In this day and age, you can’t run a business and not have a website. Being present online has become essential for success — so it’s only natural that you want to ensure your site performs at its best. Still, it can be tricky to determine what metrics to look at to see how you’re doing. There are all these analytics to watch out for, and if you focus on the wrong ones, you’ll get nowhere. We know it all may sound a bit scary now, but as you learn more about it, it’ll all make much more sense. We want to help you get there sooner. Therefore, we’re talking about website statistics, which you need to know.
Number of visitors
No matter how good your website looks, it won’t bring much to your business if no one visits it. So, the first thing you should look at is how many website visitors you get on average.
If you find this number low or decreasing, finding an SEO writer to boost your website traffic might be a good idea. Good content will draw more people to your pages and earn backlinks. Other sites will link to yours, and their visitors will also become yours.
On the other hand, your site may be well-established, and you may have a steady number of visits each month. In that case, could you be sure to look into how many of your visitors are returning? You want people to always return for more — that’s how you know you’re getting somewhere.
Bounce rate
Consider if this scenario sounds familiar. You’re searching for something on Google, click on a site, and after a few seconds, you realize it doesn’t have the information you’re after. So, you click the back button and continue your research elsewhere. We all do it, and chances are that it happens on your website as well.
For these visitors, we say they bounced. Hence, a bounce rate is a ratio of the total number of visitors to the ones that bounced. The higher this ratio is, the more it will harm your website. It’ll affect your SEO score, so you’ll get fewer and fewer people on your pages.
Luckily, Google Analytics makes it easy to see which of your pages are the most troublesome. Once you know what these are, according to the experts from linkdepartment.com, there are two things you can do to fix them.
- Improve the content – visitors get engaged and stay on your site for longer
- Reconsider who you’re targeting – adjust to attract the audience that’s more interested in your products or services
Average page views and session duration
You must be familiar with these two website statistics to know how attractive people find your site.
The average page views will tell you how many pages people visit on your website before they leave. Of course, you want this number to be as high as possible. If it’s only one or two, people aren’t moving on from your landing pages, and you’re probably missing something. Could you work on your site and make visitors go from one of your pages to another one? The more they see, the more likely they will do your desired action.
The second thing you’d like to look out for is the session duration. Although it’s a good indication of how engaging your website is, it works best for websites that users need to click on a lot to use. If you focus on long-form blog posts or long videos, people might click less, so you’ll get a lower score. Take it with a grain of salt, and you’ll be fine.
Average time on page
The two metrics we mentioned will give you a part of the story. Many visitors could land on your site, click a few pages, and leave as if nothing happened. Your statistics would look good, but you wouldn’t see many benefits.
If you want to get the whole picture, you’ve got to consider the average time on the page. It’ll tell you how much time people spend on each page of your site. For example, if you’re selling products, you want your visitors to spend the most time looking at them.
It’s also a great way to track which of your articles people read the most and, therefore, which of them you should build links to. It’s easy to improve your SEO and create links that make a difference if you know what your readers like to see.
Top traffic source
Here, we’re talking about other places on the internet that people visit before they end up on your site. For instance, if you have a YouTube channel to promote your products, your customers might read the description and click the link. It will lead them to your site; if most come from there, it’s your top traffic source.
But why is this so important?
Well, if you combine the session duration data and your traffic sources, you’ll have some valuable insights. You’ll be able to see where your top customers find you and know what channel you should focus on the most.
Device source
It would be best if you recognized the devices people use to access your site. With more than half of Google’s traffic coming from mobile, you might be surprised by what your customers use to read your content. If most of them are on small screens, it might be a good idea to invest more in responsive website design.
It’s all about offering your visitors the best user experience possible. Your site is there for them, and you should never forget that. Device source data can also come in handy when creating ad campaigns. Make the ads for devices they use, and you’ll convert more of them.
Exit pages
The last thing we would like to talk about is the exit pages. If you’re selling on your website, your customers will likely go through multiple pages before they can complete the purchase. Of course, they could fall out at any point on that journey, and it would be good if you could learn where that point is.
Exit pages tell you exactly that. You’ll find out on what pages people abandon your website most often, so you’ll get a chance to fix them. It’s one of the website statistics you need to be familiar with to take your company to another level.
