Cherry Bounce Rate
Friday, July 25th, 2008
Often times, when clients view analytics reports, they’ll come across a metric that I’ve found to be very misleading depending on their business goals and objectives — bounce rate.
Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors to your site that enter and then leave after a page view. Many reporting tools will show this metric per page.
It can be alarming to see such a high percentage. Your immediate thought may be that you’re not doing something right but again, depending on your business, this might not be as scary as it appears. For instance, if you’re a commerce site and your objective is to get visitors to buy shoes, book a rental or get an insurance quote, then you may want to take a look at why your visitors are not entering your conversion funnel. In this instance you should take heed of your bounce rate. If you’re in the business of providing information, though, then you might not want to pay close attention to this metric.
To put this in perspective, a zoo’s goal may be providing information to potential customers like hours of operation, events over the weekend or details about breeds of animals housed there. If I navigate to a search engine and query “Denver zoo hours of operation” and I land on a page on the zoo’s website then leave after seeing when the zoo is open; the mission of their online channel is accomplished. A high bounce rate on this page should cause no concern.
A co-worker asked about a personal blog at one point, inquiring about a high bounce rate and how this could be lowered. Again, the blog is informative, heavily spidered by Google and visitors may be finding exactly what they’re looking for. If further engagement is the goal then looking at including relative links to associated content might be a good way to increase stickiness. If you’re writing an article about how to care for tomatoes during the summertime, then consider including links to other articles you may have written about fertilizers, watering or health benefits. The chances of a user browsing your blog have increased.
So, it depends on your online business and your objectives. Remain cautious of dependency on this metric as it may not completely apply to you!
My Grandmother’s Cherry Bounce
Ingredients
- 1/2 gallon Louisiana wild cherries (or fresh bing cherries)
- 1/2 gallon bourbon
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups water
Instructions
Wash the cherries and put them in a gallon crock or jug. Add the whiskey, cover with cheesecloth or cork loosely. Set aside for 3 months or longer (mark you calendar) in a dark closet until the whiskey has absorbed the cherry flavor. After three months, combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil over medium-high heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar and continue cooking until the mixture thickens slightly. Remove from the heat and cool.
Pour the cherry and bourbon mixture through cheesecloth or a coffee filter into 1-quart sterilized bottles or decanters. To two-thirds of the cherry bounce, add one-third of the simple syrup. If you prefer it less sweet, use less simple syrup. Cork and store in a dry place.
Makes about 2 1/2 quarts
I’ve courted the grim reaper before, but never before in my life have I been so close to death. Seen here is my office mate Brandon Hess, the tallest man alive, crushing a small airplane like a gnat. 100 feet above the ground, he towers over me while I await my doom. Apparently, one of his clients introduced some scope creep in a recent project.
