How Do You Fix a High Website Exit Rate?

You ever notice how some visitors just bounce off your site without doing anything? It’s super common, but if it’s happening a lot on important pages, that’s when you should sit up and pay attention. It usually means something’s off — maybe your site’s confusing, slow, or just not interesting enough to keep people around.

But hey, don’t freak out. A high exit rate isn’t the end of the world. Actually, it’s a chance to fix what’s broken and make your site work better for your visitors.

What Exactly Is Exit Rate?

Exit rate’s just a fancy way of saying how many people leave your site from a particular page — but only after they’ve visited other pages first. Say 100 people read your latest blog post, and 30 leave right after that page. That’s a 30% exit rate for that post.

This is different from bounce rate, which counts visitors who leave after just seeing one page. A high bounce rate on your homepage or landing page is bad news, but a high exit rate means folks are leaving after looking around, which tells you something else is going on.

So, Why Do People Exit Early?

Loads of reasons — here’s the usual suspects:

• Clunky User Experience: Slow loading, hard-to-navigate menus, or a site that’s a nightmare on mobile can turn visitors off fast.

• Boring or Outdated Content: If your page doesn’t answer questions or feels stale, people won’t stick around. Plus, if headlines don’t grab them or there’s no clear next step, they’re gone.

• Wrong Crowd Showing Up: Sometimes your SEO or ads attract people who aren’t really interested in what you offer. When they land and see it’s not what they expected, they leave.

• Tech Glitches: Broken links, buttons that don’t work, pages that crash — all these kill trust and send users packing.

• Conversion Hassles: Long forms, confusing checkouts, or surprise fees are classic exit triggers.

I remember a client in Melbourne who had a killer product page — but their checkout was so complicated, their exit rate shot up to 60%. Simplified the process, and the exit rate halved within a month. Look—this stuff works.

How To Stop Visitors From Bailing

Here are some real-world fixes you can start on today:

• Make navigation dead simple so people can find stuff quickly

• Make sure your site looks and works great on phones and tablets

• Speed up those page load times — every second counts

• Keep your content fresh and relevant — no one likes old news

• Use clear, strong calls-to-action that tell visitors what to do next

• Fine-tune your SEO and ads to bring in the right crowd

• Fix broken links, button errors, and any other tech hiccups

• Cut down complicated forms and lengthy checkout steps

• Use internal links to guide visitors to other interesting pages

• Try exit-intent popups with offers or sign-ups before they leave

• Personalise content based on where visitors are or what they like

• Offer live chat or support so questions don’t become reasons to leave

• Keep your design clean and consistent to build trust

Keep Testing and Tweaking

After making changes, don’t just set it and forget it. Track your exit rates, try A/B testing different layouts or copy, and see what sticks. Optimising your website is an ongoing game — small tweaks over time add up.

At Chromatix, we’ve spent years helping businesses turn their sites into conversion machines. If you want to dig into your exit rates and see what’s really happening, we’re the Melbourne web agency to call.

Ready to roll? Drop us a line and we’ll sort out how to keep your visitors from bouncing.