Exit rate is a metric that shows the average percentage of visitors exiting from the pages on a website. Since visitors always end up leaving at some point, every website will have a certain percentage, but it’s important that it’s not too high, as it may indicate serious performance issues. This is especially true for high exit rates on checkout pages, which usually indicate cart abandonment.
Exit rate is not to be confused with bounce rate. Bounce rate reveals the percentage of visitors leaving without navigating to any other page on a website. If this number is high, it may be a cause for concern. Fortunately, there are plenty of things you can do to reduce bounce rates on your website.
Exit rate, on the other hand, refers to exiting the entire session. More than the actual exit rate, you will want to focus on exit pages. This metric shows you which pages were the last in a session for your users. Some exit pages are “natural” points for leaving a website, for instance, checkout pages. However, if your content pages or landing pages are frequently measured as exit pages, you may want to look into the possible causes. These may include poor UX, broken links, thin content, structure errors, layout or design issues and content that does not meet user intent.
