The website metrics you need to track

Being able to accurately measure the success of your website is a vital part of improving your services and expanding your online presence.Monitoring key metrics allows you to identify areas for improvement, measure your success against current market averages and develop new strategies. But what are the most important criteria? Here are some of the most important metrics you should be tracking – both as an individual and as an entrepreneur with a web design business opportunity.

Traffic figures A key indicator of whether your website is moving in a positive direction is overall web traffic. Tracking the number of visitors per day and per month to your site allows you to identify consumer patterns and cross-reference them with key marketing strategies and sources. It also gives you the opportunity to see whether your marketing campaigns are driving up traffic and what the rate of return from that investment is. It’s important to remember that traffic will fluctuate but a steady upwards curve shows progress. Session time The amount of time that browsers spend on your website is just as important as the number of visitors you get. If you have a high bounce rate and browsers are leaving immediately before browsing the rest of your site, this is an indication that your design or layout could be too complicated or uninviting or that the content on the page doesn’t live up to expectations. Longer session times show increased engagement from consumers and improves the chance of conversion. You can use A/B testing to help you redine key aspects of the page such as headline, main image and call to action. Traffic sources Knowing where your traffic is coming from is vital when it comes to creating effective marketing campaigns. Tools like Google Analytics allow you to track the sources of your traffic and see how consumers are being directed to your website. This allows you to focus your resources more efficiently. For example, if the majority of browsers come from search engines, it could be a sign that you need to up your social media game but keep your SEO activity the same. Conversion rate The ability to drive traffic towards your website is fruitless if you’re not converting consumers into customers. Monitoring conversion rates is one of the most important parts of tracking success as it shows you raw figures about how effective your website is at generating sales or improving engagement. Falling conversion rates will help to highlight problems with your website. Exit pages Monitoring the way in which browsers are leaving your website can help you create a more accurate illustration of the average consumer journey through your website. By tracking the pages from which users are leaving your site, you can identify potential problems and pages that need altering or updating.