8 website analytics terms to know (and why they matter)
How do you know if your website is working effectively for your business?
Or, if you already know something isn't working (no contact form inquiries or newsletter subscribers?), how do you diagnose the issue?
The key is looking under the hood and examining your website metrics. This will tell you who is visiting your website, where they're coming from, and what they're doing once they get there.
Metrics can be daunting, but having even a basic understanding of the key terms can give you a clear idea of how to improve your website or your marketing strategy to achieve better business results.
Here's a quick primer on the most important website analytics terms to look for, and how to interpret the data.
Visits
What it means: The total number of visits to your website.
Why it matters: Because you want to track how often your website is visited! Is this number going up or down over time?
Unique visitors
What it means: The total number of individual people who visit your site.
Why it matters: Some people may visit your website more than once (so this number will likely be lower than Visits), so it's helpful to have a sense of how much of your traffic is return traffic.
Bounce rate
What it means: The percentage of visits that contained only a single page view — i.e. someone visited one page on your website and did not access any other pages before exiting.
Why it matters: If a large percentage of people are leaving your website without viewing any other pages, something's amiss! It could be that your website design doesn't make people excited to explore, or it's not structured in a way that provides a clear step. Or, you're not reaching the correct audience through your marketing.
Exit rate
What it means: The percentage of page views that resulted in a visitor leaving your site — i.e. the LAST page someone visited before exiting (unlike bounce rate, which indicates when someone one has only visited ONE page).
Why it matters: This metric tells you where you've lost your audience's attention. You likely want someone to exit your site after they've taken a particular action, like filling out a contact form or making a purchase. But if a large percentage of your visitors exiting on your homepage or about page, for example, without taking any action to connect with you, you know you've lost the thread somewhere. You'll want to revisit how your website guides visitors to take your desired action.
Time on page
What it means: The average time visitors spend on a given webpage.
Why it matters: If your visitors are spending just a few seconds on a webpage, you know they're skimming without retaining any information. If you see your time on page metrics are low, how can you change the design, structure, and content of your webpage to better engage your audience?
Top devices & browsers
What it means: Shows your share of visitors from mobile, desktop, or tablet, and what web browsers they're using.
Why it matters: Make sure your website is optimized based on your visitors' software. If the majority of your visitors are on their phone but you haven't considered mobile optimization, you'll want to rethink that! Similarly, make sure your website is optimized for the web browsers that your visitors use (e.g. chrome, IE, firefox, etc).
Traffic sources
What it means: Indicates how many of your visitors are coming from search, social, email, referral (clicked a link from another website) or direct (typed the URL directly in their browser, or an unknown source).
Why it matters: How are your visitors finding your website? Does it reflect your marketing strategy? Are there any weak areas that could drive more traffic if you improved your marketing?
Search keywords
What it means: The keywords and phrases for which your website has appeared in search results. Pay attention to:
clicks: the number of clicks to your site from the search results of a given keyword
impressions: the number of times your site appeared in search results for a given keyword
click rate: the percentage of times someone clicks on your site after seeing it in search results (clicks divided by impressions)
average position: the average position where your site appeared in the list of search results for a given keyword
Why it matters: These metrics provides insight into: what search terms your website appears for, how many people click on your website from search, and where your website ranks in search results compared to other sites. If you are not getting many clicks from search and/or if your website is not appearing for the search results you think it should, you'll want to consider investing in SEO strategy to optimize your website content for search traffic.