Your website plays an essential role in the success of your business. Because many people learn about businesses via the Internet these days, it’s essentially one of your primary marketing channels.
That’s why you need to constantly monitor certain essential web analytics metrics. By understanding how your website is performing (which may involve coordinating with web analytics companies), you can better understand what steps you must take to improve it.
That said, you need to make sure you’re focusing on the right web analytics metrics. Don’t waste time monitoring data that’s irrelevant. To use your time as effectively as possible, pay attention to the following:
Traffic
This is a basic metric. That doesn’t make it unimportant. On the contrary, you need to know how often people are visiting the various pages on your sites. You also need to know when certain changes cause an increase or a decrease in traffic. If, for instance, traffic significantly increased after you began posting more videos (which is likely to account for a much larger share of web traffic in the near future), you may realize that using video more often is key to improving your overall content strategy.
Conversion Rate
Do you sell products or services on your site? Or do you offer visitors the chance to take actions similar to making a purchase, such as signing up for your email newsletter?
If so, you want to know how often people are taking these actions. This is called your conversion rate, and it’s one of the most essential web analytics metrics to track.
Attracting visitors to your site is important. That said, a visitor isn’t necessarily going to become a customer. Tracking your conversion rate helps you better determine if your site’s content is generating real value.
Time on Site
Just as people visiting your site aren’t necessarily going to become customers, it’s also worth noting that people who visit your site aren’t always there because they find the content valuable. They may have simply visited it because they assumed it was relevant when they saw the link. If people are visiting your site and leaving quickly, that’s a good sign they aren’t actually getting much from the experience. You’ll need to adjust your content strategy accordingly. Additionally, time on site plays a major role in determining your ranking in searches.
This brings us to our next metric…
Search Rankings
Tracking web analytics metrics doesn’t always involve staring at charts and analyzing data. Sometimes, the process is as simple as testing your keywords to find out if your site comes up in relevant searches.
Your goal is to rank as high as possible on the first page of search results. Monitor your position frequently to determine if you’re reaching this goal.
Traffic Sources
Monitoring web analytics metrics doesn’t merely help you improve your content strategy. It can also help you better determine how to effectively allocate your budget. For instance, by monitoring traffic sources, you might find a large portion of your traffic and conversions can be attributed to social media. Knowing this, you would focus more of your marketing efforts on leveraging your social media presence to its full potential.
Analytics companies can help you with these processes if you’re not familiar with them. The main point to remember is that they are not to be ignored. Track the right metrics, and you’ll get the right people interested in your business.
