Not all key performance indicators (KPIs) are made equal, and some are much more important to keep track of than others.
What to Track on Your Website
Robyn Rivera
6 KPIs to track on your website
#1. Keyword rankings
What are they?
The whole point of search engine optimization (SEO) is to help your website rank organically for relevant keywords.
The most straightforward way to measure the success of your SEO efforts is to keep track of your keyword rankings, which include how many keywords you’re ranking for, what keywords you’re ranking for, etc.
What can they tell you?
Knowing which keywords your website is ranking for can tell you something about the relevancy of your content, as well as other issues that could hurt your organic rankings, like bad links.
It also helps you keep fine-tune your efforts when working toward ranking for specific keywords.
If you’re not ranking well for keywords that are relevant to your industry, knowing where you stand will help you determine what needs to be done to work toward that goal.
#2. Impressions
What are they?
Impressions are the number of times your pages are shown in the SERP (search engine results pages) for a user. Even if the link is never clicked, it’s an impression when a user visits the page the URL is listed on.
The more impressions you have, the more times users have seen your page in the SERP.
What can they tell you?
A lot of business owners overlook the importance of tracking impressions. After all, the higher your keywords are ranked, the more impressions they’ll get, right?
While yes, that’s generally true, some keywords that are ranking lower in the SERP may be getting a greater number of impressions than some keywords that are ranking higher. These keywords, with lots of impressions and low rankings, are your golden opportunity keywords.
#3. Clicks
What are they?
Clicks occur when someone clicks through to your website. This could be from an organic search result, an ad, Facebook, Google My Business or anywhere else your business is listed online.
What can they tell you?
The click-through rate (CTR) of your ads, organic listings, etc. gives you important information about what’s working and what isn’t.
For example, if you have a page that’s ranking well for a lot of keywords and that has a lot of impressions, but it has a low CTR, it indicates that the page’s metadata (title tag and meta description) needs to be adjusted.
A/B testing can help you fine-tune the verbiage of your metadata, ads, and more to figure out what works best for your audience.
And, by comparing the CTR of different sources, you can identify which digital marketing channels are driving the most traffic to your website. You can also compare the success of individual ad campaigns.
#4. Bounce rate
What is it?
When someone visits your website but doesn’t move past the page they land on, it’s called a bounce. The bounce rate is simply the percentage of times that a visitor has left after only visiting one page.
What can it tell you?
Your site’s bounce rate can tell you how effective your website is at meeting the needs of your visitors.
Usually, the goal of a website isn’t just to get a visitor to a landing page; it’s to get them to convert (i.e. make a purchase, fill out a contact form, sign up for a newsletter, etc.). And, if you’ve got a high percentage of visitors who are leaving without converting or even visiting a second page, it tells you that something is missing.
Maybe your call to action isn’t clear enough or your site isn’t easy to navigate. Or, maybe the content isn’t readable, the design isn’t convertible or the page simply takes too long to load.
While you can’t learn specifically what is wrong by looking at your site’s bounce rate, it’s the canary in the coalmine that can alert you to potential issues.
#5. Average session duration
What is it?
The average session duration is the average amount of time your visitors are spending on your website. A good average session duration to shoot for is between two and three minutes.
What can it tell you?
The average session duration helps you understand what kind of experience you’re providing for your visitors. In general, the longer your visitors are spending on your website, the better their experience will be.
If your visitors are only on your website for a few seconds before they click away, it likely means that they didn't find what they were looking for, the page took too long to load, they weren’t sold on the design or content of the site, etc.
However, if people are spending a long time on your site without converting, it can also be concerning. That might mean that your navigation is too complicated or not user-friendly enough for your visitors to find what they need, or that you’ve failed to direct them to take the next step.
#6. Conversion rate
What is it?
Conversions can mean different things for different businesses. For an e-commerce store, for example, a conversion is a purchase; whereas for a service-based business, it might mean filling out a contact form or calling for an appointment.
The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who convert when they come to your website.
What does it tell you?
Your conversion rate basically tells you how effective your website is. If a lot of people are coming to your site without converting, it might mean that your site isn’t effectively moving them toward your call to action.
A poor conversion rate could points to low-quality content, a poor design, accessibility problems, an unclear call to action, poor navigation and/or a long list of other issues.
Knowing how well your website is performing is a key part of reaching your goals online. And, although the above KPIs can only give you so much information when you look at them alone, they can alert you to potential issues and guide your strategy going forward.
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Originally published on 8/7/20