Statistics gives business owners the freedom to evaluate how their websites are performing. The evaluation involves a couple of things: the bounce rate and the exit rate. But what is the difference between bounce rate and exit rate? This is a point of discussion that requires you to have an open mind to grasp the difference in this scenario.
The two stats seem to overlap and can confuse you if you are not careful. Remember that both bounce rate and exit rate record the percentage of people who enter and leave your site. The major difference comes in only if the visitor has reviewed other pages on the site during the same session.
Note that each metric must be evaluated individually to be better positioned to gather data that you can use in your business operations. This content piece focuses on helping you define the two terms and display some of the major differences. Read through for more info!
What is Bounce Rate?
Bounce rate is the percentage of the number of people who enter and exit your business website after a single-page session. In other words, it is also called a single page view. The bounce rate is among the most important metrics that website owners monitor closely to evaluate their site’s performance.
On most occasions, the bounce rate is recognized by using Google Analytics on your site. Note that some industries tend to record a higher bounce rate compared to others. The bounce rate is said to carry from one point to another depending on the user’s intent.
Researchers have revealed that businesses operating in beauty, luxury, and apparel are said to have a very low bounce rate compared to B2B and companies in the finance sector. Note that visitors who enter a finance site are always after specific information.
On the other hand, visitors searching for business-related software are likely to visit different sites while comparing the prices. Once the visitor gets what they need, they leave the site immediately unless there is any other important thing. On the other side, what does a high bounce rate mean?
This indicates that the landing experience on your site is not meeting your visitors’ expectations. Ideally, the content on your site is not what your target audience is craving.
What is the Exit Rate?
On a website, every page comes with an exit rate. The exit rate refers to how often visitors exit from a certain page after visiting other pages on the website. Tracking this metric enables you to understand if users are closely following your customer’s journey.
When running an e-commerce site, you will always expect your “thank you” page to have a higher exit rate than any other page. This is considered the natural end of the customer’s journey. You can use this metric to analyze the general performance of your business site.
At some point, you might wonder what a high exit rate means. This refers to a large number of people exiting a site on a particular page compared to the total number of people visiting the site. Monitoring this feature can help you get out of the way of solving the problem and creating a better business environment.
Difference Between Bounce Rate and Exit Rate
There is a major difference between the bounce rate and exit rate —besides, different solutions aid in improving these metrics. Let’s look at some of the major factors differentiating the two aspects.
Bounce rate is primarily focused on the first and the only page that users visit on your business site. On the flip side, the exit rate is based on the last page on your business site that users visit before leaving. Note that this might be the first page, but the user might have begun visiting other pages.
Note that there are countless reasons behind the bounce rate percentages. Keep in mind that users visit your site from different parts of the sales funnel. Some users might be in search of a specific piece of content before getting off.
When a visitor enters your site and finds what they are looking for within the shortest time possible, it is evidence that your site matches their needs. You can compare this aspect with visitors who enter your site and can’t locate the link to purchase an item.
The user will automatically go to another site and purchase the same product. This means that you are most likely to incur losses affecting the general performance of your business. To analyze the exit rate, you need to have a different mentality.
You will record a higher exit rate on different pages depending on the goals you have established through Google analytics. When you realize that visitors are exiting from the pages related to your goal, your budget website is on its way towards achieving its goal.
When operating an e-commerce site, the pages that were visited last act as the sign-up page. Note that other sites have different intents, such as directing visitors to download eBooks or free software depending on the business’s deals.
Users have different reasons for exiting the signup pages depending on their ultimate goal of the visit. Also, the position of the visitors on the sales funnel impacts the exit rate.
Importance of Tracking Bounce Rate and Exit Rate
It is essential to track bounce rate and exit rate to determine the major reason why users are leaving your site. Analyzing the proper reason behind this matter makes the customer journey streamlined and enables you to make proper changes to the customer’s journey and the site in general.
Bounce rate is an exceptional tool that enables you to identify the effectiveness of the entry page in helping you understand more about the interests of your visitors. Proper monitoring of the exit rate helps you understand the performance of the individual pages on the website.
In Conclusion
Both the bounce rate and exit rate impact the general performance of your site. It is crucial to track all these metrics to ensure that your brand delivers exactly what the target audience wants. You can incorporate Google analytics on your site to help you track these rates.
