Many times, when we are reviewing new Websites or Internet marketing opportunities, we ask our clients how their current Website is performing and what the overall goal of the Website is. Typically, a Website falls into one or a combination of the following types of Websites: lead generation, ecommerce, on information-based. And the metrics of each Website differ. It is for this reason, as an Internet marketing firm, that we try to get an understanding of the type and goals of the Website as fast as possible.
If you have a Website, if you have not already done so, ask yourself what the key goal of your Website is. Is it to generate leads? Produce online sales (ecommerce)? Or is it to provide information? Once you have determined this, establish key metrics for your Website.
If it’s a lead generation Website, your key metric is lead volume. You then want to get an understanding of the volume of unique visitors your site is receiving. Then, try to get an understanding of your conversion rates, such as the unique visitor to lead conversion rate.
Through your analytics, it’s very informative to get an understanding of the paths that prospects are taking to get to your Web form, to opt in as a lead, and what the conversions are at each step along the way. For example, if you have a button on your home page asking prospects to “Download a Free eBook”, try to get an understanding on the percentage of people that are clicking through to your landing page. Then take a look at the percentage of people that are completing your landing page to become a lead.
By getting an understanding of your conversion rates at each step, you can identify areas of improvement. For example, if 5% of prospects are clicking through from your home page to your landing page and 50% of people are completing your landing page, you may want to focus on improving the percentage of people clicking through from the home page to the Web form. If you increased your home page click through rate from 5% to 10%, you just doubled the number of leads generated, which should double sales through this channel.
For increased lead volume, take a look at your top referring sites and see what you can do to increase traffic. For example, if you see that the majority of your traffic is coming in through Google, but you are ranking on page two, perhaps an SEO campaign can be used to increase your ranking and traffic. It’s all a numbers game.
If you have an ecommerce Website, there are several metrics to take a look at. Some include the new visitor conversion rate, return visitor conversion rate, items per order, average order value, shopping cart checkout abandonment rate, and traffic sources, etc.
It’s important to differentiate between new and return visitors to get a clear picture of how your site is performing. For example, if you are running a PPC campaign to drive traffic to your site, you want to take a look at the percentage of people that convert the first time they arrive, as well as the percentage of return visitors that convert. By understanding this, you will have a better understanding of both types of visitors on your business.
Since revenue is a combination of the volume of units purchased as well as the average order value, take a look at your items per order and average order value. If you can make changes to your site to enhance one or both of these numbers, you can have a significant impact on the results of your site.
As discussed previously, by reviewing and enhancing your conversion rates, you can increase results quickly. This includes your shopping cart abandonment and conversion rates. And by understanding your key traffic generating channels, you can identify where to get more traffic from to increase sales.