Bounce Rate And Length Of Stay On Site - Why You Shouldn't Care
There was a time I used to obsess about these two metrics and I bet there was a time for you too, maybe even going through this stress RIGHT now!
Im no expert but a bit of common sense needs to be applied about these two metrics and rankings and why worrying about these metrics could be damaging your rankings.
Lets look at bounce rate I see many people worried there bounce rate impacts there ratings, im almost sure it doesn't and here's why......
lets say I come to your site because im looking for more information on the best way to cook eggs and I leave with out checking out any other pages, does this mean I didnt get what I came looking for? of course not you gave me everything I need to go and make a great egg, by that definition would google drop you in rankings because you gave me everything I wanted?
No doubt that length of stay on page plays a part in google algorithm but lets look closely at the average stay, my pages range from 1000-2000 words per post, it will take me no longer than 3 mins to read that if its beautifully presented and easy on the eyes and as most people scan read could easily half that.
Now lets look at the annoying bots we get bombarding our site, even if you filter these there still hitting your site and reducing the average stay down as they immediately leave affecting bounce rate and stay!
Do you think google arnt aware of this? of course they are that why I believe these two metric are not as important as you think they!!
How obsessing is hurting your rankings
Whilst your scratching your head and stressing about these two metrics your neglecting what google really cares about and I mean really, really cares about..........
FRESH CONTENT! all the time you are trying to fix a problem that inst a problem you could be putting another high quality post out.
Nobody knows for sure what google puts as high priority but we can all agree it loves content so forget about bounce rate and page stay and crack on with posts
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And as I mentioned a week or so ago on another post somewhere on this site, Google will only ever know the perceived bounce rate of a website if the website in question has Google Analytics installed. If no analytics is installed, how would they know? As well as this, if you consider the fact that most websites on the internet do not have Google Analytics installed ...
You are definitely right that people worry about things like this for no reason. But this site is about education, is it not? So kudos for you to bringing this topic up again.
thanks, Jude just see so many stress about it and so did I once the content is key I think that's something we all agree on
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I second that Ivine good info mate.