The 7 most important metrics for a website (updated)

 

1. Visits and visitors.

The first element of web analytics that you have to control is that of visits and visitors. This is what will tell you if your website is growing or not (beyond the spam that can sometimes sneak in).

The difference between visits and visitors is important. Visits are those that arrive regardless of the person who makes them, while visitors are unique visits, and only one is recorded for each person.

For example, imagine a person visits your website, closes the browser, and then reopens it and logs back in. In that case, you will have two visits, while you will only have one visitor.

The visitor, however, is "refreshed" each day, so the same visitor that enters your website two days in a row will appear as two visitors, which is logical.

There are some problems with this way of measuring visits, because, for example, a person who arrives at your website at 23:59 and leaves at 00:01, will appear as a visitor on both the first day and the second.

This may not matter on a small website, but these types of mismatches are a bit more serious when you have a lot of traffic.

The important thing is to understand what the difference between visits and visitors is, and how that indicates the growth or decrease of your website. In general, in the long term, the line of visits and visitors should be of constant growth.

 

2. Bounce rate.

The bounce rate is, in all probability, the most important metric for Google, although, sometimes, it is given unusual importance and that is not endorsed by reality.

The bounce rate is nothing more than the record made by your web analytics tool (generally, Google Analytics), of a person who arrives at your website through a page, and leaves your website through that same page.

As Analytics has no way of seeing how long you have been on the page (because this information is obtained by subtracting the time of entry, from the time of entering the next page), in addition, this visit will appear with a page duration of 00: 00 seconds.

It's important to note that too high a bounce rate is generally a bad thing because it means that people are coming to your website and leaving quickly, without actually surfing the web.

This, in the face of Google, is bad, but you should not worry. For example, in blogs, it is normal for the bounce rate to be somewhat higher, because people look for information, enter your website, read it, and stop looking for it.

That, although it is not the best (the best thing would be to continue browsing your website) is not a big problem either. The problem would be that you did the above, but repeated the search and clicked on another result. At that point, Google would assume that your website is not responding to user needs.

That, although it is not the best (the best thing would be to continue browsing your website) is not a big problem either. The problem would be that you did the above, but repeated the search and clicked on another result. At that point, Google would assume that your website is not responding to user needs.

But if you have a high bounce rate, although you should try to reduce it, it does not mean that Google will condemn you for it.

Also, think for a moment about a website that has multiple landing pages. Landing pages, by definition, do not have links to other parts of the web, because the objective is that you buy or leave.

In that case, the bounce rate will inevitably be high. And it's okay, so be it. Do not be so obsessive about the bounce rate, although it is important.

 

3. Time on the page.

Another very important metric is time on the page. Google tends to assume that if you spend a good amount of time on a page, that page is giving you the information you needed.

That is why it is convenient to review those pages of your website that do not have good times in this metric, and try to solve the problem, so that Google sees that, on all your pages, the user spends more time than the average of your competition.

To increase time on the page, there are many tricks. One of them is to embed related videos that may be of interest to visitors. Thus, if the average stay before including a video is 30 seconds, and you include a 2-minute video, you may be able to increase the time on the page up to a minute and a half, for example.

This increase, although it does not have very clear effects in the short term, does have a great implication for your positioning in the long term, because Google, when comparing you with your competition, assumes that you have content that better serves the needs of the user.

 

4. Pageviews.

Pageviews are the number of pages users see throughout the session they spend inside your website. If they enter through one page, visit another, and finally leave your website, those users will have had two page views.

Pageviews are important, especially in an online store. In blogs, it is a bit less important, because, as mentioned, people tend to search for content, read it, and leave.

However, in an online store, it is normal for the user to review several products, access the shopping cart, go back, etc. Let's say that there is more movement, and, therefore, it is normal that more pages are seen.

 

5. Entry pages.

Reviewing entry pages is also very important, and is something that people tend to look at less than the metrics mentioned above. The entry pages will tell you which content you have better positioned or is more popular.

What can this be useful for? Well, essentially, to better optimize that content, and ensure that those visits can help your entire website.

For example, suppose you have a page that has a lot of visits, being one of the most important entry pages of your website. However, when people come through that page, they don't convert or browse the web much.

In that case, you can take that page and edit it to include some products for sale, add some subscription boxes to your newsletter, or put more related content for the user to browse the web.

In this way, you are optimizing and making the most of the existence of that page.

Depending on the decision you make, you will get some results or others. For example, you may be interested in turning it into something more like a landing page and selling a product. With this, you will increase conversions.

However, you may be more interested in including links to other pages, so that you get more web browsing, which makes Google see good metrics on other pages and, consequently, positions them better.

Many interesting things can be done from the entry pages.

 

6. Exit pages.

The opposite of entry pages is exit pages, of course. And these are also very important.

The truth is that, in general, it is more difficult to have exit pages as clearly defined as entry pages, since the user can exit through any page, but cannot enter through any page with the same ease.

However, there are always some pages that do prove to have a higher exit rate, and, generally, they are those pages that are poorly constructed. They can be, for example, pages with good content, but with few links to other pages on your website.

You can choose to include this type of link on these pages, in such a way that you get a greater degree of user navigation through your pages, which is positive for Google.

 

7. Origin of the visit.

Finally, there is the origin of the visit. Of course, this is a fundamental metric, because it tells you what you are doing right in terms of online marketing, and what you are doing wrong.

For example, if you receive a lot of traffic from social networks, you can assume that you are doing a good job on Social Media, while if your traffic is essentially organic, you can assume that your SEO is on the right track.

In addition, you can take advantage of the peaks that you have in those areas to determine if you have managed to viralize some content, if you have positioned for an important keyword, etc.

This way, you can copy what you did, and try to replicate it, to improve the amount of traffic you get.

Lastly, you can also use this metric to look at which areas of online marketing you should boost so that you can attract traffic from the most diverse areas possible.

As you can see, different aspects of web analytics must be measured and taken into account so that the other areas of digital marketing can prosper in the best possible way.

 

What do you think? How important is web analytics to you?
Do you think it's relevant? Do you think it doesn't matter in the slightest?