The advent of data collection has sparked numerous discussions about analytics, tracking, and measured marketing. As marketers, we undoubtedly recognize the importance of tracking our efforts, but we can become overwhelmed by what we’re supposed to track and what we’re not. Ultimately, what should we focus on at the end of the day?
While there are hundreds of metrics we could be looking at, I would instead encourage you to focus on five key website metric categories and identify the metrics within those categories that are important for your business:
- Who visited your website?
- Why did they come to your site?
- How did they find you?
- What did they look at?
- Where did they exit?
While these five categories simplify what we’re trying to measure when someone comes to our site, it’s a lot more complicated when we’re trying to identify which metrics are essential and which ones are not. I’m not saying that you should ignore a variety of metrics, but, like everything else in marketing, we have to prioritize our daily tasks and, in turn, our reporting, so that we can digest the information that will help us create effective conversion strategies.
Metrics Within Each Category
While the categories are pretty self-explanatory, the metrics that should tracked within each category are not always obvious. Let’s take a look at the different types of metrics within each category:
- Who: While everyone would like to know the exact identity of who came to their site, we cannot always obtain that information. However, there are tools, like IP address lookups, that can help us narrow the scope. The most significant benefit of IP lookups is that they can tell us what company was visiting your site. If you can track what IPs are visiting your site, then you are one step closer to identifying the who. Standard analytics tools usually don’t provide this information.
- Why: Why someone visits a site is subjective, but there are quantitative metrics we can use to help determine the reasons behind their visit. Some of these include the pages visited, the amount of time spent on those pages, conversion paths (the progression of pages visited on the site), and the referral source or traffic type. By examining these metrics, you can make logical assumptions about why the visitor came to your site.
- How: How a website visitor found you can be indicative of your search (SEM) or social efforts (SMM). Looking at how will tell you where your efforts are working and where they aren’t, but it will also tell you where your messaging is successful. If someone found you from a mobile search and clicked on your link, you know that something in your language compelled them to do so. The primary metrics here are the type of traffic or referral source.
- What: What visitors looked at is probably the most straightforward of these categories. The primary metric here is which pages were visited, and you can determine a lot with that information.
- Where: Finally, where a visitor exited can tell you where they lost interest. Take a look at the exit pages and see if any pages keep coming up. Adjust the content on the page and continue refining it, especially if it’s a landing page. You can typically obtain visitor exit information from standard analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, in the conversion paths section.
Are you looking at each of these categories and adjusting your content or website based on the data that’s coming back? If you’re evaluated on the performance of your website, then you should be.
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