Understanding bounce rate is crucial for evaluating website performance, but it's important to approach it with the right perspective. In this article, we will delve into what bounce rate is, how it's defined differently by various analytics services, and why optimizing your website based solely on bounce rate is not recommended. You'll gain insights into how traffic sources impact bounce rate and why spikes from low-quality sources can skew your data. By the end, you'll have a clearer understanding of why focusing on bounce rate might not yield the expected results and what factors to consider instead.