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Part of making sure your website is effective requires tracking and monitoring your key performance indicators (KPIs).
According to a report by Leadpages, the top two goals for small businesses and their websites are driving sales (51.3 percent) and building brand awareness (48.4 percent). KPIs are the statistics and measurements that can definitively tell you how your website is performing in reference to your business goals. For instance, are people staying on your page long enough to read anything? Are they clicking links? Are they converting? These are all important metrics that can help you evaluate your effectiveness and develop your marketing strategy.
What KPIs should you regularly check?
There are numerous KPIs that you could monitor. However, some are more important than others. Equally important is how you’re tracking them. The following is a list of our priority KPIs to track and the tools that you can use to monitor them.
1. Organic Traffic
One of the most important metrics to track is organic reach or organic traffic. This represents the number of visitors that find you through search engine results pages (SERPs). Organic traffic truly reflects how effective every area of your SEO is working. Are you reaching new people–specifically your target audience?
Brock Murray, with Search Engine Journal shares, “Growth in organic traffic is the single most important key performance indicator because it most clearly aligns with the objective at the heart of SEO: getting more eyes on your website.”
Tools to use: As with many KPIs, your Google Analytics can tell you this number, under the acquisition section, click “organic search.”
2. Keyword Ranking
Keyword ranking will tell the effectiveness of keyword usage and placement on your site. The more frequently used or common a keyword or phrase is, the harder it will be to rank high in the SERPs. Beyond including keywords in your pages and posts, you need to make sure to check how you’re ranking for them.
Tools to use: Yoast is a valuable WordPress plugin that helps with keyword placement. You can also measure the effectiveness of your keywords using programs like MOZ or SEranking.
3. Bounce Rate
Bounce rate tells how many people come onto your website and immediately leave. A high bounce rate helps you to decide whether you’re using incorrect keywords and targeting the wrong demographics for your business or brand or if there’s deeper issues such as mobile experience. If someone comes to your page and immediately leaves, this is a clear sign that they did not intend to land on a page offering your service or product. When this happens, you need to determine how and why those people are landing on your page, to begin with.
Tools to use: The bounce rate can be found in your Google Analytics dashboard.
4. Scroll Depth
Scroll depth determines how far down the page a visitor will typically scroll. Not scrolling far on a page can mean that your content isn’t engaging enough to keep people on the page. Alternatively, it may signal that readers are having trouble navigating and finding what they’re looking for on your website.
Tools to use: Crazy Egg offers a scrolling heat map that can help you determine this KPI. You can also set up a prompt using Google Tag Manager to determine when and where a visitor leaves your site.
5. Average Time on Page
How long does a consumer spend on your page once they land there? We’ve determined that bounces are an indicator that your page is not pulling the right demographics. If they’re spending more time on your page, they’ve likely found what they’re looking for, so the next measurement you want to consider is how long they spend on specific pages. Are they reading your blog posts? Are they making purchases or browsing inventory? This can be a helpful KPI for any marketing professional or business owner.
Tools to use: This is another metric easily found in Google Analytics.
6. Sales or Leads
If you sell a product from your page or you have a lead capture form, this is an easy way to track visitors and interest in your product. Simply enough, your KPI would be how many sales or leads you get within a period of time and how this aligns with your overall business goals.
Tools to use: For sales, E-commerce tracking easily allows you to see what products are the top selling in your store. For leads, Google Analytics provides tools to track how many visitors reach your “thank you” page. This is an effective way to track lead captures, as completed forms might be missing information, making them useless.
7. Page Load Time
Page load time tells you how long it takes your page to load when a visitor opens it. The longer your load time, you’ll find the higher your bounce rate. People don’t wait for slow web pages to load. Instead, they click the back button and find another. This can also be a clear indicator of poor mobile performance. Keep a close eye on how your website performs both on desktop and mobile.
Tools to use: Use Google Page Speed Insights to measure your load time as well as glean insights as to what may be slowing it down.
Use Your KPIs to Optimize Website Performance
While tracking metrics is important, how you track them is equally important. Jessica Green, with Databox, recently surveyed digital marketers on the topic. She shares, “We asked what tools they use to measure SEO performance. Nearly 80 percent use Google Search Console (Google Analytics). After that, the most popular tools include SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz.” Set up your accounts with one of these suggested programs and start learning how your website is performing and where you may be able to do even better.
We provide new clients with a FREE initial high-level SEO audit of their website. If you’re ready to optimize your site’s performance and drive more leads and sales, get in touch with us!