What’s a bounce rate?

It sounds fun, but your site’s bounce rate has noth­ing to do with tram­po­lines, bal­loons or pil­low fights. ‘Bounce rate’ is a term used to describe the per­cent­age of new vis­it­ors to a site, then leave without vis­it­ing any other pages. Essen­tially, they’re ‘boun­cing’ off.

What your bounce rate means

Your site’s bounce rate could be telling you a num­ber of things about your web site content.

If your bounce rate is low — under 40% — then it’s telling you that your site is enga­ging and invites users to explore fur­ther. That is, you’re doing a good job — keep it up!

If your bounce rate is high (over 50%, for example) it could mean that:

• vis­it­ors are not being engaged by your site’s content
• they’re encoun­ter­ing some­thing that drives them away — like an error, a broken link, or con­fus­ing text
• your site is not what the user was expect­ing. This can be the case if you have an advert or link on another site that is mis­lead­ing. If a user clicks on a link expect­ing to see dog groom­ing inform­a­tion, they’re going to be very sur­prised if they arrive on a site selling ham­mers. Chances are they’re going to hit the back but­ton — and quickly!

Source - http://www.cleverstarfish.com/whats-a-bounce-rate/