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The "bounce rate" for a website refers to the number of visitors that only visit a single page on the site, and do not remain on the site for any significant length of time. Typically, bounce rates refer to visitors that only stay on the website for a few seconds, and then leave. A high bounce rate usually indicates that the visitors were not able to find what they were looking for.

While it is not perfectly clear, it's not a real stretch of the imagination to think that complicated search engine algorithms, attempting to access the quality or relevance of a website for certain search terms, may factor into the bounce rate of a website. Search engines like Google could collect visitor data via their free browser tools such as Google Chrome and the Google Toolbar, and then use that data to access the amount of time a visitor remains on a website. This information could then be used to help Google provide subsequent search results that others have historically found useful, while sites with higher bounce rates may be devalued.

Keep in mind that the goal of most search engines is to provide the best possible search results. If a website has a high bounce rate, it is likely not providing the information a searcher wants. Search engines may eventually use these bounce rates as a factor in their ranking algorithm.

The bounce rate for a website is yet another reason that Internet marketers should focus on targeted traffic, because targeted traffic results in a much lower bounce rate. For example, if you are selling software for picking baby names, and you generate non-targeted traffic from people looking for baby cribs instead, your bounce rate will increase as a result of that non-targeted traffic.

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