Law firm website bounce rate refers to the percentage of website visitors who view only one page on a law firm’s website. It’s important to know what a law firm’s bounce rate is, as this will provide an indication as to how engaging the website is, and correspondingly, whether website visitors are likely to become clients.

The main purpose of your firm’s website is to draw reader interest, convey information, and turn visitors into clients.  Whether website visitors become clients often depends upon the branding and how well the website resonates with them around their legal needs.

When visiting a new website, visitors typically spend about 10 seconds evaluating the website.  In this short period, they decide whether to take the time to further explore the site, or to click the “back” button and return to the search results.  Thus you have a very short window of opportunity to make a positive impression on  and resonate with potential clients.

How do you tell if visitors are engaged in your content, or if they’re simply giving up and going away?

The answer can be found in your web analytics. Among the many numbers and charts you’ll find there is a statistic called bounce rate.  This number gives you a quick overview of how many people are stay on your site and view other pages, versus how many people leave without exploring further.

The bounce rate is calculated by counting the number of visitors who spend time looking at only one page, and dividing it by the total number of website visitors.  So, if you have a bounce rate of 75%, then ¾ of visitors to your website look at only one page and then leave; the other 25% stay on the site and view more pages.

According to Google Analytics experts, a bounce rate “over 35% is cause for concern, 50% (or above) is worrying.”  We suggest that if the bounce rate of your law firm’s website is over 50%, something needs to be changed, as this is a signal that your firm’s website is not resonating with prospective clients.

You can learn even more about how users are acting on your firm’s website by looking at the bounce rate along with other web statistics.  If your analytics  also happen to tell you that visitors are spending a very short amount of time on the website (say, less than 10 seconds on average), this is a further indication that your website needs help.

Are visitors “bouncing away” from your homepage en masse? If so, it’s likely due to your site’s branding, messages, content, and navigation structure.  Contact us today so that we can help change this course and make your website more effective in developing clients.