Ever wonder which page your visitor’s last view and leave your website? Often marketers won’t see exit pages as important metrics to track.
But in fact, it provides great insights to understand your user’s behavior, the journey they take, and how you can optimize your website to boost conversions.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what is an exit page and how you can view them in Google Analytics. Not only that, but we’ll also show you ways to use them to capture leads and convert visitors.
With that, let’s begin…
What is an Exit Page?
The exit page is the last page a visitor views before they leave your website. In simple words, it shows how many people exit from a particular webpage.
You can see them as a percentage in Google Analytics and the metric is also knowns as exit rate.
To further break down what is an exit page, let’s say you have an eCommerce store. A visitor arrives on your homepage, views a product page, then goes to your checkout page, and exits after viewing the thank you page.
Here’s what their journey looks like:
Homepage » Product Page » Checkout Page » Thank You Page
The exit rate for the thank you page will be calculated as the number of exits divided by the number of pageviews.
Now, having a high exit rate isn’t bad. In this situation, having a high number of exits from a thank you page is good since a customer purchased your product and left.
But if the exit rate is high for your checkout page, then it means something is wrong and you should check why people are leaving without buying.
Now, are you wondering if there is a difference between exit rate and bounce rate?
Exit Rate vs. Bounce Rate: What’s the Difference?
It’s very easy to confuse bounce rate with exit rate. And the definitions from Google make things more complicated because both are measuring the same thing – the percentage of people that leave a page after viewing.
That said, there is one big difference between the two.
Bounce rate measures the percentage of visitors that don’t interact with your webpage (like comment, navigate to another page, or click in a link) and leave your website. As a result, only a single session is recorded in Google Analytics.
On the other hand, exit rate is different and it measures the percentage of visitors that are last in the session. It shows how often people leave after viewing any number of pages on your website.
So, where can you find the exit page report in Google Analytics?
How to View Exit Pages in Google Analytics?
Are you new to Google Analytics? If yes, then it can be overwhelming to properly set up Google Analytics. That’s because it involves coding and if you mess up the code, you won’t be able to track your visitors.
Besides that, it’s difficult for beginners to find their way around different reports and extract meaningful data they can use for their business.
Luckily, there is an easier way.
You can get hold of MonsterInsights, which is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. In just a few clicks, you can add Google Analytics to your website, that too without any coding.
MonsterInsights also lets you set up advanced tracking that’s not possible by default in Analytics, like tracking form conversions, file downloads, eCommerce performance, and more.
And the best part, you get all your reports inside your WordPress dashboard.
The plugin brings important data that you can use for decision making and growing your business, without having to worry about finding the right report in Google Analytics.
Once you’ve installed MonsterInsights on your website, you can go to Insights » Reports » Publisher and then navigate to Top Exit Pages report.
The report shows you the top 10 pages and their number of Exits, total Page Views, and % of Exits. You can use this information to see which pages people leave from and then you can come up with ways to keep them engaged.
But what if you want to learn how to see your site’s exit rate in analytics?
To view your Exit Page report, first log in to your Google Analytics account. Next, from the menu panel on your left, go to Behavior » Site Content » Exit Pages.
How to Use Exit Pages to Grow Your Business?
Now that you know where to find the exit pages report in Google Analytics, you might be wondering, how can you use the data to grow your business?
Here are a few ways of getting meaningful insights:
1. Understand User Behavior
Just like bounce rate, it’s important to keep an eye on the number of exits on a particular page. That’s because it will help you understand your user’s behavior.
For instance, if a high number of visitors are exiting from a product page and not moving forward to checkout, then it could mean your call-to-action (CTA) needs optimization.
And if they’re leaving from your checkout page and abandoning shopping carts, then you need to look at your checkout process and perhaps make it simpler.
2. Capture Leads and Increase Conversions
Using the exit pages report, you can find out pages where people shouldn’t be leaving that often. On such pages, you can add exit-intent popups to capture leads and grow your email list.
You can also offer content upgrades if you have a blog and get people to download your eBook while subscribing to your newsletter.
And if you have an eCommerce store or are into affiliate marketing, you can use different popups on your most exited pages to boost sales. You can offer special discounts and offers as people are about exit a page so that they convert.
3. Optimize Your Conversion Funnel
Exit pages help you fine-tune your conversion funnels. A conversion funnel shows where your visitors are in the buying process.
You can use the information from your exit page report to see at which stage people drop off and why aren’t they moving to the final stage and making a purchase.
For example, let’s say you have a clothing brand. Now, people are familiar with your products and they’re interacting with your website by signing up for your newsletter. But there is a high exit rate at the decision stage where people aren’t buying.
Using the exit page report, you can highlight such cases, map out your customer journey, and optimize the entire sales funnel.
And that’s it, folks!
You now know the importance of exit pages and how to use them.
We hope you liked our article on what is an exit page and how to find them in Google Analytics. You can also go through our beginner’s guide to custom dimensions in Google Analytics.
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