What is an exit rate?

The exit rate is often confused with the bounce rate of a web page. However, these are two completely different things. That is why it is important to dive a little deeper into this important value and discover what it tells you about the quality of your website. But how much value can you place on it? How important is the exit rate exactly?

Definition of exit rate 

The exit percentage, also called the 'Exit Rate' in English, stands for the percentage of visitors that leave the website on a certain webpage. So suppose: they enter via the webpage and leave according to the website on a specific product page. A distinction can also be made between the pages that are abandoned without any further action being taken and the pages where the visitor does take action. This can provide a wealth of information. 

With the exit percentage, it is not important that the visitor leaves the website. Eventually, every visitor will leave the website in one way or another. It is specifically about which page is usually last visited on the website and whether the visitor has taken any action. 

It would be logical if this would be, for example, the contact page or the page on which the transaction is completed, but in some cases the exit rate is highest on very unexpected web pages. For example, you don't want people to get stuck on the homepage and take no action. This can potentially give an indication of the value and relevance of your website. By keeping an eye on the exit percentage, follow-up actions can be taken quickly if possible to improve the content or navigation structure of the website. 

How do you react to this information? 

Now that it is clear what the exit percentage means exactly, it is also important to understand what you can do with it. First of all, it is important to understand that the exit percentage does not necessarily mean much. The importance of this percentage differs per site. A news website, for example, will attach less value to the exit percentage. It is very logical that people land on the page and then leave again on the same page, for example. 

There are also sites where all information is located on one page. In that case, it is only logical that the exit percentage is maximum. That doesn't have to say anything about the quality or relevance of the page. However, if you have a web shop and it is important that the visitors know how to navigate along the various pages, then the percentage can say a lot about the quality.