How Does Google Calculates Bounce Rate and Exit Rate?

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Bounce rate and Exit rate calculation in Google Analytics is really confusing. Let me solve this confusion today by providing a simple example as to how Google calculates exit rate and bounce rate for any site.

Here is a simple definition of the two:

Bounce Rate:Percentage of visits that leave from the landing page itself.

Exit Rate: Percentage of exits that happen on a particular page.

Exit Rate Calculation

As for example, we are having 4 pages on our site namely A, B, C and D. The following sessions happen on the website: 

A-B-C (Visitor enters Page A, browses and move to Page B then exits from Page C)

B-A-C (Visitor enters Page B, browses and move to Page A then exits from Page C)

B-A (Visitor enters Page B, browses then exits from Page A)

D-A-B (Visitor enters Page D, browses and move to Page A then exits from Page B)

To calculate the exit rate, we need to identify the number of times any page participates in the sessions.

As per the above example, here are the numbers of page specific sessions:

Sessions:

A- 4 (Page A participates in 4 sessions) 

B- 4 (Page B participates in 4 sessions)

C-2 (Page C participates in 2 sessions)

D- 1 (Page D participates in 1 session)

Now, we will identify the number of times any user exits from a certain page. Here:

A- 1 (user exits in the 3rd session)

B- 1 (user exits in the 4th session)

C- 2 (user exits in both 1st and 2nd session)

D- 0 (user does not exits from this page on any sessions)

Exit rate will get calculated as per the following formula: 

(Number of Exits/Number of Participated Sessions)*100

A- 1/4*100= 25% 

B- 1/4*100= 25%

C- 2/2*100= 100%

D- 0/1*100= 0%

Bounce Rate Calculation

To calculate the bounce rate, we need to first identify number of times a page becomes the landing page.

Here:

Landing Pages

A- 1 (Page A is the landing page for 1 session)

B- 2 (Page B is the landing page for 2 sessions)

C- 0 (Page A is the landing page for 0 session)

D- 1 (Page A is the landing page for 1 session)

Bounce Rate will get calculated as per the following formula: 

(Number of Exits/Number of Landing Page Visits)*100

A- 1/1*100= 100%

B- 1/2*100= 50%

C- 2/0*100=0%

D- 0/1*100= 0%

Where To See Bounce Rate and Exit Rate?

Bounce Rate in GA

Move to "Behavior" -> "Site Content" -> "All Pages", you will see both the bounce rate and the exit rate.

To view, how Google calculated Exit Rate, move to "Behavior" -> "Site Content" -> "Exit Pages", Divide Exit by Pageviews and you get the Exit Rate displayed in the dashboard.

Here is the formula used: 

Exit Rate= Exits/PageViews*100

There is no proper way to verify bounce rate calculation directly in analytics.

Also See:

Exit Rate Vs Bounce Rate- Difference

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