Hey Mike,
Conversion rates are absolutely important, agreed. However, I wouldn't downplay bounce rates to that degree.
To me its a more complex multistage process(but i will simplify it to two):
1.
Grab the user's interest - you've got x amount of time to get the user to NOT click the back button on the browser. Most usability studies would say this is just a matter of seconds. Bounce rate is the most effective metrics to test in this case. This metric shown will likely reflect design(attractiveness/usability), content(quality/timeliness), and quality of traffic(intended audience vs. not). Avinash Kaushik wrote a great article about this a while back.
http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2007/08/standard-metrics-revisited-3-bounce-rate.html
2.
Convert the Lead: Now that the lead has been "qualified," my next goal would be to make sure that user found some sort of information they were looking for. Maybe that is a whitepaper, webinar, or event registration. These are all actionable items that can be tracked and measured through a tool like Hubspot.
To summarize my point. I view website like a sales rep. A sales rep has a few secs to get the interest of a prospect with an initial pitch, then after that the goal is to book the prospect for a demo of some sort. If people are hanging up after the the pitch, then there will be no demos. To me, bounce rate is telling you how many people are hanging up the phone after that first pitch, and that is relevant. Either your pitch sucks, or you are calling the wrong people.
Mike,
Aren't bounce rates important from an SEO perspective? If a visitor clicks on my organic search engine result in Google and then immediately clicks the "back" button to go back to Google, don't you think Google would track this and realize that the organic ranking they gave me might need to be adjusted lower?
I would be interested in your opinion.
Thanks,
Andrew Nadeau