a problem. Sometimes it means your page did exactly what it was supposed to.
Here are a few examples:
- Contact or FAQ pages: Visitors may come just to find your address or an answer, and then exit. That’s expected behavior.
- Lead capture or landing pages: If the user fills out the form and leaves quickly, it’s technically not a bounce (because they interacted). But if they leave fast with no action, that’s a bounce and worth looking into.
- E-commerce product pages: A high bounce rate here might signal friction or disconnect. Ideally, users should click into product details, reviews, or related items; if they don’t, that may be something to fix.
How to Reduce Bounce Rate
If the bounce rate is high and engagement is low, here are a few things to try:
- Clarify your message: Make sure visitors immediately understand what the page is about and what they should do next.
- Speed up your load time: Users may bounce before they even see your content.
- Add stronger calls to action: Guide them to scroll, click, or explore more.
- Use Crazy Egg scroll maps: See how far down the page users get, if most don’t scroll, you might need to move important content higher.
- Test new layouts: Run A/B tests to see what design elements keep users engaged.