> What bounce rate means in Google Analytics 4, why a website's bounce rate is high, when that is a problem, and the five causes worth fixing. - Canonical: https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-is-my-bounce-rate-so-high/ --- # Why your website's bounce rate is so high In Google Analytics 4, bounce rate is the share of sessions that were not engaged: the visitor stayed ten seconds or less, viewed one page and did nothing counted as a key event. A high rate is a problem on pages meant to lead somewhere, and no problem at all on a page that answers a question in one screen. Updated 6 October 2026 ## What the figure counts Google’s definition is exact. A session is engaged if it lasts longer than 10 seconds, includes a key event, or includes two or more page views. Bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that met none of the three. A visitor who reads a page for a minute and leaves is engaged, and is not a bounce. The figure measures people who arrived and left almost at once. ## When a high rate does not matter Some pages are finished with in one visit: an opening-hours page, a phone number, a short answer. A visitor who finds it and leaves has been served. Judge those pages by whether they did their job, not by the rate. ## When it does The rate matters on pages that exist to lead somewhere: the home page, service pages, product pages and landing pages for advertising. A visitor who leaves those within seconds has seen something that put them off. ## Five causes worth fixing Most high rates on pages that matter come from one of five things. 1. The page is slow. A visitor who waits five seconds often does not wait six. Our guide to [why a website is slow](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-is-my-website-so-slow/) covers the causes. 2. The page does not match what brought the visitor. The advertisement or search result promised one thing and the page opens on another. 3. The first screen does not say what the page is. A large photograph and a slogan leave the visitor to guess. 4. The page is hard to use on a phone. Our guide to [a website that looks bad on mobile](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-does-my-website-look-bad-on-mobile/) lists the faults. 5. The wrong visitors are arriving. No page keeps a visitor who wanted something else. ## How to find which Sort the pages report by sessions and read the bounce rate beside each. Then split a high-rate page by where its visitors came from. A page that keeps visitors from search and loses those from an advertisement has a targeting problem, not a page problem. ## What to change first Start with the busiest page that has the highest rate, since that is where the most visitors are lost. Fix one cause, leave it for a few hundred visits and compare. Visitors who stay and still do not enquire are a different problem, covered in [a website that is not getting enquiries](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/website-not-getting-enquiries/). ## Questions people ask ### What is a good bounce rate? No single figure applies. A contact page or an article that answers a question may have a high rate and be doing its job. Compare a page with others of its kind on your own site, and with itself before and after a change. ### How does GA4 calculate bounce rate? Google defines bounce rate as the percentage of sessions that were not engaged. A session is engaged if it lasts longer than 10 seconds, has a key event, or has two or more page views. ### Does bounce rate affect Google rankings? Google's search staff have said more than once that Analytics data, bounce rate included, is not used to rank pages. The things that cause visitors to leave, such as a slow page or one that does not answer the search, are things Google does judge. ## Free competitor gap report Visitors who leave your site go to someone else's. Name up to three competitors and we measure your pages against theirs, then send you what theirs offer in the first screen that yours do not. 1. Speed and technical health, side by side 2. On-page SEO and site structure 3. The content they are found for and you are not 4. Who holds the searches that matter in your market 5. A prioritised list of what to fix first [Request your free report by email](mailto:contact@hadalmedusa.com?subject=Competitor%20gap%20report%3A%20Guide%3A%20Why%20your%20website) - **Address** — contact@hadalmedusa.com - **Include** — your site; up to three competitors; where you compete ## More in this series - [Why your website is not ranking on Google](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-is-my-website-not-ranking-on-google/) - [Why your website traffic is dropping](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-is-my-website-traffic-dropping/) - [Why your website is not getting enquiries](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/website-not-getting-enquiries/) - [Why your website is so slow, and how to find the cause](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-is-my-website-so-slow/) - [Why your website looks bad on mobile, and how to fix it](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-does-my-website-look-bad-on-mobile/) - [Do I need a new website?](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/do-i-need-a-new-website/) - [Why your website says Not secure, and how to fix it](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-does-my-website-say-not-secure/) - [Why Google Analytics is not showing data](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/google-analytics-not-showing-data/) - [My website has been hacked: what to do](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/my-website-has-been-hacked/) - [Why your contact form is not sending email](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/contact-form-not-sending-email/) - [Why your website is down, and how to find the cause](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-is-my-website-down/) - [When a website is not doing its job: the whole topic](https://hadalmedusa.com/topics/site-problems/) - [All guides](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/) - [Redesigns and rebuilds: what the service includes](https://hadalmedusa.com/services/website-redesign/)