How to read bounce rate from Plausible

Notch Metrics2 min read

Part of Plausible visitors in your MacBook notch

What is a bounce in Plausible?

A session with exactly one pageview. The visitor arrived, looked, and left without loading a second page.

curl -s https://plausible.io/api/v2/query \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer <api key>' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "site_id": "example.com",
    "metrics": ["bounce_rate"],
    "date_range": "30d"
  }'

Plausible returns it as a percentage. Notch Metrics holds it as a fraction and renders the percentage, because a ratio stored as a number between 0 and 100 is a number somebody eventually divides by 100 twice.

The thing a bounce rate cannot see

Time. A session with one pageview is a bounce whether the visitor left after two seconds or read for twenty minutes.

That is not a Plausible limitation, it is what a pageview-based definition can know. Without a second page load or an engagement event, the browser never tells anybody how long the visitor stayed.

So the number conflates two opposite outcomes: somebody who bounced off a page that was wrong for them, and somebody who got exactly what they came for on the first page and had no reason to click further.

Which is why high is not automatically bad

Three cases where a high bounce rate is fine or good.

A blog. Search brings somebody to one article, they read it, they leave. That is the article working.

A documentation page. They came for a specific answer, found it, and went back to their editor. A low bounce rate here would mean people cannot find things.

A contact or pricing page as a landing page. One page, one decision.

The case where it is genuinely bad is a landing page whose whole job is to move somebody to the next step. There a bounce is a failure, and the number is directly actionable.

Segment before you judge. A site-wide bounce rate averages a blog that should bounce with a funnel that should not, and the average describes neither.

{
  "site_id": "example.com",
  "metrics": ["bounce_rate", "visitors"],
  "date_range": "30d",
  "dimensions": ["event:page"]
}

Where the number moves without behaviour changing

Adding a cookie banner that fires an event. If a consent interaction registers as activity, bounces fall overnight with nobody reading more.

Anchor links. A same-page anchor is not a pageview in Plausible, so an in-page table of contents does not rescue a bounce rate, which is correct and catches people who expected it to.

Single-page apps. If your router does not fire a pageview on navigation, every session is one pageview and your bounce rate is near 100%. That is an instrumentation reading, not a traffic reading, and it is the first thing to check if the figure looks absurd.

Read it with visitors

A bounce rate falling while visitors fall is not an improvement, it is a smaller and more committed audience. Falling while visitors rise is the genuinely good case.

The ratio alone has no direction. Put the volume beside it.

In the notch

Notch Metrics reports Plausible bounce rate as a ratio, bucketed daily, weekly or monthly in your Plausible site's own timezone, with a sparkline and a comparison against the previous window.

Place it beside unique visitors and pageviews, because a rate with no volume next to it is a number you cannot act on. Everything Plausible reports, or download Notch Metrics.

  • plausible
  • bounce-rate
  • api

Questions

What counts as a bounce in Plausible?
A session with exactly one pageview. The visitor arrived, looked, and left without loading a second page. Time on the page is not part of the definition.
Is a high bounce rate bad?
Not necessarily. On a blog, a documentation page or a pricing page, somebody arriving, getting what they came for and leaving is the page working. It is genuinely bad only on a page whose job is to move somebody to a next step.
Why is my bounce rate nearly 100% in a single-page app?
Because your router is probably not firing a pageview on navigation, so every session has exactly one pageview. That is an instrumentation reading rather than a traffic reading.
Do anchor links reduce bounce rate in Plausible?
No. A same-page anchor is not a pageview, so an in-page table of contents does not affect the figure. That is correct behaviour and it catches people who expected otherwise.
Should I look at bounce rate on its own?
No. A rate has no direction without volume beside it. Bounce rate falling while visitors fall is a smaller, more committed audience rather than an improvement.