Pulling Your Hair Out? What is Bounce Rate vs Exit Rate in Google Analytics?

ByUrban Renstrom Posted on Web Analytics
Google Analytics Bounce vs Exit rate

Like What Your Reading? Please Share

Is all your hair gone?

Still not sure what is the difference between bounce rate vs exit rate. Or maybe you are simply asking “W.T.F. are people doing on my website”?

Yea, is a high exit rate bad? Is a high bounce rate good? What if the percentage exit is high and the percentage bounce is low? Is that good? Do I then get more sales?

Let’s clear the fog, discuss and give examples of bounce rate vs exit rate in Google Analytics.

“….It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key….”

Quote from a long since passed UK Prime Minister (hint: WC)

He was not talking about Google Analytics, bounce rate or exit rate. Yet a key always exists to unlock the mystery, solve the enigma and riddle!

He was referring to the intentions of the giant sleeping bear country to the East of Europe during the ’30. Little did he/we know the bear country would invade 🔫 Europe’s bread basket country 🇺🇦.

What happens when..:

…Bounce rate is 100%…

…and…

…Exit is 33%?

are those good or bad Google Analytics website numbers?

Don’t worry, I am Urban Renström, there is always science and research involved in everything I talk about, teach, and demonstrate.

Take numbers out of context and anything is possible. Understanding bounce and exit rates are key. Especially when trying to unlock more leads and sales.

Needless to say, the bounce and exit rates relate directly to your search engine optimization efforts, rankings in Google, pay-per-click adverts, and getting found in organic search.

The bottom line with bounce rate and exit rate is:

Google Analytics reports on *what* people did on your website not *why* they did what they did.

But the good news is once we fully appreciate what people do and don’t do…we can change the website content, visitor flows, and offers and up-level the business.

Bounce rate, exit rate, sessions, and average time on the page are the 4 business level metrics that paint the picture of what people are doing on your website.

Let us dig in, get down and dirty.

Google Analytics Exit Rate Defined

Exit rate – the%Exit metric is the number of exits divided by the number of page views, for a page or set of pages.

Google Analytics is funny. Funny because they bucket one visit to a website as a session.

  1. The Exit Rate is the percentage of pages that were the last in the session. In the below image, for 53.57% of people visiting the website this page, URL, was the last page they visited.
  2. Bounce Rate is how often one page was the only page of that session. In the below image, for 41.18% of the 28 pageviews, this page was the only page they visited.
  3. The bounce rate is always calculated as one-page visits.
Google Analytics Bounce Rate vs Exit Rate
A single post in Google Analytics highlighting Bounce rate and Exit rate, %Exit

Let us dig into the exit rate and bounce rate for this set of single-session days on a website.

Calculate the Bounce Rate vs Exit Rate in Google Analytics

First let us figure out the Exit rate from the real pageviews of oven mitts, dog collars and an online course.

  • Monday: Page B -> Page A -> Page C -> Exit
  • Tuesday: Page B -> Exit
  • Wednesday: Page A -> Page C -> Page B -> Exit
  • Thursday: Page C -> Exit
  • Friday: Page B -> Page C -> Page A -> Exit

Translating the below it reads like this: On Monday many people landed on page b, clicked to page a, then page c and left the website. The exit rate is determined like this:

Exit rate:

Page A has a 33% Exit.
1/3 exit rate because for the 3 sessions Page A was viewed (Mon, Wed, Fri.) only once was Page A the last page viewed.
Page B has a 50% Exit.
2/4 (1/2) exit rate because for the 4 sessions Page B was viewed (Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri.), twice Page B the last page viewed. so 2/4=50%
Page C has a 50% Exit.
2/4 exit rate because for the 4 sessions Page C was viewed (Mon, Wed, Thur, Fri) twice was Page C the last page viewed.

Using the same example Mon-Fri page let us determine the bounce rate:

Bounce rate

Page A: 0%. Zero because none of the 3 Page A pageviews was a single page view.
Page B: 33%. 3 sessions began with Page B, and one was a single page view. 1/3=0.33*100=33%
Page C: 100%. 1 session, Thursday’s, began and ended on Page C.

Google Analytics Bounce Rate

Google Analytics Says a bounce is calculated as a session that triggers only a single request to the Analytics server.

Bounces are ALWAYS one-page visits.

Pogo-Sticking is not the same as Bounce Rate!

Pogo-Sticking is where a person arrives from the SERP page and before triggering any event in Google Analytics they do not read anything on the page hits the back button and return to the SERP.

This means that a bounce is registered in Google Analytics when a person arrives on a page does not click any other link or buttons and then leaves the page. Here is the kicker – bounce rate ignores the time a user stays on a page.

The bounce is registered as 100% yet the avg time on the page maybe 3 minutes. Google Analytics counts one-page visits as a 100% bounce rate.

FAQ – Bounce Rate and Exit Rate Google Analytics

Bounces and Exits are related but not necessarily connected.

Bounce is when a person lands on a webpage, views only one page, does not click on any buttons or links, then exits the page/ closes the tab/hits the back button or closes the browser.

A website bounce rate tells you how well people are not engaging with a webpage’s content. People may read everything on the page, but they are not clicking buttons, watching videos or doing anything else.

%Exit is noted as that page was the last page viewed in the session. E.g. users who came across a page while browsing on the website and opted to leave the site rather than continue further.

It depends!

Yes, I know that depends is a wholly inadequate and a cop-out answer. It depends is the one true answer and a good bounce and exit rate depends entirely on the intent of the page. website goals and KPIs.

If a page answered the simple yes/no questions then that page will have a higher bounce rate. As compared to the in-depth discussion article.

according to Google:

…if the success of your website depends on users viewing more than one page, then, yes, a high bounce rate is bad … On the other hand, if you have a single-page website like a blog, or offer other types of content for which single-page sessions are expected, then a high bounce rate is perfectly normal.

According to this source bounce rates of <40% are excellent, 40-50 average, 50-70 higher than average and >70 is poor. But your milage may vary.

There is no such thing as an ideal bounce rate or exit number. Your numbers will always fluctuate, from page to page, from site to site, week to week and month to month.

Yes, easily.

If visitors found the information they needed on a blog post, product page or information page then yes, bounce is higher than exit.

Bounce rates are ALWAYS (capital letters for emphasis) one-page visits.

  • Tuesday: Page B -> Page A -> Page C -> Exit

E.g. a visitor who entered Page A then clicks on Page C. Bounce rate is 0%.

%Exit (as Google Analytics refers to the metric) is the number of times visitors have left a website from that particular page.

See this example above and partially recreated below.

  • Friday: Page B -> Page C -> Page A -> Exit

Page A was the exit page.

A 100% bounce rate it means that every person who visited a page left without clicking any links, buttons, etc.

0% Bounce rate is usually something technical is broken. Sometimes the cause is two Google Analytics tags installed in the head section of your website – at the same time.

A 0% bounce rate does not mean every person visiting your website clicked to a second page.

Whilst every person clicking to a second page is possible. The probability is also close to zero.

Still not sure what Google Analytics is reporting. Or is a high bounce rate good or bad? Or if the average time on a page helping you makes sales? If you cannot answer either of these questions you are flying your website blind🦯. And you need professional web analytics help. Buy a 30-minute Google Analytics session and get a 20/20 vision of what your website is doing.

Get Google Analytics Help

Featured image by Elisa Schmidt

Like What Your Reading? Please Share

One Comment

  1. Pingback: What is the Cause of a High Bounce Rate in Google Analytics?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.