If you’re new to managing a website, you might be aware of various analytics tools available to you, but not exactly sure what they all do. Beginning to understand their function however is the secret key to improving your business presence online, as well as overall user engagement and audience growth. Read on further to learn more about the most important metrics to look at when developing a marketing or engagement strategy, and how partnering with a strong and dependable web host can help boost results.
Visitors
When looking at who is browsing your site, it’s important to consider two metrics. The first is the unique number of visitors, so those that are visiting within a specific time frame, irrespective of how many times they are returning. This shows you the range of audience you’re connecting with, and is a very important number when deciphering whether, for example, a marketing plan is working to find new leads. However, it’s important to consider a second metric too, the number of individual page visits, as this will show on average just how interested users are in the content (particularly if they’re returning to the site or spending a significant amount of time on it).
Referrals
How do users first encounter your business? What initially inspires their visit? Whether they looked you up organically by typing your business name into Google, found you through an online ad campaign, or chose to visit your page based on a keyword search, it’s important to know. This will give you a clearer idea about which of your efforts are bringing in desired results and which are not, particularly if you’re paying to be featured somewhere and aren’t getting hits out of it. Bear in mind also that partnering with a strong web host will help a great deal; HostPapa for example runs their websites on lightning fast servers making browsing convenient for users. Servers are the heart of any website, ensuring top latency in all elements of UX — including load times and video resolutions. Visit HostPapa to learn more about how server speeds affect the experience of your users and therefore the overall popularity of your site.
Bounce Rates
There are times when users find themselves clicking on your site by accident, or leaving almost immediately after having entered. When this happens online, it’s called a bounce. While you cannot always control this metric, does it ever appear to be higher than usual? If so, it might be valuable to revaluate your marketing tactics to see whether you’re misleading users unintentionally. At the end of the day, if users are not finding what they’re looking for, this is an issue.
Exit Rates
Exiting a website is different from a bounce in the that a user has spent some time on the site, perhaps reading a few articles, browsing your online shop, or simply exiting once they’ve completed a transaction. If you do notice however that a large number of users are exiting when they hit one specific page, it may do your business good to asses what about it is making users close the window; is it boring or dull, littered with ads, boastful, or deceptive? All this information will help you cater your presence to be one that users enjoy engaging with so you can watch your audience grow.
Founder Dinis Guarda
IntelligentHQ Your New Business Network.
IntelligentHQ is a Business network and an expert source for finance, capital markets and intelligence for thousands of global business professionals, startups, and companies.
We exist at the point of intersection between technology, social media, finance and innovation.
IntelligentHQ leverages innovation and scale of social digital technology, analytics, news, and distribution to create an unparalleled, full digital medium and social business networks spectrum.
IntelligentHQ is working hard, to become a trusted, and indispensable source of business news and analytics, within financial services and its associated supply chains and ecosystems
