Every business today should have a website. Whether you run a restaurant, retail store, or service business, you should have a modern, functioning website. Here are some metrics to track to help you know if your website is making it to customer eyes and if it is meeting customer needs.
Table of Contents
Unique Visitors
Unique visitor count is the most conservative way to count the number of people visiting your site. A unique visit is defined by Google Analytics as a visit to your website without any differentiation by number of pages viewed or customer actions. A new customer visit starts after 30 minutes of inactivity or after midnight.
In general, unless your business is seasonal, you want to see unique visits trend upward every month.
Page Views
Page Views are the number of pages viewed in total over a specified time period. One unique visit could include one page view or dozens.
In general, higher page views per visit is a good sign that customers are engaged with your site and site content.
Bounce Rate
Your bounce rate measures the number of visitors that only visit one page per visit or multiple pages. If someone visits one page on your site and then leaves, the visit is considered a bounce. If they click to visit a second or more pages on your site, they are not considered a bounce.
The bounce rate is reported as a percentage. There is no specific rule of thumb for measuring a good bounce rate or a bad one, the trick is knowing what is good for your industry and peer group.
For example, the bounce rate on my finance blog is around 75%, which is reasonable for information blog websites. My flash mob site, which encourages signups and interaction, has a bounce rate around 50%.
Conversion Rate
Conversions are visitors that take an action you want them to take. Whether you are a blogger looking for newsletter signups or a store looking to make a sale, you should always have a goal for each visitor to your site. A conversation rate tracks what percent of people do what you want.
You can setup conversion tracking using free tools like Google Analytics or site management software to track conversions.
Returning Visitors
Tracking software uses cookies to remember who has been to your site before. When someone comes back for a new unique visit, they are considered a returning visitor. Higher returning visitor counts mean people want to come back again and again.
Like bounce rates, your target may be very industry dependent. In general, however, you should want to see lots of returning visitors. As a percent, it is great to see it grow, as long as you keep bringing in new visitors too.
Revenue
Okay, this one isn’t a site metric, but it is the second most important metric you have (after profits). Is your site helping your company make more money? If no, you need to improve it. If yes, still try to improve it.
You can always find ways to improve customer interaction, customer sales, and the customer experience. If you always do that, and include your website in the equation, your company is bound to find success.
About Carson Derrow
