Bounce Rate and SEO

[undoIT]

I have read a couple of articles that correlate bounce rate and search engine performance (at least for Google). I'm trying to figure out what exactly is considered a bounce and some other stuff, so I made a list of questions:

1. What is the duration for a single page visit until it is no longer considered a bounce when a visitor leaves?

2. What if a visitor lands on a page, and then visits another page within 5 seconds and then closes the browser. Is that considered a bounce?

3. When external links are opened in a new window (i.e. target_blank, rel="external", onclick=... etc) is it considered a bounce? Is there any difference between using HTML and Javascript to open a new window?

4. If opening external links in a new window is considered a bounce, does it change anything if the user then comes back to the site which has remained opened and then starts browsing around?

TIA

 

[ian]

From the google website

What does Bounce Rate mean?


Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. Use this metric to measure visit quality - a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren't relevant to your visitors. The more compelling your landing pages, the more visitors will stay on your site and convert. You can minimize bounce rates by tailoring landing pages to each keyword and ad that you run. Landing pages should provide the information and services that were promised in the ad copy.

My understanding is that time spent on the page does not matter, it is whether they visit that one page and then go elsewhere, that would be considered a bounce, if they clicked on another link on that webpage, that was part of the same website, it would not be considered a bounce. Not 100% sure whether links to external sites would be considered a bounce, though I assume they would be.