Gone are the days of guessing what return your web marketing investments will bring in. If you have a website and are using digital marketing, you can now track how many visitors are visiting your website, how they found it, what they are viewing, how long they stayed, and whether or not they converted (filled out a form, bought a product, signed up for the newsletter, etc.) Here are some important metrics to look at beyond the number of visitors and how you can use the information to maximize results.
One of the most telling metrics for your online marketing and SEO efforts is the traffic source. With this information you can see how people are finding your website, whether it’s from your search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC) advertising, links from other websites, and other marketing initiatives. You can drill down further into this information to see exactly what search terms people are using to find your site and go a layer deeper to discover how those people interact with your site. If they are turning into conversions, then you know which keywords to emphasize and which keywords are not as effective.
How the public interacts with your site is not an everyday thought when considering your online marketing. This is a huge mistake that can be very costly to your efforts. You can have a great deal of traffic and still not be making a single cent off your efforts. If tracking shows people are visiting your site and leaving after a few seconds, then there is an opportunity to improve your website. Here are three important details to keep in mind and what they mean for you:
1. Bounce Rate – A “bounce” is when a visitor clicks on your website but then leaves without clicking through to another page. If you have a high bounce rate, you can rewrite the content around the effective search terms people are using to find the page. It could also mean you need to consider redesigning your website.
2. Average Page Views and Time on Site – These are actually two different stats but they generally work together to tell you the same thing. If you have a high number for average page views it means people are interested enough to click to another page. If this aligns with a lengthy time on site, it means people are also reading the content and clicking. If the latter is not true, it may mean they are having trouble finding what they are looking for. Obviously, the higher the page views and time on site the better your site is performing. To improve this you can do anything from writing better content, improving your inner-linking strategy, to redesigning the navigation of your site. Having quality content and easy navigation is key to the conversion process.
3. Top Content – This tells you what pages your visitors are viewing the most as well as how long they spend on the page and whether or not they are bouncing from it. This tells you the specific content areas that need to be improved, what pages can be better optimized for search, and how many people are going through your conversion funnel.
How to use this Information
Frequently viewing your analytics to identify areas for improvement opportunities is crucial to the success of a campaign. This can help decide which marketing initiatives to budget for, as well as improving things on the site to ensure you are getting results from additional traffic. This post could easily be broken down into many blogs with much more detail. If you would like to learn more about using analytics to improve your ROI, please feel free to give Webolutions a call at 303-300-2640 or ask your questions in the comments section below.
