In this post we’ll explain some of the key performance indicators (KPIs) to consider for website or online store traffic. In fact, these KPIs should be set before starting a marketing campaign; in other words, you need to define the website goals you’ll later monitor.
We’ll set analytics goals for our eCommerce or website
- One of the basics is site traffic. This indicator relates to popularity, the number of visitors a website receives. Obviously, the higher it is, the more popular the site.
- A related indicator is time spent on site. This tells us whether we’re capturing users’ interest in our content, services or products, or not, or whether some pages do and others don’t.
- The percentage of new versus returning visitors, that is, first-time visitors versus repeat visitors. This statistic gives us insight into the kind of traffic reaching our website or eCommerce, user loyalty and whether we’re reaching new audiences.
- Social media is also part of performance indicators, to see whether campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or any other social network are driving the traffic we want or whether we need to change strategy. The number of followers or fans is another metric we can monitor once goals are set.
- Pages per visit is a metric showing the average number of pages viewed per visit to a website, as long as the page fully loads. Repeat page views also count toward each user’s total.
- Other metrics show performance based on where visitors come from and in what proportions, namely your website traffic sources. These can be direct, meaning visitors reach your site by typing the address into their browser (Google also counts other visits as direct, such as those from bookmarks); referral traffic, which shows which domains send traffic to your site, revealing both expected and unexpected sources, such as a blog that discovered a product in your eCommerce or a service on your website. Another source is search traffic, which can be organic or paid if you use a pay-per-click tool like Google AdWords.
- Bounce rate should be one of the core KPIs for any website or online store, since it reflects whether we’re meeting users’ expectations. If the percentage is high, look at which pages have the highest bounce and find out why, so our goal will be to take action to improve their relevance. What can cause a high bounce rate? Intrusive ads, thin content, poor or outdated design… The causes can vary widely, so the only option is to carefully analyze the pages with the highest bounce.
Given how important fresh, original content is, you should track blog traffic. Write often and you’ll see traffic grow. For this metric we’ll analyze how many times posts are shared, comments and the number of visits coming from the blog.
We invite you to check out other concepts to keep in mind when creating a store or website in this post.
