Here is another view on that:
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f40/who-making-all-profits-1778.html#post14201
Bounce Rate
- Thread starter JillB
- Start date
Here is another view on that:
http://forum.dealerrefresh.com/f40/who-making-all-profits-1778.html#post14201
- Apr 7, 2009
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- Joe
re: Bounce Rate.
Comparing your stats to others...
IMO, if you want to measure bounce rate to other dealers, it has to be very very loosely compared. The only real value in with this comparison is if your an "outlier" or not. If your somewhere near the norm, drop it an move on.
Not all Bounce Rates are the same...
Keyword has Dealer name -vs- keyword without dealer name
Think of the phone book. White pages and yellow pages. White pages users know your name. Yellow pages "may" know your name, but are shopping for a product or service. "White Pages" traffic to dealer sites are often for service or post sale followup and they have ultra low bounce rates and can skew your overall numbers.
Think about how ALL of the data points can move your bounce numbers around. Remember the bounce rate reveals the "mix" of white pages traffic vs yellow pages traffic.
Dealer#1). A Big Fish in a Small Pond. (low bounce)
Dealer #2). Dealer 1 hour outside major metro, with Gigantic Organic SEO or Big Dollar PPC campaign (high bounce)
Dealer #3). Mega-Dealer Carpet Bombs TV (low bounce)
Dealer #4). Dealer name is new (high bounce)
And on and on....
All the scenarios above move the white/yellow pages traffic percentage up and down INSIDE your overall traffic.
So.. bounce rate is really a mix of your white pages and yellow pages traffic AND it's also a function of your site's design.
Lastly,
Inside Google Analytics, you can create "advanced segments" to that will allow you to look inside the numbers. For example, you can remove all traffic that contains your dealers name. Or, you can look at look at traffic with just your dealers name.
Lastly... part2
"The devil is in the details".
Lets say you took on CL a few months ago. It's completely crazy to bug out over the new higher bounce rate that CL has created.
Lastly Part 3 (will I EVER shut up!??!)
Did something important happen today? Annotate your charts! If you just added PPC, or a new TV adcampaign, or, you REMOVED your TV spending, it will change your traffic! You can create a marker on your graph for the day of the action, put your notes on it and save it (aka annotate it!).
IMO, because all of the above, Bounce rate is best when compared against your old bounce rate numbers.
hth
Comparing your stats to others...
IMO, if you want to measure bounce rate to other dealers, it has to be very very loosely compared. The only real value in with this comparison is if your an "outlier" or not. If your somewhere near the norm, drop it an move on.
Not all Bounce Rates are the same...
Keyword has Dealer name -vs- keyword without dealer name
Think of the phone book. White pages and yellow pages. White pages users know your name. Yellow pages "may" know your name, but are shopping for a product or service. "White Pages" traffic to dealer sites are often for service or post sale followup and they have ultra low bounce rates and can skew your overall numbers.
Think about how ALL of the data points can move your bounce numbers around. Remember the bounce rate reveals the "mix" of white pages traffic vs yellow pages traffic.
Dealer#1). A Big Fish in a Small Pond. (low bounce)
Dealer #2). Dealer 1 hour outside major metro, with Gigantic Organic SEO or Big Dollar PPC campaign (high bounce)
Dealer #3). Mega-Dealer Carpet Bombs TV (low bounce)
Dealer #4). Dealer name is new (high bounce)
And on and on....
All the scenarios above move the white/yellow pages traffic percentage up and down INSIDE your overall traffic.
So.. bounce rate is really a mix of your white pages and yellow pages traffic AND it's also a function of your site's design.
Lastly,
Inside Google Analytics, you can create "advanced segments" to that will allow you to look inside the numbers. For example, you can remove all traffic that contains your dealers name. Or, you can look at look at traffic with just your dealers name.
Lastly... part2
"The devil is in the details". Lets say you took on CL a few months ago. It's completely crazy to bug out over the new higher bounce rate that CL has created.
Lastly Part 3 (will I EVER shut up!??!)
Did something important happen today? Annotate your charts! If you just added PPC, or a new TV adcampaign, or, you REMOVED your TV spending, it will change your traffic! You can create a marker on your graph for the day of the action, put your notes on it and save it (aka annotate it!).
IMO, because all of the above, Bounce rate is best when compared against your old bounce rate numbers.
hth
Last edited:
- Apr 14, 2009
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- Tom
Good points, Joe - per usual.
Before you dive into site analytics, it's important to have a lot of data to analyze. You need a minimum of six months of data to start making REALLY informed decisions/changes; twelve months is even better. I'm not as concerned with my bounce rate as I am with swings in the bounce rate e.g., greater than 5% up or down compared to my site average.
Advanced segmentation is crucial so that you can drill into the specific types of traffic your sites receives (yellow pages vs. white pages as Joe suggests). You also need to set up goal conversions in your analytics account so that you can measure what is really important to you. Your bounce rate may increase given a new set of keywords but your conversions go up as a result of the new keywords. If you only looked at the increased bounce rate, you might make the mistake of abandoning highly performing keywords or traffic sources for that matter.
Check out Web Analytics 2.0 by Avinash Kashik. This book is a "must read" if you really want to understand what is going on with the traffic on your website. Kaushik also writes a blog called Occam's Razor that discusses the ins and outs of website analytics.
Before you dive into site analytics, it's important to have a lot of data to analyze. You need a minimum of six months of data to start making REALLY informed decisions/changes; twelve months is even better. I'm not as concerned with my bounce rate as I am with swings in the bounce rate e.g., greater than 5% up or down compared to my site average.
Advanced segmentation is crucial so that you can drill into the specific types of traffic your sites receives (yellow pages vs. white pages as Joe suggests). You also need to set up goal conversions in your analytics account so that you can measure what is really important to you. Your bounce rate may increase given a new set of keywords but your conversions go up as a result of the new keywords. If you only looked at the increased bounce rate, you might make the mistake of abandoning highly performing keywords or traffic sources for that matter.
Check out Web Analytics 2.0 by Avinash Kashik. This book is a "must read" if you really want to understand what is going on with the traffic on your website. Kaushik also writes a blog called Occam's Razor that discusses the ins and outs of website analytics.
