Exit rate shows the percentage of visitors who leave from a specific page. Unlike bounce rate, this includes people who viewed multiple pages. High exit rates on conversion pages signal UX issues to fix.
Understanding Exit Rate and Its Role in SEO
Exit rate is not always a negative metric. Every website page eventually becomes an exit point. The key lies in analyzing whether users are leaving at the right point in their journey or too early in the conversion funnel.
High exit rates on checkout or service pages may indicate friction, unclear messaging, or technical barriers. On the other hand, a blog with a high exit rate after delivering valuable information may not be a concern.
From an SEO perspective, understanding exit rate helps in improving user flow, boosting engagement, and ensuring critical pages retain visitors until conversion.
Exit Rate Across Different CMS Platforms
WordPress
WordPress site owners can use tools like Google Analytics or plugins such as MonsterInsights to track exit rates. Identifying high-exit pages allows for optimizing content layout, CTAs, and related links.
Shopify
For Shopify stores, exit rates are crucial on product and checkout pages. Monitoring them helps identify gaps in product descriptions, trust signals, or checkout design.
Wix
Wix integrates with Google Analytics to measure exit rate. By reviewing this data, Wix users can make design tweaks and add stronger calls to action to reduce unnecessary exits.
Webflow
Webflow sites can leverage Google Tag Manager and Analytics for tracking. Since Webflow is flexible with custom designs, adjustments like stronger navigation paths and internal links help minimize exits.
Custom CMS
With custom CMS platforms, developers can implement detailed exit tracking. This allows for testing across unique page types and tailoring user journeys to reduce drop-offs on conversion-focused pages.
Exit Rate in Different Industries
Ecommerce
In ecommerce, high exit rates on product or checkout pages often signal weak product descriptions, confusing checkout processes, or poor trust signals. Optimizing these areas can directly increase sales.
Local Businesses
For local businesses, a high exit rate on service or contact pages may indicate missing information. Adding clear directions, business hours, or contact forms can help users take action instead of leaving.
SaaS
SaaS companies often face high exit rates on pricing or onboarding pages. Improving clarity, offering free trials, and removing confusing steps can reduce exits and increase sign-ups.
Blogs and Publishers
Blogs naturally have higher exit rates since readers often leave after consuming content. Adding related articles, internal links, or subscription prompts can encourage readers to stay engaged longer.
Best Practices for Reducing Exit Rate
To optimize exit rate, focus on clarity, navigation, and engagement. Ensure content answers user intent fully, add internal links to guide users to related pages, and design clear calls to action. Also, optimize technical aspects such as load speed and mobile responsiveness to reduce frustration-driven exits.
Common Mistakes to Avoid with Exit Rate
A common mistake is misinterpreting exit rate as always negative. Some pages, like thank-you pages or confirmation screens, naturally have high exit rates.
Another mistake is focusing only on content while ignoring user experience. If the site loads slowly or navigation is confusing, users will exit regardless of content quality.
Finally, failing to compare exit rate with other metrics like bounce rate and conversion rate can lead to incomplete conclusions. Looking at these metrics together gives a clearer picture of user behavior.
FAQs
What is exit rate?
Exit rate is the percentage of pageviews on a specific page that are the last page viewed in a session i.e. where users leave your site from that page.
How is exit rate calculated?
Exit rate = (Number of exits from a page ÷ Total pageviews of that page) × 100.
How does exit rate differ from bounce rate?
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Exit rate counts exits from any page, whether it was the first page viewed or not.
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Bounce rate counts only sessions where the visitor viewed just one page and left from it. Every bounce is an exit, but not every exit is a bounce.
What is a “good” exit rate?
There’s no universal benchmark. A “good” exit rate depends on:
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The page’s purpose (e.g. checkout vs informational)
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Where it sits in the user journey (earlier pages expected to keep users, later pages may naturally have higher exits)
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Industry, traffic sources, device types, etc.
Why is exit rate important to track?
Because it helps you identify which pages are causing visitors to leave pages that might need content, UX, navigation, or CTA improvements. It’s a diagnostic metric for retention, flow, and conversion optimization.