Bounce Rate is a user behavior metric that is applied in two main contexts:
Website Bounce Rate: The percentage of sessions where a user visited only one page on a website and then left (closed the browser, clicked back, or entered a new URL) without performing any other interaction that would trigger a second request to the server.
Email Bounce Rate: The percentage of emails sent that could not be delivered to the recipient’s inbox.
Conceptually, a high website bounce rate is a signal of a mismatch – between the user’s expectation (generated by the SERP) and the actual content or design of the page. This can be an indicator of poor usability, low content quality, or inaccurate targeting. Although not a direct ranking factor, a high bounce rate can signal to search engines that there is low user satisfaction.
In email marketing, bounce rate is divided into “hard” (Hard Bounce) – a permanent problem (invalid address), and “soft” (Soft Bounce) – a temporary problem (overfilled inbox). A high email bounce rate negatively affects the sender’s reputation (Sender Score) and deliverability.