Web analytics. Some days you log in to find your page views have spiked—hooray! You’re popular! Other days, when your visitor count is in the tank, you walk around with shoulders slumped and can’t look anyone in the eye. Is there any purpose to this emotional rollercoaster?
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make with their websites is placing too much or the wrong kind of emphasis on obvious stats like page views and visitors. These are important figures, but popularity isn’t everything. Does a high number of visitors meet the needs of your business? Are you getting results? Are you getting information that helps you adjust your strategy?
If you can’t answer these kinds of questions, it’s time to take a step back and reexamine your website’s purpose in life.
Useful analytics starts with defining clear goals for the site. The better defined the goals, the easier it is to come up with meaningful key performance indicators (KPIs). “Position so-and-so company as a category leader” is not a well-defined goal, and consequently, it’s impossible to measure. On the other hand, a goal like “get qualified leads to leave contact information” is easy to measure.
There are three basic rules for KPIs:
1. Keep it simple
2. Don’t have too many
3. Make sure they are measurable
For example, say the goal is lead generation. A number of KPIs address that, such as:
Overall conversion rate—how many visitors did you convert? (i.e., sale, contact information, phone call, etc.)
Conversion by campaign—see how well different marketing campaigns perform.
Conversion by source or referring site—determine which sites give you the best traffic.
Funnel conversion rate—where do people drop out of your “funnel”? (This is the path you want visitors to take from the home page to some end result, like a contact form or checkout.)
Funnel conversion rates apply to a slew of common website tasks—contact forms, surveys, shopping carts, multipage articles. When you have a multistep funnel, analytics will help you figure out where a big drop off occurs and adjust the site accordingly.
Say you have a four-step funnel. At the bottom of the first page, there is a “next” button, which leads to a number of additional pages. At the end of page three, half your visitors leave the site. Why does that happen? Is there a bug? Is that where you tell them about a fee? Where to tell visitors about a fee is a classic dilemma in funnel conversion.
Another factor that has a huge effect on funnel conversions is whether to tell people up front how many steps there are. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it hurts. If there are 10 pages, telling people at the beginning might increase drop-offs. If there are only two steps, users may be more likely to start, and therefore more likely to finish. (Keeping in mind that conversions at the expense of a good user experience is not necessarily a good trade-off.)
The important thing about these examples is they all provide meaningful information you can use to improve your tactics. It’s not enough to look at the numbers and say, “That’s interesting.” The question is, “What are you going to do about it?”
By tying analytics directly to your goals, you can discover what needs to be done to achieve your goals. If visitors are through the roof but nobody’s calling, what’s the problem? Are you not providing enough or the right kind of information? Is the phone number not big enough? Is there food stuck in your teeth?
Whatever you do, don’t beat yourself up over trivial metrics. Information is neither good nor bad; it’s simply useful or not useful. Find the useful metrics, figure out what is and isn’t working, and fix it. Then give yourself a pat on the back.