Having great lead generation is a good start. Being able to nurture those leads is getting there. Increasing your conversion rate will look good for the bosses. But none of these things means much if you do not have the right website analytics in tow.
Why do you need analytics? You are already killing the game. Everything is working for you just fine – for now. The modern market changes so fast that you can never be sure that success today means success tomorrow. How do you give your business the best chance of success? You analyze the behavior patterns of guests on your website and let them tell you where the winds of change are taking them.
If you want more information on web analytics, particularly the software available, check out Leadfeeder’s article on website analytic tools. Other than that, use the best practices below for the best chance at coming out ahead with your digital business.
Here is a beginner’s guide to website analytics – 5 steps you need to know to win.
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Learning About Traffic
Nothing else matters without traffic to your website. You can analyze zero visitors all day – you’re not going to come up with any insights! The way you check traffic is to juxtapose it against a time frame. How many visitors does your site get per day, per week, per month? Once you have a baseline, you can begin to analyze how marketing campaigns affect the web traffic that you receive. You can determine if certain links are working better than others to drive people to your website. You can see if email campaigns, digital PR or search engine optimization is your best bet. Just remember that it all begins and ends here.
Traffic Sources
The sources of your traffic are the second most important piece of this puzzle. As they say, You are the company you keep.” You want to be sure that people are coming to your website through reputable sources. You also want to ensure that the websites that are connected to you are relevant to your business. If not, the company risks being put in the same boat as the low quality sites that you are associated with, and that is never good for business.
Bounce Rate
No, this is not how high you can jump when you see your numbers going up. Bounce rate refers to the visitors that come to your site and immediately click away. Your bounce rate is the central metric in determining how good or bad your website design is. For instance, you may have great ads or guest posts that get people excited about visiting your site. Once they are there, however, they can’t find the information they are looking for. They leave. This site has a high bounce rate and needs a design overhaul.
Top Pages
Where are the people congregating on your website? Some pages will undoubtedly be more popular than others. You will probably be surprised by which ones they are. As a tip, you should never put too much emphasis on your home page as your landing page. If there is a certain blog that attracts attention, focus your design around it. Your top pages will tell you something else very important – why people are visiting your website. The themes on your top pages should be spread out to your entire website.
Exit Pages
Which pages are your visitors visiting before leaving? These are known as exit pages. The exit pages are closely related to the bounce rate of your site, but you should not ever confuse these metrics. The exit page is actually only generated when a visitor goes to more than one page before leaving your site. Once you know where your users get off the ride, you can modify your strategy to either try to convert them here or divert them to another page for more coercion!