The percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate often signals a mismatch between visitor expectations and what the site delivers.
Bounce rate is the percentage of website sessions in which a visitor viewed only a single page before leaving — without clicking to any other page on the site. In Google Analytics 4, the equivalent metric is 'engagement rate' (its inverse). A bounce isn't always bad: a visitor who found your phone number on the contact page and called you technically bounced, but that was a successful interaction.
For service business websites, a bounce rate above 70% across most pages typically indicates a problem — usually one of three things: the visitor arrived expecting something different from what the page delivered (keyword mismatch), the page failed to establish trust or clarity quickly enough, or the page was slow to load on mobile. Bounce rate is a diagnostic signal, not a verdict.
The most effective ways to reduce bounce rate on a service business website are: make the value proposition explicit in the first 5 seconds, ensure the site loads in under 3 seconds on mobile, eliminate design elements that signal an outdated or unmaintained site, and give visitors an obvious and low-friction next action. Visitors who understand what you do and trust that you can help them will not bounce.
Bounce rate benchmarks vary by industry and page type. Blog posts often have 70–90% bounce rates because people read the article and leave — that's expected. Service pages and homepages should target 40–60%. Landing pages for paid campaigns can vary widely depending on the offer and audience quality.