Bounce rate measures the percentage of single-page sessions—visitors who land on a page and leave without any further interaction. A 60% bounce rate means 60 out of 100 visitors left after viewing just one page.
Acceptable bounce rates vary by page type and traffic source. Blog posts might naturally have high bounce rates (people read and leave), while product pages should aim lower (indicating engagement). Paid traffic typically bounces higher than organic search.
High bounce rates can indicate misaligned expectations (ad promised something the page doesn't deliver), poor page experience (slow load, bad mobile design), or simply wrong traffic. Analyzing bounce rate by traffic source and landing page identifies specific problems.