Let’s face it, the purpose of any business website is to sell its wares. While there may be a lot of lovely scenery along the way, if you have products or services to sell, the end goal for all your online efforts should be to turn traffic into customers. If you don’t intentionally aim to convert, what would be the point?

Website metrics are a form of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that help website owners measure the success of their site as well as the marketing initiatives that lead traffic to it. We gladly share a list of some of the top metrics to measure (using Google Analytics), what they mean and what you can do to enhance performance.

Top 7 Website Metrics To Track & Improve

1. Number of Users & Sessions

Where: You will find this metric under Audience > Overview
In a nutshell: Measures the amount of traffic (unique visitors) your website had and if any of those users returned during a selected time frame.
Improve: By creating more relevant website content that would send traffic to the site i.e. Blogs, videos, adding more products, etc. Make use of social media and run paid search ads on Google.

2. Average Session Duration

Where: You will find this metric under Audience > Overview
In a nutshell: Measures the average time a visitor stayed on your website.
Improve: By keeping visitors more engaged. Revise copy and visuals to make them more engaging.

3. Average Pages per Session

Where: You will find this metric under Audience > Overview
In a nutshell: Measures the average amount of pages a visitor visited in a single session.
Improve: By adding interesting content and adding Call To Actions to encourage click-throughs to other pages.

4. New vs Returning Visitors

Where: You will find this metric under Audience > Overview, (click to compare the two)
In a nutshell: Measures how hard your marketing campaigns are working to bring in new visitors and lure back previously interested parties.
Improve: To increase new traffic focus on awareness and growth by widening your target audience on all your marketing campaigns. Add more new products, improve pictures, and create more attractive content to encourage visitors to return.

5. Bounce Rates

Where: You will find this metric under Audience > Overview
In a nutshell: Measures how many visitors came to a landing page but didn’t click through to another page. It was either not what they anticipated, or something else put them off.
Improve: By checking your loading speeds and upgrading hosting if required, refresh your content to make it more engaging, include Call to Actions on your landing pages and/or refine your audience targeting on Google.

6. Organic vs Paid

Where: You will find this metric under Acquisition > Channels > All Traffic
In a nutshell: Measures on which channels traffic is clicking through from.
Improve: If Organic Search is low, improve your on-page SEO, invest more time and effort in social media, create newsletters, write blogs, consider getting an influencer, and collab with other small businesses. If Paid Search is low, but the results are good, consider investing more money on Google Ads and social.

7. Conversions

Where: You will find this metric under Conversions > Goals > Overview (set your own goals)
In a nutshell: Measures set goals where a visitor interacted with the website by completing a purchase, clicking through to a number of pages (i.e. visitor was engaged), form completions, etc.
Improve: By including great call to actions, adding simple forms, reviews, live chat, etc.

Tracking the results of everything you do online can help you adapt and enhance your website performance. This way your aren’t just shooting online sales pitches into the abyss, but actively improving your tactics month-by-month and working towards an improved end goal.

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We hope this article is of great help to new website owners with a WordPress or a Site Builder website.