Deciphering your website’s analytics can be a full time job that many business owners just don’t have the time to do. Those website analytics reports might look intimidating but you do not need to be an expert in web analytics to derive relevant business ready metrics from your reports.

Your website’s bounce rate can be a great metric for monitor the overall effectiveness of your site. Bounce rate monitors the percentage of visitors to your site that leave your web site after viewing only one page. Bounce rates can be a great indicator as to the effectiveness of your company’s homepage or landing pages. A high bounce rate percentage is a strong indicator that visitors to your site are not finding the information they are looking for or your “call to action” is not working.

Bounce rates will vary depending on the industry of the site and the goals of the specific page. As a general rule of thumb, a bounce rate in the 20 percent range is good where bounce rates of 40 percent or higher should throw up some read flags and further examination.

Media and blog sites will tend to have higher bounce rates generally. Niche and regional specific sites can also generate slightly higher bounce rates. The lower your bounce rate the more likely it is that your site is converting browsers into customers and sales leads.

If your site is experiencing a high bounce rate start investigating what might be causing visitors to leave your landing page. Reorganize your landing pages and work to define your “calls to action” while presenting relevant information quickly can help encourage visitors to click on to the next page.

A great way to target down the source of your bounce rates and work to improve your content is to utilize A/B testing.  By modifying page elements and testing them against your current site design, offers, or call to action, you can quickly derive the source of the issue. Even if you are not experiencing significant bounce rates, A/B testing is still a great way to keep a handle on bounce rates and on page conversions.