Metric Terms

Understanding Bounce Rates vs. Exit Rates

by Jessica Smith Posted On June 5th, 2017 | 10:00am EST

Both terms mean a user left your site, but do you really know why they left? Expanding your understanding of bounce rates and exit rates can help. These two terms are often the toughest to understand, and the most telling of your site’s performance in Google Analytics.

Bounce Rate

Your bounce rate is the percentage of people who land on a page of your site and then leave. Bounces are only one-page sessions. These users hit the back button, type a different URL into their browser, close their window or tab, click on an external link or have their session timeout because, well, they forgot about you.

Here’s some good news…

In some cases, high bounce rates from a page can be a good thing. If your business is aiming to provide a user with quick, takeaway information, a high bounce rate means users are coming to your page, having their query fulfilled (i.e. checking ticket prices for an event, seeing what hours your office is open, etc.) and then acting.

But the bad news is…

High bounce rates are usually indicative of a problem with your website and user experience. For example, if your homepage yields a high bounce rate with no visitor navigation throughout the site, additional features or a site redesign may be required to entice your users to stay.

Exit Rate

Exit rate is the percentage of people who left your site from that particular page. Exits may have viewed more than one page per session. High exit rates are trickier to analyze since this metric means users may have checked out other parts of your site prior to leaving.

More good news…

If you notice high exit rates on the last page of an article or on a contact page, chances are that the viewers have clicked through a good portion of the site already, and are answering your overall call to action—contacting you!

Slightly bad news…

If a certain page has a high exit rate, it may need some help to retain users on your site or extend their time spent on the page. Exit rates are great indicators for looking at your site’s overall functionality.

In looking at both bounce rates and exit rates, you’ll be able to better understand what the user experience is like on your website. Do you need to redesign with clearer navigation? Do you need to improve the language you’re using in order to convey a clear call to action? Are you being concise?

At City/Studio, we take the deeper dive into the analytics for you. Looking at data, we help translate your message to users in a clear way that has the style to match. To see how City/Studio can improve your brand’s user experience, click here.