A problem experienced by many small businesses is that they obsess over attracting traffic, but they overlook what their visitors are doing on the website. Analyzing your website traffic is a method for understanding user experience and behavior, and your effectiveness at growing an audience and converting leads into customers. All the web traffic in the world has little value if users return to search results to select another option. Ideally, you want visitors to stay longer and travel deeper into your website.
There is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to website analytics. Regardless, there are several statistics which a business owner must understand and track. Today, we are sharing some of those important metrics.
Analyzing Your Website Traffic
1. Unique Visitors – This is likely the easiest statistic for people to understand. Unique visitors are a measure of each individual to your website. The number will provide you a starting point for understanding your website’s overall traffic.
2. Bounce Rate – A high bounce rate is a prime indicator of an ineffective website. When a person lands on your web page but does not stay, and quickly leaves, this is not deemed a full visit. Your site has not grabbed the visitor’s attention.
3. Average Time on Site – Ideally, the longer that a visitor stays, the more likely they will engage with your website and the greater the chance they will convert to a paying customer.
4. Average Page Views – Much like the time spent on your site, a higher number of page views means that you have grabbed the visitor’s attention and they are traveling deeper into your marketing funnel.
5. Traffic Sources – Do you know where your traffic is coming from? Is it searches engines or social media? Knowing your traffic sources will help you understand which marketing and advertising efforts are working.
6. Conversion Rate – Ultimately, this is the most important statistic for evaluating a website’s success and effectiveness. It is the measure of the number of visitors who make a purchase, request a quote, or schedule an appointment through a landing page or contact form.
Do you have questions? What haven’t we covered yet that is important to you? If you would like to talk about why you should be analyzing your website traffic, or a related topic, please contact us.