Bounce Rate Vs Exit Rate and How to reduce them
Contrary to popular belief, bounce rate and exit rate are not same. While you might think that these words are synonyms, they are just different words which happen to be closely related. Although both the terms conclude to the user exiting the page, the difference between the terms is of the initial session.
The bounce rate is calculated if a user exits from a page only when the page initiates the session, whereas the exit rate is estimated at the exiting stage of the user.
For instance, your website has four pages; Page A, Page B, Page C, and Page D and a user views the website for a week but in this order :
Monday: Page A → Page B→ Page C→ Page D → Exit
Tuesday: Page C→ Page A→ Exit
Wednesday: Page A→ Page C→ Page D → Exit
Thursday: Page B→ Page A→ Page D→ Exit
Friday: Page C→ Exit
Now let’s calculate the Exit rate and bounce rate of each page. The formula to determine the bounce rate of a webpage is : No. of Exits from that page/No. of Entrances on that page and the formula for exit rate of a webpage is: No. Of Exits from that page/All the sessions including that page.
| Page of the Website | Bounce Rate | Exit Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Page A | 0% | 25% |
| Page B | 0% | 0% |
| Page C | 50% | 25% |
| Page D | 0% | 100% |
The bounce rate of page A, B and D is 0% because the user did not exit the website after entering the website through these pages. Similarly, the bounce rate of page C is 50% because the user started his session twice through page C, but exited only once after starting the session. Therefore, it constitutes as half of the ratio.
The exit rate of page A and C is 25% because the user landed up on the page four times overall but exited only once through it. Thus, one-fourth of the overall views. 0% exit rate for page B, because the user did not exit even once from the page and 100% exit rate for page D, because everytime the user landed up on the page, he exited.
While all bounce rates are exits, all exit rates are not bounces. However, it is not necessary that low bounce rate is equal to low exit rate or vice versa because the bounce rate calculates only the initial sessions. An ideal bounce rate is 40-70% of a website as a low bounce rate increases the dwell time of the website. The more the user spends his time on a particular page of the website, the lesser the bounce rate is of the website. There is no specific time span for a user to spend on the page, as all that matters is his exit from the website.
The reasons leading to high bounce rate?
With the content dominating the online world, people immediately leave a page of a website, without even clicking on any other pages. The user might contribute to the bounce rate of a page because either he had accidentally clicked on the link or the page was not user-friendly. Maybe the content was not what he was looking for, or it was too appropriate for the user to conclude as the answer to his query.
The long answer said shortly; you will have to make the content so powerful that the user stays and doesn’t bounce back. It is the power of content that will make the user stay on the page, and that has to be informative, useful, engaging, and more question building for the user to click on more pages. But should not be too direct for the reader to know it in the first sentence.
What is the need to reduce bounce rate and exit rate?
Although you can’t hover over your user, you can always control them through the back of your website. If your website or a particular page of your website has more than 70% bounce rate, then you are in serious trouble. Due to higher bounce rate or exit rate, the website or the page will have a lower ranking in the search results.
With the reduced bounce or exit rate, the dwell time of your website will increase as the user spends more time on your page.
How to reduce bounce rate and exit rate?
With the need to reduce the bounce rate and exit rate, one should know how to do that too! Since both the metrics demand the user not to exit the page, you should work on certain things to reduce it.
1. Make adjustments to the content of the page.
2. Check the site quality for the optimisation process.
3. The loading speed of the website or page.
4. Provide a clear design page for the user.
5. Improvise the self-loading multimedia.
Working in these areas of your website will help you optimise the page for it to rank higher and be more user-friendly for the user not to exit rapidly.
