Many Google search representatives have consistently and explicitly stated that Google doesn’t use Google Analytics data, including bounce rate, to rank websites.

A bounce in Universal Analytics is calculated specifically as a session that triggers only a single request to the Analytics server, such as when a user opens a single page on your site and then exits without triggering any other requests to the Analytics server during that session. For example, if a visitor lands on a webpage and doesn’t visit a second page or doesn’t take an action such as submitting a contact form, which would trigger a request to the Analytics server, and then leaves the website, that’s considered a bounce. In Universal Analytics, bounce rate is calculated by dividing the number of single-page sessions by the number of total sessions on the site. For example, if 100 users land on your website (total sessions) and 5 of them exit without triggering another request (single-page sessions), your website’s bounce rate is 5%.

In Google Analytics 4, bounce rate is calculated somewhat differently. Bounce rate is the opposite of engagement rate in Google Analytics 4. What is the engagement rate? The engagement rate metric shows you the number of engaged sessions divided by the total number of sessions over a specified time period. What is an engaged session? An engaged session occurs when one of the three following criterias are fulfilled:

• If a user visits 2+ pageviews
• If 1+ conversion event happens
• If a user stays on a website for over 10 seconds (you can change the time frame to 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60 seconds)

Some SEO experts believe that Google uses bounce rate as a SEO ranking factor because Google says, “…we use aggregated and anonymized interaction data to assess whether search results are relevant to queries,” in How Search Works.

The opaque wording has led to many assumptions about what “interaction data” Google uses to inform its machine learning systems. Some SEO experts believe “interaction data” takes bounce rate into account. Some SEO experts assume that high bounce rate adversely impacts a website’s search ranking because it may suggest that a webpage’s content is low-quality and doesn’t provide the information that users are looking for. That said, if a webpage has a high bounce rate, it could also mean that the webpage has high-quality content and answers users’ questions in one go and users don’t have to visit more webpages within the website to scavenge for information. Hence, bounce rate alone doesn’t indicate if a website’s content is high-quality or low-quality. Moreover, not all websites use Google Analytics. Some websites use built-in CMS analytics tools, Adobe Analytics or other analytics tools to which Google wouldn’t have access. In this case, Google wouldn’t be able to use these websites’ bounce rates (assuming that the analytics tools that these websites use offer bounce rate data) to take into consideration for ranking these websites. Bounce rate is also easily manipulated. A technical digital marketing expert can manipulate a website’s bounce rate by creating certain tags and triggers via Google Tag Manager.

Overall, we don’t believe bounce rate is a SEO ranking factor for these three main reasons:

• Bounce rate doesn’t draw any conclusion about the quality of a webpage’s content so it’s not a fair SEO ranking factor
• Not all websites use Google Analytics
• Bounce rate is easily manipulated

If you have any questions about Google Analytics 4, SEO or anything in between, contact us for a discovery meeting!