You’ve dedicated the time and effort to launch a new website complete with a beautiful design, customized messaging, and search engine optimization, but now what? If this is as far as you read in this blog, we hope you take this one thing away. Don’t just let your website sit there! Use it as a tool to help you reach your company goals and measure website metrics that matter!
We’ve talked in the past about the importance of marketing goals and for 99.9% of businesses, your website is an essential tool to helping you reach those goals. To see how your website is helping accomplish those goals we need to track, report, and pivot.
Tracking Website Metrics
Installing Google Analytics & Google Search Console
First, make sure Google Analytics and Google Search Console are installed on your website. Google Analytics released a new tracking code version called GA4 that will replace Universal Analytics (UA) in 2023. If you have Google Analytics installed on your site, it’s important to make sure your code is updated or includes a GA4 version because, at this time, historical data is not able to transfer over.
Reporting Metrics That Matter
There are a million and one metrics that you can dive into and report on within your analytics dashboard. Our advice is don’t track just to track. Track and report on data that:
- Provides insight into how users are engaging with your business and website.
- Gives you insight into your goal performance.
- Shows if you need to pivot your efforts to reach your goal.
While there are similarities in what to track across different business websites, the specific tracking for your website is unique to you!
Website As A Lead Generator
Is your marketing goal to gain more new clients? Your website should be a main reporting source to determine how this goal performs. Some metrics to track may be:
- # of new users to your website you are receiving each month.
- # of users that click on your call to action button or page
- Of these users, how many complete your lead generation or new customer form?
- # of users that click to call your office
Influencing or Informational Website
While all websites could be considered lead or customer generators, some business, like a restaurant may utilize their website as a tool when customers are already in-store. These websites are more informational or influencing in nature to help increase revenue per customer. Some metrics for these types of sites are:
- How long are users spending on each services page?
- Which services page or product is getting the most views?
- Which services page is leading to the highest conversion?
- Do your website views and revenue trends match?
Website As Revenue
For businesses with ecommerce, your marketing goals are probably directly related to your website’s traffic and performance. For these types of websites, important metrics to report may include:
- # of users visiting shop vs # of customers placing orders (capture rate).
- # of products placed per order.
- Average dollar value of an order.
- Source of website traffic (google, social, email marketing, etc).
- Metrics of purchases made from automated website emails like an abandoned cart.
Report and Pivot
Once you’ve identified your key metrics to track, report on them monthly and quarterly along with your social, marketing, and revenue goals. Are all your metrics showing the same thing? Remember, not every metric is a simple pass or fail. Some metrics listed above can help guide your strategy if and when you need to make a change.
Our team of dedicated marketing strategists are here to help guide your marketing goals and determine which website metrics are the best to report on for your business.
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Marie Wiewiora
Marie is the VP of Client Relations at Innereactive and has experience in marketing strategy, graphic design, and web development. She has over 8 years of experience creating comprehensive marketing strategies.