Marketing without data is like building a house without hammers. You might eventually succeed, but you’ll have a hard time getting there — and it’s likely you’ll be disappointed with the results.
Data-driven marketing companies seem to pop up on a weekly basis, each promoting their algorithms as a revolutionary solution. You can certainly contract with these companies — and many have proven their value — but sometimes it’s best to stick with the basics. In other words, Google Analytics. With Google Analytics, you can keep track of all the basics with regard to your website traffic, and then develop strategies for improvement.
Analytics offers a number of metrics collection options, but there are three key ones on which you need to concentrate:
- Bounce Rate — You draw visitors to your site, but how many leave without doing anything? Bounce rate tells you the number of people who take off before they can start digging in. A high bounce rate indicates either you’re appearing in search feeds for the wrong reasons, or your content is weak. If your bounce rate is more than 40 percent, you should try and figure out why.
- Pages per Session — This metric shows you how many pages a person clicks on when they do visit the site. Pages per Session is a premiere engagement metric. If a visitor is spending time looking around, you have good content they want to explore. When visitors tend to leave without doing so, you may have a soft content foundation.
- Average Session Duration — Like Pages per Session, this is a quantifiable metric that indicates how well a visitor is engaging with your site content. If Analytics is telling you most visitors are leaving within seconds of reaching your site, you have a problem. If Average Session Duration is several minutes, you’re giving visitors the goods.
Have you looked at your website’s Google Analytics lately? If so, what are you seeing with these 3 key metrics? To find out ways to improve these numbers, contact us today.