Everyone knows that website analytics are important, but we admit they can be a bit overwhelming.
There’s SO MUCH information, but do you need all of it? To help you (and us) gain some clarity, we’ve compiled a list of 7 terms and how to understand them.
You’ll be a Web analytics wizard in no time! Get a cup of tea, and strap yourselves in for this one.
1) Traffic
What does it mean? Your website traffic is the number of visits that your website receives, and this is often reported as ‘users’ and ‘sessions’.
You’re more than likely familiar with this term already, as it has weaved itself into the basic understanding of websites. Traffic is a fundamental measurement on your website and gives a clear indicator of the performance of your coveted marketing strategy.
How can I gain more traffic? There are a huge array of things to do – use social media to push users to your website, increase targeted advertising efforts, add new content in the form of blogs and videos regularly – the options are endless! Just remember to always include a strong call to action from any 3rd party websites back to your website.
2)Bounce Rate
What does it mean? Your bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits to your website.
Your bounce rate is useful if you want to monitor user engagement. How many people are actually staying on your website and having a click around? Your bounce rate gives you a great insight into any potential problems on your website that you might need to audit. But remember, this analytic is best used alongside stats that show how many pages users click on per visit and their session duration.
Bounce rate percentages range in success across industries. What is a great percentage to one business might be detrimental to another – As a rule of thumb, a bounce rate in the range of 26 to 40 percent is excellent. 41 to 55 percent is roughly average. 56 to 70 percent is higher than average, but may not be cause for alarm depending on the website. Anything over 70 percent is disappointing for everything outside of blogs, news, events, etc
How can I reduce my bounce rate? Optimisation is critical here, look to reducing the page load time, ensure navigation is simple, improve your contents readability and include videos. We’d also suggest making your site accessible and avoid using sidebar widgets or too many pop-up promotions which interruptive UX – no user likes feeling overwhelmed.
3) Pages / Session
What does it mean? The average number of pages that a user views during their visit on your website.
This particular website analytic is a great way to get clued up on how captivating your content is. The ease of access also comes under this analytic umbrella. So, how many page visit per session should you aim for? Roughly 2 pages are the norm per session, but remember that user engagement is the champion here – more pages often means more curiosity – and ultimately engagement. The dream user! But beware of excessive rogue clicking…
How can I improve my pages / session? Well, a strong element that plays into improving this analytic is captivating visual content. Ensure your website has an attractive design. Incorporate high-quality imagery and add videos where applicable!
4) Average Session Duration
What does it mean? The average length of all website visits – combined.
Your average session duration works in harmony with bounce rate and pages per session to create a story of how long users are spending on your website, their engagement, and the true value of the content you’re creating.
Okay, so what’s the average time? Once again this is personal to your brand but the average is 1min 50 sec. Not long, right? That’s why it’s essential to ensure you’re captivating and capturing those users. Our top tip for this metric is to look at the wider picture, include engagement metrics when analysing the average length of all visits to your website.
How can I improve the average session duration? We have a few tips for this, starting off with aiming to improve the relevancy of your users, are they your target demographic? Are they finding what they seek on your website? Focus on those small SEO elements, your page title, meta descriptions and headers.
5) Conversions
What does it mean? Conversions are the percentage of users who take the desired action, i.e. purchase something through your website.
Conversion rate is a big one, as this tells you how effective your marketing strategies are. Use this particular analytic alongside your engagement metrics and goals to highlight the value your website is having. What’s a good conversion rate? Well, the average standard is roughly 2%.
How can I improve my conversion? A lower conversion rate can indicate issues such as poor call to actions, low-quality content and an overall disinterest in your website. Improve these by creating value. It’s all about captivating your users.
6) Percent of New Sessions
What does it mean? This one is the average percentage of first-time visitors to your website. It allows you to work out returning users.
So, the percent of new sessions is an important one, as it gives you an insight into how many new potential customers you’re attracting. This will give you a pretty good insight into the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, and inform you how many users deem your website worthy of another visit.
How can I improve the percent of new sessions? If this is your goal there are a number of things you can do, most will, of course, lie within your marketing strategy to drive customers to your shiny new website.
7) Click-through Rate
What does it mean? Your click-through rate is the percentage of clicks resulting from a search result.
Click through rate is most important when seeking insight on any paid advertising and organic listing. Today, we’ll focus on the latter. We all know that search engine’s reign supreme, and it’s essential to get your website seen! Once again a rough indicator of what you should aim for is about 2%.
How can I improve my click-through rate? SEO, SEO, SEO. Our crucial advice is to focus on the following aspects; long-tail keywords, compelling meta descriptions, creating posts (with images) and using descriptive URLs.
So there is our list of the 7 analytic terms you need to know, and how to target each element to truly get a grip of your website data.
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