Benchmarks for Informational Sites (Blogs, Magazines, News)
An informational website is successful when it provides visitors with the information they are looking for quickly and clearly. The goal isn’t necessarily a sale, but rather reader satisfaction and engagement.
The following benchmarks will help you evaluate the performance of your informational site.
The context of bounce rate is crucial here!
A high bounce rate is not always a bad sign for informational sites. If a user finds an answer on your page via Google, reads it, and leaves, your page was successful—even if it technically counts as a “bounce.”
Bounce Rate
| Value | Interpretation |
|---|
| > 80% | Needs Improvement: Likely a problem. Visitors aren’t finding what they expect, or the loading time is too high. |
| 60% - 80% | Normal: A common range for blogs and news sites. Analyze the pages with the highest rates. |
| < 60% | Excellent: Your content is very engaging and encourages visitors to browse further. Great job! |
Avg. Session Duration
This is one of the most important metrics for informational sites. It shows whether your content is actually being read.
| Value | Interpretation |
|---|
| < 1 Minute | Needs Improvement: Visitors are only skimming your page and see no reason to stay. |
| 1 - 3 Minutes | Good: A solid value indicating that the content is being read. |
| > 3 Minutes | Excellent: Your articles are captivating and hold the readers’ attention. |
Pages per Session
Shows whether visitors discover more content on your site after the first article.
| Value | Interpretation |
|---|
| 1.0 - 1.4 | Normal: Many visitors come for one article and then leave. |
| 1.5 - 2.0 | Good: You are successfully encouraging a significant portion of your visitors to explore more pages. |
| > 2.0 | Excellent: Your internal linking and content recommendations are working exceptionally well. |
What to do if your metrics are off?
- High Bounce Rate / Low Session Duration?
- Improve readability: Use shorter paragraphs, subheadings, and images.
- Strong introduction: The first few sentences must captivate the reader and assure them they are in the right place.
- Internal linking: Offer links to related topics at the end of the article.
