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In this digital era your website is a vital tool for marketing. It is a direct representation of your offering to potential customers and is the medium that drives sales. A website with a good conversion funnel is a dream for every marketeer. Mostly the challenge comes in identifying what to do, to optimize the website. Tracking metrics for website and funnel analysis can help teams figure out what’s working and what’s not, to a great extent.
Monitoring and analysing website metrics will assist you in gathering information about your user digital experience and you can improve user experience. In this blog we will go through the most important metrics for websites that you must track. You will also get an idea about how you can track and improve these website metrics.
Website metrics help you in planning and designing all sorts of essential marketing strategies. Tracking key website metrics can help you stay on top of your website performance, and have the right data to plan and execute effective marketing campaigns.
The main function of a website is to encourage visitors to spend more time on your website and drive them towards conversion. Each step in the customer journey map is crucial to achieve this. Which can be achieved via web tracking, behavioral analytics, and website monitoring.
However in this blog, we will focus on the web metrics you should track to understand the qualitative vs quantitative data of your website visitors.
Website traffic is the number of individuals who have visited your website. These metrics for websites are a representation of your brand’s popularity and reach on the internet. Your website traffic can have different sources, and digital marketers use this information also with conversion rate to measure the success of their campaigns.
UTM (Urchin Traffic Monitor) is used to track traffic source, medium, and campaign. Also all CRMs and analytics tools capture this data. For instance using UTM can reveal which social media platform, advertising campaign, or channel is more effective in driving traffic to your website link.
You can use Google Analytics to measure traffic source, medium, and campaign. You can also use this acquisition data in relation to user sessions, engagement, and conversion.
Website traffic can come from different sources. And if your agenda is to boost traffic, you can explore different channels. Here are some to start with:
User acquisition cost refers to the amount of the money you spend to acquire a customer for your product or service. Calculating user acquisition cost is crucial for any business as it allows you to gauge how well your marketing and sales strategies are performing. Additionally this metrics for websites aids in assessing the profitability and long term viability of your business model.
The cost of acquiring an user can differ based on factors such as the industry, customer type and marketing channel. As per Userpilot’s study, SaaS businesses have an user acquisition cost of $702 while e-commerce businesses spent around $2741 for the same. However it's important to note that these figures can vary depending on the size and nature of the business as well as the target market and competition.
It can be determined by dividing the expenses made in marketing and sales efforts by the number of customers obtained during a specific time frame. To illustrate, if you allocate $10,000, towards advertising and attract 100 customers in one month your user acquisition cost would amount to $100, per customer.
The smaller this website metrics is, the better it is for the business. However the method to optimize cost varies for every single channel. But here are some guidelines you can follow:
Conversion rate refers to the portion of visitors who complete an action on your website. This action entirely depends on your business needs. For example for an ecommerce business it could be completing purchase, while for a SaaS business it could be free signup. The higher these metrics for websites are, the better your marketing funnel would be.
Measuring conversion rate is super important to measure the success of any marketing campaign, or product adoption. You can measure this metrics for website using this formula:
Conversion Rate = (Number of converted users/ Total number of users) X 100%
Conversion rate is one of the most important website metrics to track to get an idea of your website engagement and product analytics. You can measure conversion rate of any step in the user journey, depending on what you want to measure. One can use product analytics tools and website monitoring tools to track site metrics and conversion rate.
Conversion rate optimization is one of the most important metrics for websites that one needs to focus to make your digital business more profitable. The better the conversion the higher the ROI a business gets. Let’s look at some things you can do to improve the conversion rate:
Website speed refers to how a web page loads in a browser. It's a website metrics that impacts the users experience, and the ranking, on search engines. A slow website can be frustrating for users, making them drop off and even impact search ranking. One needs to ensure that website speed is maintained for both mobile and desktop devices.
A 2023 Statista Survey shows that website users have an extremely high tendency to leave the website if they have to wait for the page to load. The drop off peaks if the load time is 5 seconds.
To monitor these metrics for websites you have access to tools that can assess and analyse its performance along with providing recommendations for enhancement. Some used tools include, PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, Pingdom Tools. These tools help you measure your website speed and identify areas for improvement.
