Bounce rate

In Google Analytics 4, bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that were not engaged. An engaged session is one that lasts longer than 10 seconds (the default, which you can change), includes a key event such as a form submission, or has at least two page or screen views. Bounce rate is simply 100% minus the engagement rate. This is different from the older Universal Analytics definition, which counted any single-page session as a bounce, even if the visitor read the page for several minutes.

A high bounce rate tells you that many visitors left quickly without doing anything you track. Common causes include slow loading, a headline that does not match the ad or search result, an unclear offer, intrusive popups, and pages that are hard to use on mobile. It can also reflect the wrong traffic: a page that ranks for a loosely related search term will attract people who leave because it is not what they wanted.

Bounce rate needs context. Look at it by traffic source, device and landing page rather than as one site-wide figure, and compare a page against its own history. For a single-page site, a contact page or a page that answers a quick question, a fairly high bounce rate may be normal. What matters most is whether the page achieves its goal.

How to improve it

• Compare bounce rate by traffic source and device to find where the problem really is.
• Make sure the headline matches the ad, email or search query that sends visitors to the page.
• Improve mobile load speed, especially Largest Contentful Paint.
• Make the offer and the call-to-action clear in the first screen.
• Remove popups that appear immediately on arrival, particularly on mobile.

How PageScore checks it

PageScore does not connect to your analytics, so it does not measure bounce rate. It checks the common causes instead: real mobile speed from Google PageSpeed Insights, headline clarity, a first-screen CTA and the AI review of the mobile first screen.