Exit Rate: 7 Reasons Why People Are Leaving Your Site

When you first designed your professional website, we’re sure you imagined loads of traffic on your site. Maybe that has yet to happen. You may wonder why people exit your web page before seeing your business offers. Could it be your web design? Maybe your content isn’t as compelling as it could be. Perhaps it’s more than a single reason.

Create a custom website that is made specifically for your practice. Ensure that it targets your ideal market. These two are crucial to attracting more users and lowering your site’s exit rate.

To help you identify what’s wrong with a particular page on your site (or more), we’ve compiled a list of common website mistakes business owners make. Committing these mistakes may cause you to lose prospective customers.

What Is Exit Rate in Google Analytics?

According to Google, an exit rate refers to the last percentage in the session compared to all page views on your site. This means the number of users determines an exit rate on your website after ending up on a particular landing page and is compared to the total number of website visitors.

This indicator shows how often users leave your website after visiting several pages. It can be valuable for identifying areas where your website may be losing visitor engagement, thereby offering clues for potential improvements.

Explaining Bounce Rate vs. Exit Rate Google Analytics

A bounce rate is determined by calculating the number of bounces over the total number of pageviews to a particular page. A ‘bounce’ occurs when a user enters a specific page and exits without visiting another page on that website or interacting with other website elements. People’s visits are limited to only single-page sessions.

Unlike the bounce rate, which only accounts for single-page visits, the Google Analytics exit rate provides insights into user behavior across multiple pages. In other words, exits record more than one-page visits, while bounces are essentially one-page visits.

Which rate should you monitor to determine your site quality? The answer is both! High bounce rates would signal user satisfaction issues, while high exit rates signify problems with your conversion funnel. Thus, businesses should use the metric to optimize based on the situation they intend to tackle.

7 Reasons Why People Are Leaving Your Website

So, which website mistakes may have prompted your bounce and exit rates? We’ve developed a list of things that may damage your website quality.

1. Poor Web Design

When developing your website, balancing design and functionality can sometimes be challenging. You should be able to construct a website that both works well and looks good. When a website is well-designed, it helps build brand trust and establishes business credibility.

Your website is like your portfolio. It’s people’s first impression of your practice and what they use to get to know your team better. Your website showcases your products or services and your brand quality.

Poor page design is when a site page is too boring and makes people quickly disinterested. However, if your website is too busy, it could be possible that your visitors exit because your website makes them anxious or overwhelmed. They wouldn’t know where to focus on your website.

These scenarios can cause users to exit your website, leaving you unable to convert them into your client. So, how can businesses concoct the perfect blend between incorporating beauty and effortless user experience?

How to Enhance Your Website Design

When your website content goes live, consider how it’s presented to your audience. Are there graphics that can grab their attention, or are your other pages strictly text only? What is keeping your audience’s attention?

There are many ways to design a stellar website and reduce your bounce rate, but here are some of the most vital components to give your site a fresh look:

• Theme: Updating your website’s theme can give it a new look that can help attract new clients. Your website theme should be consistent and relevant to your target audience. Let’s say you’re targeting optometrists. Should your website be wacky with bright colors and other elements more suited to less mature audiences? Of course not! Your site should be tasteful and have appropriate branding.
• Graphics: Give your website a personal touch by developing custom images or investing in a professional photoshoot—your potential clients want to know what you do and how you do it. You can form a relationship with them by showing your daily activities in the office.
• Fonts: Your fonts should be easy to read. You don’t necessarily have to use classic fonts like Times New Roman or Arial. However, you shouldn’t choose ones that are challenging to comprehend. Select a few fonts and stick to them for all your web pages.

2. Slow Loading Speed

Let’s face it: We’re in an information overload era. There’s so much content produced every single second, and it can be difficult to keep up. That’s why the average website exit rate is so high nowadays. If your website takes too long to load, you’ll be left in the dust alongside other pages that can’t keep up with the competition.

How long does your website have to load to control exit rates? Your website should take about two seconds before you risk losing a potential client. There may be several reasons why at least two pages of your website load too slowly:

• Excessive HTTP requests
• Javascript issues
• Unoptimized images
• Unnecessarily large files

Some programs can diagnose potential issues on your website if you have problems with any of these. Google even has a FREE tool to analyze your page and provide tips to decrease loading time.

3. Your Website Is Not Responsive

A responsive site resizes content depending on the site visitors’ device. Whether the user uses a tablet, computer, or smartphone, the web content should adjust to the viewer’s screen size.

It’s imperative to have a mobile-responsive site in today’s digital age to have a web presence. Your site should be flexible and can adapt to all types of screens to increase your conversion funnel.

As per Statista, 58% of the total global website traffic is generated by mobile users, excluding those who use tablets. This figure is expected to rise from here on out. If people can’t view your website on their mobile devices properly, they will most likely leave your website. This can increase your bounce rate and affect your Google ranking.

You can design your website to reduce single-page session numbers or tap someone else to handle behind-the-scenes work to resolve any website problems.

