Bounce rate

Per Google, I had 599-page views the last 30-days, bounce rate of 90% with the average reader spending 37 seconds on a page.

Anyone care to tell me what all that means.

Thanks, Mike

I'd like to know as well because my stats are very similar to yours.

A "Bounce" refers to visitors leaving the page without clicking through to any other pages on that website.

It means they came to your page, read or skimmed over the content, and then either hit the "Back" button or navigated to some other URL (not on Wizzley).

Top reasons for a "bounce":

1. The visitor found exactly what they were searching for, and then left satisfied. They did spend some time to read the page.

2. After reading your content, the visitor didn't find what they were looking for, and went somewhere else to search for it. They may have spend some time to arrive at this conclusion.

3. Upon landing on your page, the visitor immediately decided that the page is not relevant to their search, without even bothering to look closer. They probably didn't spend more than a second before bailing.

A high bounce rate can mean one of several things:

1. You did such a splendid and thorough job that there was no reason for the visitor to continue browsing the site.

2. The visitor had no time or desire to read more pages on Wizzley, the reason for which we may never know.

3. Your title may have pulled in the visitor, but the content did not deliver on the promise.

4. The visitor did not formulate his search accurately, and was shown an irrelevant page as a result.

A low bounce rate usually indicates that readers spend more time browsing around, reading multiple pages, spending lots of time on a site, and are often repeat visitors (subscribers). Search engines tend to give higher authority to sites with overall low bounce rates.

A low bounce rate is easier to achieve on websites with a tightly focused topic than on general topic platforms. This is one of the main challenges on a site like Wizzley. 

What can individual authors do to try and lower their bounce rate?

- Aside from the obvious high quality content it is important to have accurate and specific titles. The description also serves to instantly summarize what the reader is going to find on your page.

- Try to entice the reader to continue reading, by providing a succinct series of articles on one topic. Be sure to let them know there's more to read here.

- Add only articles in the sidebar that are relevant to your page topic. Don't add only your own articles if they are not closely related. It is better to add someone else's articles that are relevant, rather than your own that are on a different subject. Chances are, the reader isn't here because he/she is a fan of YOU and your writings, but because they are interested in a specific topic.

- Try to minimize external links, especially near the top of the page. If you write on multiple platforms, try to keep same-topic articles on one single platform, rather than crosslinking.

- Ensure you have selected the best category for your topic. Check if there are already a good number of other articles in the same category. This will help to get more traffic from internal links.