A very low Bounce Rate such as 5% is an indication that there is probably something wrong with your website.
Anytime a Bounce Rate seems suspiciously low (lower than 10%), that should raise a red flag for you. If you see a bounce rate of 2% for example, don’t start celebrating. It is likely inaccurate, and it could be a technical issue with how your analytics tracking code was integrated into the site.
Before going further, let’s make sure we all know what Bounce Rate means. According to Wikipedia, “the percentage of visitors who enter the site and “bounce” (leave the site) rather than continue viewing other pages within the same site.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounce_rate]. This is a metric used to gauge website performance and it is often seen in Google Analytics. Generally speaking, a low Bounce Rate means you are doing well and a high Bounce rate means there could be an issue with your website’s design, usability, SEO/content or functionality.
What’s a “normal” Bounce rate?
In our experience, we typically see Bounce Rates between 40%-60%. Lower than 40% is very uncommon and higher than 70% is alarming and requires action.
Whether or not the bounce rate is good or bad is relative to how well you are achieving your website marketing goals and the business outcomes (e.g. sales) achieved.
Lead generation sites and landing pages do tend to have higher than average Bounce Rates; however, if they are producing a healthy ROI and the financial outcome is strong, then a Bounce Rate by itself is not a signal of success or failure.
Still, if it is very low, such as lower than 10%, there is a very good chance the number is wrong and there is technical fix needed on your website.
What is the cause of a low Bounce Rate?
If your bounce rate is out of the expected range and seems “too good to be true,” it is often the case that somewhere in your website the Google Analytics code may have been inserted twice. Duplicate analytics code is often the cause.
This is especially common in WordPress websites that end up having analytics code inserted both in your template and also in an SEO plug in. Or, it can happen when analytics code is inserted both in your header and footer of the website. There are other causes, but they are rarer.
Luckily, the solution is usually simple: call your developer and have them remove the Google analytics code (the script they provide to you in your account) from showing up twice. Or, remove it yourself if you know how to do so.
That’s usually it.
Your Bounce rate should then adjust itself over the next 24 hours back to its “real” bounce rate.
Hope this helps!