What the heck is "bounce rate"? How important is it?

To ensure that everyone knows what "bounce rate" means, I'm starting this thread with resources and as a place to ask questions.

Jo has written a couple of good tutorials:

http://wizzley.com/reduce-blog-bounce-rate/ 

 http://wizzley.com/bloggers-watch-bounce-rate/

I know that lower the bounce rate, the better. Both in terms of SEO as well as revenue. But I think in a revenue sharing site like Wizzley, high bounce rate is inevitable. That's because it's not a niche site and there are articles on a wide variety of topics. Readers from SEs leave after they have finished reading the particular article. Low bounce rate is only possible in niche sites. The only way we can have a comparatively lower bounce rate at Wizzley is by having interesting articles as "related articles", which Wizzley is already doing.

Thanks Ryan, for clearing up the matter. I know have a much better idea about the topic.

Thank you very much for including my articles here.  I'm glad that they were useful. <3

I think landing page design is a trade-off. Google may consider the time readers spend reading your page as a ranking factor, but perfectly satisfied readers won't click on anything - you won't make any money. The ideal landing page should:

• attract people who want to buy things after they have read your great article
• have carefully designed 'holes' or 'gaps' that the ads magically fill

If you write to inform, but not make money, you should aim for a very low bounce rate.

If you write garbage you will have a high bounce rate.

If you write to inform and make a little cash, you would aim for a moderate bounce rate so that Google still loves you, your readers like what you write, and you have stimulated their appetite so they are hungry to buy  - click and good bye.

cheers,

good points - I think its more likely a frustrated user would click the back button rather than an ad on a lousy article.

On another aspect Google is torn between trying to satisfy its customers (readers of the SERPS) and its advertisers (but their interests are opposed). Google makes money from ad impressions ( instant $$$ when page opened) and when the user clicks an ad ( Google extracts money from the advertiser whose ad is displayed). Shuffling between pages - bouncing all over the place generates $$ via impressions, but to get a click through will require lingering a little longer. [ reminds me of two clinging weeds in tropical North Queensland called "Wait-a-While" and "Linger-Longer".

Bye