4. Your Content Is Not Optimized

Developing high-quality, optimized content for search engine optimization (SEO) may seem arduous, but we promise it’s not! If you don’t optimize your content, you shouldn’t be surprised if a new visitor exits your page. You won’t generate much organic traffic and will rank low on search engine results. Here’s how you can reduce your exit rates through optimization:

• Keywords: Using keywords in your content strategy is one of the first rules in optimizing for SEO. Once you’ve researched your target audience, choose the keywords relevant to their search queries. Use these terms in your meta descriptions, title tags, and content.
• Links: Establish yourself as an authoritative figure in the industry by providing irrefutable sources that your audience trusts. If your article is citing an external source, it’s wonderful to link that particular page. However, internal links are just as important as external links. Internal links help visitors navigate to your website’s other pages and get more traffic on each page. Let’s say you’re writing an article to soothe anxious chiropractic patients on their first visit to your practice. You may have an article that discusses what people can expect from your practice. You should make it easy for visitors to find the second page.
• Social Sharing: Making your content easily shareable on Twitter (now X), Facebook, LinkedIn, or other sites can increase organic website traffic. If you allow users to share your content easily, you provide opportunities for exposure for you and your business.

5. There Are Too Many Ads

Have you ever been to a website with too many ads that you can’t even navigate to another page without one showing up? If that’s your website, imagine how other users might feel. They’re trying to browse your site but may be impeded by the numerous advertisements.

Including several ads on a website has become common, so more and more users have installed ad blockers on their browsers. While you may have to run a few for business profit, how can you still run a reasonable amount of ads without turning away potential clients?

One solution is to ensure that the ads aren’t blocking any content on your page. If people can’t read your website content, they’ll probably exit your page. Another way is to avoid auto-playing ads that people aren’t expected to play while browsing your website.

Put yourself in the visitor’s shoes. How many ads can you stand before you leave the website eventually? Google doesn’t have a specific guideline for the appropriate amount of web ads you should have. However, if your content isn’t solid AND there are too many ads on that page, it will lower your ranking. Reflect on how your ads affect people’s content-viewing experience and ranking to determine how many you should run on your website.

6. Poor Navigation

Navigating your website should be an effortless experience for users. In today’s digital age, people want to quickly find the information they’re after; if they can’t, they are likely to seek other sources, thereby increasing your site’s exit rate.

Upon landing on your page, the first few seconds are crucial for making an impression. That’s your window to assure users they’ve come to the right place.

To improve navigation and user experience, consider implementing the following:

• Optimize the Navigation Bar: Keep your navigation bar clean and organized. Limit the number of options to prevent overwhelming visitors, and use clear, descriptive labels for each section.
• Improve the Search Bar: Make the search bar easily accessible, preferably at the top of the page. Enhance its functionality by using auto-suggestions or predictive text to guide users.
• Add Breadcrumbs: These are especially useful for websites with multiple levels of content hierarchy. Breadcrumbs allow users to easily trace their path back to the homepage or parent categories, enhancing navigation.
• Utilize Sticky Menus: A sticky menu remains visible at the top of the screen as users scroll down, making it easy for them to navigate to other sections at any point.
• Mobile-Friendly Design: Ensure that your website navigation is just as smooth on mobile devices. Use collapsible menus or a “hamburger” icon to save space while still offering comprehensive navigation options.
• Quick Links in Footer: Use the footer space to include quick links to important pages like FAQs, Contact Us, and Privacy Policy, making it easier for users to find these resources without sifting through menus.

By refining your website to an intuitive, user-friendly experience, you can minimize your exit rate and improve user engagement.

7. Calls To Action (CTA) Spam

Understandably, you may have different business goals and want your content strategy to be as hardworking as possible. However, it would be best if you didn’t bombard your visitors with various calls to action because this might confuse them on what they should do and neglect some aspects of your website altogether.

Instead, you should have ONE clear call-to-action for every web page. Think about user intent and the most relevant call-to-action to your content. You should help users achieve their goals so your business can prosper.

Fixing Your Bounce Rate and Beyond

So, we’ve gone through the top reasons people may be leaving your site and how to fix them. Now, it’s up to you to make those necessary changes. If you want to see your website and your business flourish, shaking things up could help.

Updating your design, creating more custom content, or taking away a few ads may be just what you need to work your way up the results page ladder. Call us at 800.792.8384 or click here to learn more about our services.

FAQs

How do you calculate the exit rate?

The formula to determine this rate is dividing the total exits from the page by the total visits. If your exit rate is high, most people leave your website upon visiting a particular page.

What does exit rate mean?

Exit rate is a website traffic term that indicates the percentage of users who visited your website and left a specific page. This metric allows you to determine which page causes visitors to leave your site.

Is a high exit rate good or bad?

A high exit rate suggests that a significant number of visitors are departing from your website, which is generally an issue requiring attention. This could indicate that the content or user experience is not meeting visitors’ expectations, leading them to abandon the site.

What does a lower exit rate mean?

A low exit rate typically suggests that visitors are finding value in your website and are likely navigating to other pages within your site rather than leaving. This is generally a positive sign, indicating that your content or user experience is resonating with your audience. A low exit rate is often correlated with higher user engagement and can potentially lead to increased conversions or other desired actions.