Bounce rate measures single-page sessions where someone arrives on your site and exits without triggering another pageview. Google Analytics 4 changed the game here—it now focuses on "engagement rate" (the inverse), but the concept remains: did the visitor do anything meaningful after landing? In SEO terms, bounce rate tells you if your page delivers what the search query promised. A 70% bounce rate on a blog post answering "what is bounce rate" isn't alarming—the user got their answer and left satisfied. That same 70% on a product page or service inquiry form is a red flag. Context is everything. High bounce rates usually mean one of three things: your title and meta description oversold the content, the page loads too slowly (3+ seconds kills mobile traffic), or the content itself doesn't match intent. We see this constantly with clients who rank for informational queries but serve commercial pages, or vice versa. Google doesn't use bounce rate as a direct ranking factor—they've said this repeatedly. But user behavior signals like pogo-sticking (bouncing back to search results, then clicking a competitor) absolutely matter. If users consistently reject your page, Google notices. What matters more than the percentage: - Time on page for bounces—10 seconds vs. 3 minutes tells different stories - Scroll depth—did they read 80% before leaving? - Page type—landing pages, blog posts, and e-commerce product pages have wildly different healthy ranges - Traffic source—social media traffic bounces 65-85%, organic search typically 40-60% At Ottawa SEO, we don't panic over bounce rate alone. We cross-reference it with conversion data, scroll tracking, and heatmaps. A high bounce rate with strong conversions means your page works. A low bounce rate with no conversions means people are lost, clicking around aimlessly. Fix intent matching first, page speed second, then worry about engagement elements like internal links and CTAs.