It looks like Google might be using your bounce rate as part of their ranking algorithm. What does that mean for our SEO efforts? Strictly speaking it’s not actually an SEO problem. Let’s define what a ‘bounce’ is and get some other facts of the way first.
A bounce is a single page visit - the person arrives on your site, looks at the page they arrived at, then leaves without going any further. A bounce could be someone who takes one look and backs out or someone who reads the whole page before taking off.
Now - how is Google figuring out yoru site bounce rate? They have a variety of ways, the most complete being the monitoring of Google Analytics, if you use it. Other avenues are whether you use the Google toolbar or the new Chrome browser. They can also keep track of how quickly a searcher returns to Google again for a search.
Bounce rate is actually a good way of determining site quality, at least on first glance. If your visitors aren’t sticking around long, you’re not giving them the information they need. Improving it will not only help your SEO rankings, it’ll go a long way to improving conversion.
Look at the elements of the page that stick out on 1st glance to a visitor. Make sure they’re telling them exactly what they need to know. If you don’t, you’re not only losing search engine rankings, you’re losing potential income.