September 20, 2022
6 Website KPIs You Should Be Tracking
It's crucial to measure and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) that provide insights into the health and effectiveness of your website. By tracking this data, you can learn what's working, what's not, and determine where to spend your time and money making improvements. In this article, we'll explore the essential website KPIs that are important to track, why they matter for the growth and success of your business, and how to improve them.
1. Website Traffic
Why it Matters: Website traffic is the foundational metric that gauges the overall reach and visibility of your online platform. By tracking the number of visitors, you gain insights into your site's popularity, the success of your marketing efforts, and the effectiveness of your content.
How to Improve: The best thing you can do to improve your website traffic is to invest in search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing, which drive traffic to your site. One of the first things we advise clients to do is get as many Google reviews as possible. It's free, and it can make a big difference with SEO.
2. Conversion Rate
Why it Matters: While attracting traffic is crucial, the ultimate goal is to convert visitors into customers. Tracking conversion rate helps you understand how well your website is performing in turning leads into actual sales or other desired actions.
How to Improve: Optimize your website's user experience (UX) to make sure all conversion pathways on your site are intuitive and barrier-free. Make sure to optimize both your mobile and desktop site so that there aren't any device-related discrepancies.
3. Bounce Rate
Why it Matters: A high bounce rate indicates that visitors are leaving your site without interacting with it. This usually means they didn't find what they were looking for, or they got frustrated and left. Understanding bounce rates helps in optimizing content and user experience to keep visitors engaged.
How to Improve: Make sure the content on your site is useful to your users. Additionally, make sure to optimize your website speed. Slow page load times are often a primary culprit of high bounce rates.
4. Average Session Duration
Why it Matters: The average time users spend on your site reflects their engagement and interest level. Longer sessions often indicate that visitors find your content valuable and relevant.
How to Improve: Again, make sure you are providing content that is valuable to your users. Also, make sure there aren't any features negatively impacting the user experience (e.g., disruptive pop-ups or ads), making people exit your website prematurely.
5. Traffic By Source
Why it Matters: Knowing where your website traffic comes from (e.g., newsletter, social, direct search, organic search, etc.) can help you determine where to invest your marketing dollars and gives you a deeper understanding of the buyer journey.
How to Improve: If one of your marketing strategies isn't producing much website traffic, it might be time to invest more in it. Or, you could decide to focus your time and efforts on the channels that are producing the highest percentage of website visitors.
6. Page Load Time
Why it Matters: In the age of instant gratification, a slow website can drive visitors away. Page load time impacts user experience, search engine rankings, and overall satisfaction.
How to Improve: Make sure you are using a high-quality website hosting service that won't negatively impact your page load times. Also, be sure to compress your image sizes (using a tool like TinyPNG) and avoid using bulky video files. If you need to add video to your site, we recommend first uploading it to YouTube or Vimeo, and then embedding that version.
Conclusion
In the competitive online landscape, tracking and analyzing website KPIs is not just a good practice – it's essential for success. The metrics mentioned above provide a comprehensive overview of your website's performance, guiding strategic decisions for improvement. Regularly monitoring these KPIs and adapting your strategies accordingly will contribute to a more engaging, efficient, and successful online presence for your business.
If you need help setting up your analytics or interpreting them, schedule a call with Miolo today.