Analytics Unlocked: Exit, Bounce Rates, and Your Content

Have you ever felt panic whenever you see a web page with a 70% bounce rate? How about a 60% exit rate? Is that still good? These questions are common; not only for SEO consultants but also for business owners. If you own a website or are managing one, you’ve certainly opened Google Analytics more than once – and have been surprised.

But exactly what is the difference between exit and bounce rates? And how is it connected with content?

Exit and Bounce Rates Defined

Here’s a quick and simple definition for each term:

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave without checking out other pages in your website.

Exit rate is the percentage of visitors who leave a page after viewing it.

Remember:exit rate is unique to every page, BUT not every page will have a bounce rate. To make it clearer, let’s take a look at this example:

Monday: Page 1 > Page 2 > Page 3 > exit

Tuesday: Page 2 >  exit

Wednesday: Page 1 >  Page 3 > exit

In this case, Page 2 will get a 100% bounce rate because of the Tuesday session (one view, straight to exit). Page 3 on the other hand, will get a 22% exit rate, but no bounce rate because no session started with it. As mentioned in Google’s Support page, a bounce rate is only relevant if it starts a session.

High Exit Rate: Not All Bad

You can also use the exit rate data in improving your top viewed pages, like the one above showing the top 10 most viewed pages. From the top viewed pages, you can see that top 2 page (although we blur it it is not a contact page) has the highest exit rate with 72.37%, greater than the average exit rate, which simply means that this landing page needs improvement.

Not exactly. Exit rates can be good or bad, based on a given situation. Let’s cite another example: say your website is selling shoes. Upon checking Google Analytics, you noticed that the Product page is getting up to 60% exit rate. That’s a RED FLAG. It could mean either of three things: 1) your audience can’t relate with your content, which prompted them to move on; 2) your layout is difficult to navigate, and 3) you don’t have proper calls to action to direct a user to complete a task.

Once you analyze those three main factors, you can assess which pages require your immediate attention. However, pages like the Contact and About Us page would normally have high exit rates because there’s not much there to see. So don’t panic right away if you see those percentages. Pause, think, and analyze first. Sometimes, a little extra exit rate is healthy.

High Bounce Rate: Very Bad

Unlike exit rates, high bounce rates are NEVER healthy. A few are inevitable though; but again, discernment is key. You’ll have to check the pages concerned and study their content. Blog and product pages that have high bounce rates should be careful: it usually means that visitors were not interested in the content.

Presented again is the top 10 most viewed pages and it shows here that they have an average bounce rate of 65.55% which means that they really need improvement. Since they are having the most views, it is important to prioritize these pages to maximize lead conversion.

There are three (3) main points to consider when trying to reduce bounce rates:

• The Target Market
• Actual Content
• User Experience (UX)

You can’t give people what they want if you don’t know who to give information to. Know your target market and what they expect from your website.

You can’t give people what they want if you don’t know who to give information to. Know your target market and what they expect from your website.

Next, analyze what’s on your page. This includes text, images, videos, audio, and downloadable content. Is it relevant? Helpful? Instructive? Users LOVE to learn new things. Help them find what they need (like product information, tips, news, etc.) and they will stay.

User Experience deals with the overall web design. Once you figure out what your target market wants, you’ll need to give it to them QUICK. Consult with your SEO specialist and web developer regarding on-site improvements. Focus on key content, placement, calls to action, and a clear copy.

Be Open To Frequent Changes

(Updated November 2018)

SEO experts have debated the relevance of bounce rates to search engine ranking for years. However, Matt Cutts, Google’s former head of Webspam, has denied Google’s use of bounce rates.

So, no, bounce rates don’t affect SERP. But just because that’s the case, it doesn’t mean you can shrug this teeny tidbit off completely. When you really look at it, bounce rates reveal that the webpage simply didn’t provide what they were looking for.

There is no magic behind exit and bounce rates. However, if you fully understand the concept behind them, it’ll be easier to create strategies. Expect that you might need to make little tweaks every so often, based on Analytics data. But once you master your own techniques, you’ll find that conversion can come…naturally.

How did exit and bounce rates help your website? Did reducing them affect your conversion? We’d love to hear from you!