These metrics for websites play a crucial role in user experience. Here are some tricks you can use to improve website speed:
According to Google Analytics 4, bounce rate is the percentage of people who visit your website for 10 seconds, visit only two pages, or leave without taking any action. Bounce rate is an important metrics for websites, and can range anywhere between 26% to 70%, depending on your industry.
A high bounce rate is a direct indicator of compromised user experience, and engagement. It even affects search engine ranking and obviously leads to poor brand image. All in all a high bounce rate is one of those website metrics that you must be cautious of, and take measures to reduce.
Since bounce rate is a key website metrics, it can be easily tracked in Google Analytics. You can track bounce rate for your entire website, as well as for individual pages, channels, sources, devices, and more. In the new version of Google Analytics you would have to set up custom reports to track bounce rate. You can learn more about bounce rate in GA4 with this video.
We know that by keeping a check on bounce rate, we can improve the overall conversion funnel. Other metrics for websites like conversion funnel and top pages are also related to the bounce rate. Improving bounce rate website metrics, can impact user experience on your site to a great extent. Let’s look at some steps you can take for it:
Error rate is the measure of times errors or issues occur on your digital platform. In other words, the error rate is the percentage of requests that result in an error. These metrics for websites highly impact the user experience repetitively. Most users who come across these errors do not even report them and simply bounce off. If not fixed, these errors can continue to generate a decent opportunity loss.
A high error rate not just impacts customer experience. The damage extends to compromised SEO, user retention, brand, and obviously loss in revenue. However there are tools like Zipy, that track errors and help in error debugging.
You can easily track the error rate in digital experience and gain actionable insights to improve the digital experience and reduce errors. You can track javascript errors and network errors with website monitoring tools. Zipy is one such website monitoring tool that you can use not just for real user monitoring to identify errors, but also for error debugging, and bring down the error rate.
To understand how error rate is calculated, you can refer to this formula
Error Rate (%) = (Number of errors / Total number of requests) × 100
Having an error free website or web app is crucial for any digital business to flourish. If you keep working on getting traffic to your website, but are not able to convert it, the entire investment on the marketing campaign is wasted. Error as metrics for websites, does not get reported by most users, and directly leads to drop off or churn.You can these actions to reduce error rate:
Time on page is a website metrics used to measure average time a user/visitor spends on a page. This metrics for websites can be calculated by dividing the amount of time a user has spent on your site by the total number of page views for that page. Session duration on the other hand is the measurement of the time a user has spent on the site, during a single visit or session.
A high time on a page is preferred and is what both product and marketing teams aspire for. A high page on time is an indicator of better digital experience. A high quality web app has the potential to engage users better, increasing the chances of repeat visits.
Time on page or average time on page can be easily accessed via Google Analytics. Studies show that a good average time is said to be between 3 to 5 minutes per session.
Time on page is one of the metrics for websites that's used to estimate engagement, and at the same time indicates that a page needs to be updated. Here are some ways you can improve the time on page or session duration of your website:
Top pages are the best performing pages in a website. These pages account for a major traffic share, have decent engagement, and transition into user conversion. Knowing your top pages is one such website metrics that can be a game changer for your marketing strategy. Once you know which page is performing the best, you can use it in your marketing campaigns and even outbound email campaigns.
You can rely on website analytics tools for identifying this metrics for websites. For example in Google Analytics you can look for pages with highest pageviews, to know how much traffic is landing on it. And then optimise these pages to convert users better.
You can also list pages with decent average time on page, and low bounce rate. These pages have good engagement and if more traffic is directed towards them, they can create more value for your business.
Top website pages are another important website metrics to track. And the next obvious step is to optimize them to get maximum benefits.
User data metrics for websites are pointed towards the audience person that's visiting your website. It shows who is interested in your product or services and gives you the opportunity to optimise your messaging, to address them directly.
User data can include a wide range of information, for example user device, browser, region, keywords, and more. These website metrics can be easily used to optimize campaigns and position better.
Google Analytics is a good tool to track your user data, however you can take this a notch up and go for product analytic tools and CRMs. You can include forms on your website to understand more about your visitors, asking about their profession, likings, or needs.
Once you know who your user is, how they are reaching out to you, what excites them, and what are their biggest pain points that you can solve, both your marketing and product game will shoot up. You can use these metrics for websites to:
Getting links from other websites to your web pages is known as backlinking. Backlinks contribute towards improving search engine ranking, driving traffic, and improving domain authority. Search engines, like Google consider backlinks as a measure of trustworthiness and relevance. If you have quality backlinks it increases the likelihood of your website ranking higher for your target keywords.
