With tools like Google Analytics, you can not only check how many people visit your site – along with detailed information such as the source of the visit or its duration. In addition to these data, the indicators that should be noted in this tool are the so-called. Failure and output rates (failure rate and output rate). Many people confuse these two concepts. So, what are the main differences between them? Should high bounce rates and yields always be a concern?

The failure rate and the exit rate are not the same

These terms can be translated sequentially – failure rate and output rate. At first glance, it may seem that they are about the same thing, so they indicate how many people have left the site. However, there are differences between these factors and should not be confused with each other.

 Failure rate

You can check the bounce rate, for example, in Google Analytics. This is a value that tells you how many visitors have left the website without taking any other action, such as clicking on any link or other element of the site.

This is an important indicator, but you should know that its high cost is not always a concern. For example, articles on a company’s blog often have a high bounce rate. If they answer the questions entered the search engine and meet the expectations of users, they do not need to go to the following entries. In this case, a high bounce rate should not be bad – the reader reads the content, gets a response and leaves the page. You should also analyze other data, such as time spent on the website.

However, a high bounce rate on your home or landing page may already be a concern. This means that many users find, for example, an e-shop website, see products, categories and other elements of the site, but do not click on any of them. Again, you should also analyze other information, such as the source of the visit or which keywords brought the user to the page. If these are “accidental” visits, a high bounce rate is natural.

Exit speed

If an online store customer enters a website, enters categories, clicks on selected products, and then leaves such a subpage, in which case we refer to the output ratio. Therefore, it is a factor that determines how many users left a certain page, but previously visited several others.

High yields do not always indicate a more serious problem. Suppose a customer is directed by an ad on a landing page that encourages them to download a file or subscribe to a newsletter. It is then moved to the next page of thanks. If the last site has a high exit speed, it is again quite natural.

The same thing happens with articles divided into several pages – if the last page has a high percentage of output, it indicates that the user left our site, but previously read the entire text.