Engagement rate
What is engagement rate?
Engagement rate is a Google Analytics 4 metric showing the percentage of sessions that were engaged sessions. GA4 counts a session as engaged if it lasted longer than 10 seconds, included at least one key event, or included at least two page or screen views. Engagement rate is engaged sessions divided by all sessions.
The 10-second threshold is the default; you can raise it up to 60 seconds in the data stream’s tag settings. Engagement rate is the opposite of bounce rate in GA4: the two always add up to 100%.
Why engagement rate matters for SEO
Engagement rate is a quick check on whether organic visitors found what they came for. A landing page that ranks well but has a much lower engagement rate than similar pages may be mismatched to search intent, slow, or buried under pop-ups.
It is better than the old Universal Analytics bounce rate for content pages, because a reader who spends three minutes on one article and leaves now counts as engaged rather than as a bounce.
How to find engagement rate in GA4
- Open Reports > Engagement > Landing page (or Pages and screens).
- If engagement rate is not shown, choose Customise report and add the Engagement rate metric.
- Add a comparison for Session default channel group = Organic Search to see organic visitors only.
- Compare pages of the same type, such as blog posts with blog posts, rather than across the whole site.
Engagement rate FAQ
What is a good engagement rate in GA4?
It varies by site and page type. Compare pages with similar purposes and track your own trend rather than chasing a universal benchmark.
How do I change the engaged session time in GA4?
In Admin > Data streams, choose your web stream, open Configure tag settings > Show more > Adjust session timeout, and change the timer for engaged sessions, up to 60 seconds.
Related SEO terms
Bounce rate in GA4 is the share of sessions that were not engaged. It equals 100% minus engagement rate.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google’s free web and app analytics tool. It measures visits as events and reports where users come from and what they do.
Key events are the GA4 events you mark as important to your business, such as a purchase or sign-up. Google renamed conversions to key events in 2024.
A landing page is the first page a visitor arrives on. In SEO it is the page that ranks and receives the click from search results.
SEO KPIs are the metrics you choose to judge whether SEO is working, such as organic clicks, rankings, visibility and key events from organic search.