For this website metrics, both the count of backlinks and referring domains matter. You can track backlinks for your website using tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or UberSuggest. These tools will not just share your backlink data, but also identify opportunities for you. While also keeping an eye on broken links.
While the quantity of backlinks is important, the quality of backlinks also play a major role. These are some actions you can take for improving this metrics for websites:
Keywords are one of the most important website metrics. These are words or phrases that when typed in the search engine, will automatically match with the context of your web page, and organically list your page in the search results.
Keywords help search engines understand what your landing page is about, and figure out how relevant is it for the users who are searching for the same or similar keywords. Once the context is established the search engine ranks your web page accordingly.
Just like backlinks, keywords can also be traced by website tracking tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or UberSuggest. These tools show what keywords are working and for which page. Plus these tools also highlight the ranking for these keywords. Knowing the volume, keyword difficulty, and other websites that are competing for the same keywords will help you strategize better. You can use the tools we just mentioned to paint the competitive landscape for it. All in all this metrics for websites are super important to make a website rank and drive relevant traffic.
There are several tools recommended by SEO that help you check your keyword rank. Let’s go through some of them:
According to a Zippia 2023 study, 89% of consumers switched to a competitor’s websites as a result of bad customer experience. Now this is where user behaviour tracking comes into picture. It helps you figure out how users are engaging with different elements of your website. You can identify where things are going wrong and take relevant actions. This metrics for websites is difficult to measure, but once you start getting a hang of it you can improve all the other website metrics as well.
User behaviour tracking is a qualitative approach to build a customer journey map and figure out where the drops are happening. You can activate heatmap and session replays on your website to track how the users are behaving. These tools will unveil what areas of your web page are being focused on, are users facing any issue while navigating your website.
You can take your behaviour tracking a notch up with bug tracking software. This will identify any code related issue that your user is facing and alert your team about it. You can then fix it and ensure your users are having a great digital experience and improve metrics for websites.
Behavioral analytics tools like Zipy, can be an answer to all your behavioural tracking needs, be it real user monitoring or bug tracking.
While most site metrics are quantitative, user experience is a qualitative metrics for websites that has a direct impact on SEO and conversion. You can a couple of measure to improve user experience:
The top exit pages refer to the web pages on your website where the majority of visitors choose to leave. Let’s say, if 100 visitors arrive at your homepage and 50 of them decide to exit your website from the contact page then the contact page has an exit rate of 50%.
Top exit pages is an important website metrics, as it helps you identify potential problem areas on your website that cause visitors to leave without converting. For example, if you see that your product page has a high exit rate, it may mean that your product description, price, or images are not convincing enough to persuade visitors to explore further.
The trick to improve this metrics for websites is to look for pages with poor CTR (conversion rate). Then identify which of these pages with good traffic. And that’s exactly where the potential lies. You can use any analytics tool you have, like Google Analytics or Mixpanel.
Now once you know what pages you need to work on, you can dig deeper in the potential issues they have. This is the time you go back to your user experience tools, website analytics tools, and even bug tracking tools and figure out”
You can then metrics for websites to revamp your pages and make the most of them.
Nowadays everything is turning into its digital form. Digitalization in every aspect is the future's new trend. From bank transactions to buying clothes, groceries, furniture, and ordering food, every task requires digital output which forces the business to attract its visitor via online sources that can generate regular customers to your website. Making the digital experience of your users the focus.
To maintain a great user experience, you must perform qualitative data analysis of your website. For which you can use heatmap and session replays. And to understand what’s going on at the code level you go for dev tools for bug tracking, and api monitoring. You can combine your new found understanding with the metrics for websites we have shared above and optimise your landing pages.
Tracking website metrics can help you understand your user behaviour and conversion funnel. So that you can make the needed changes. After all, every single digit of improvement in the conversion funnel, leads to more profit for your business. So go through these website metrics and use the tricks we have shared to optimise them.
Feel free to comment or write to us in case you have any further questions at support@zipy.ai. We would be happy to help you. In case you want to explore for your app, you can sign up or book a demo.
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