Exit Rate
Exit rate is the percentage of pageviews of a page that were the last page viewed in a session. It tells you how often visitors leave your site from a specific page, regardless of how many pages they saw before it. A high exit rate flags a page where people decide to go.
How to Calculate Exit Rate
Exit rate divides the number of exits from a page by the total number of pageviews for that page.
Exit Rate = (Exits from a page / Total pageviews of that page) × 100
An exit is counted whenever a page is the last one a visitor views before the session ends. If a page received 1,000 pageviews and 300 of those sessions ended on it, the exit rate is 30%.
Exit rate is calculated per page, not per session. The same page can have a different exit rate than the page before or after it in a visitor journey, because the count depends only on where sessions happened to end.
Exit Rate vs Bounce Rate
Exit rate and bounce rate measure different things, and confusing them leads to bad decisions.
| Metric | What it counts | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Exit rate | Pageviews where the page was the last in any session | Every session that included the page |
| Bounce rate | Single-page sessions with no engagement | Only sessions that started and ended on that page |
Every bounce is also an exit. Not every exit is a bounce. A visitor who views four pages and then leaves on the fifth records an exit on that fifth page but no bounce anywhere. A visitor who lands on one page and leaves immediately records both a bounce and an exit on that page.
The practical difference: bounce rate judges a page as an entrance, exit rate judges it as a departure point anywhere in the journey.
What Counts as a Good Exit Rate
A good exit rate depends entirely on the page’s role in the funnel. There is no universal benchmark.
- Expected high exit rate. Thank-you pages, order confirmation pages, and contact-form success pages should have high exit rates. The visitor finished what they came to do.
- Expected low exit rate. Product pages, category pages, and mid-funnel landing pages should have lower exit rates, because visitors are meant to continue toward a conversion.
- Warning sign. A high exit rate on a step inside a checkout or signup flow signals friction, errors, or unexpected costs.
Always read exit rate in the context of where the page sits. A 90% exit rate on a “Thanks for subscribing” page is healthy. The same number on a pricing page is a leak.
Why Exit Rate Matters
Exit rate pinpoints where visitors abandon a journey, which makes it useful for funnel analysis. When you map exit rates across a checkout or signup flow, the step with the sharpest jump shows where people give up.
Like bounce rate, exit rate is not a direct Google ranking factor. Its value is in conversion optimization. Identifying the highest-exit page in a funnel tells you exactly where to test new copy, fix a broken form, or remove an unexpected step.
If you tag campaign links with consistent UTMs, linkutm’s analytics dashboard shows which traffic sources send visitors that exit early, so you can separate a weak page from weak traffic.
How to Reduce a High Exit Rate
Lowering exit rate on a page that should keep visitors moving comes down to removing friction and pointing to the next step.
- Add a clear next action. Every mid-funnel page needs an obvious link or button to the following step.
- Fix technical errors. Broken forms, failed payments, and slow loads push people off the page. Test the flow on mobile.
- Remove unexpected surprises. Hidden shipping costs and forced account creation are common exit triggers in checkout flows.
- Match content to intent. If the page does not deliver what the previous step promised, visitors leave.
- Strengthen internal linking. Relevant links to related content keep sessions alive and lower exit rate naturally.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is exit rate in simple terms?
Exit rate is the share of times a page was the last one a visitor viewed before leaving your site. It is measured per page, across every session that included that page. A high exit rate means visitors often end their visit there.
What is the difference between exit rate and bounce rate?
Bounce rate counts only single-page sessions where the visitor left without engaging. Exit rate counts every session that ended on a page, even if the visitor viewed several pages first. Every bounce is an exit, but not every exit is a bounce.
Is a high exit rate bad?
Not always. A high exit rate is expected on thank-you and confirmation pages where the visitor completed a task. It is a problem on product pages or steps inside a checkout flow, where visitors are supposed to continue.
How do you calculate exit rate?
Divide the number of exits from a page by the total pageviews for that page, then multiply by 100. If a page had 1,000 pageviews and 300 sessions ended on it, the exit rate is 30%.
To see which sources drive early exits, check campaign performance in linkutm’s analytics dashboard.