A bounce occurs when a visitor leaves a page without triggering any further interaction or request to the analytics server, most often by closing the tab or leaving without clicking anything else on the site. Bounce rate is calculated by dividing single-page sessions by total sessions, so a page where most visitors arrive, read, and leave without a second click shows a high rate no matter how well it actually performed.
That's why a high bounce rate isn't automatically a problem. It can point to slow loading or a confusing layout, but it can also mean the page did exactly its job: a visitor searching for a store's opening hours or a quick definition often finds the answer and leaves right away, and that's a successful visit, not a failed one. Reading bounce rate in isolation misses this context. Google Analytics 4 replaced the metric with engagement rate, roughly its inverse, largely because "did the visitor stay and interact" needed to account for pages designed to answer one question and let the visitor go. Either way, bounce rate only means something once you know what the page is supposed to accomplish.
