You’ve created a business website that you are proud of. You’ve spent time and resources understanding exactly who your target audience is and what they are looking for. Now that it is ready, how do you know it is working? The answer lies within your website’s key performance indicators, KPIs for short. Measuring the performance of your website is key for understanding how effective it is being for the growth and success of your business. Working with an experienced digital marketing agency such as TechArk Solutions, located in Norfolk VA, is one way to ensure your website performance is always improving. Below we will breakdown the crucial KPIs you should be measuring to track the performance of your search engine optimization (SEO) and digital marketing efforts.
Page Speed
The goal of your business’s website is to notify potential customers of who your business is and what it has to offer. But first, you need to get them to visit your website. So, if your website takes too long to load, users are likely to navigate away to one of your competitors. Tracking how long your website takes to load is key for both website traffic and of SEO in general as it is a contributing factor in your site’s ranking. The rule of thumb is, the faster, the better. Users have been found to give up on a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. There are a number of tactics that can be used to help improve your website loading speed.
Sessions from Organic Traffic
Organic Traffic is defined as website traffic that finds your website via a search engine but not through any search engine marketing (SEM) strategies such as pay-per-click ads. Simply put, a user typed a keyword into a search engine and your website was a result on that page because it was relevant to the user’s query. Organic traffic relies on your search engine optimization ranking; the higher your ranking, the higher your website will appear on search engine results pages (SERP). The position of your website on the SERP determines the likelihood a user will click on your website. The higher your business’s website is on in the results, the more likely it is to be clicked. Tracking how many users come to your website organically and what they engage with during their visit can be helpful in multiple ways. Organic traffic volume can help you determine how well your current SEO tactics are working is the one of the most important KPIs you should be tracking. You can utilize Google Analytics to track your website traffic and other performance trends.
Ranking of Keywords
Keywords are phrases, both long and short, that users enter into a search engine. Including relevant keywords within your site content and metadata can help boost your SEO ranking. When choosing which keywords to target on your business website, you should consider keywords that receive a lot of traffic to improve the likelihood of a user clicking on your website. Keep in mind that choosing high volume keywords increases the competition, making them harder to rank for. Tracking your keyword ranking is another crucial KPI for measuring SEO success. There are some keywords such as your company or brand name that you will naturally rank higher for, but ultimately your goal should be to rank as close to number one as possible on high volume keywords as a way to increase your business’s online visibility. Tools such as SEMrush can be used to both track your keywords rankings and help you choose which keywords to target.
Bounce Rate & Average Session Duration
Now that you have gotten a user to visit your website, the next important KPIs to mention are bounce rate and average session duration. Bounce rate is defined as a user coming to your site and immediately navigating away. When a user bounces, they tend to spend little to no time on your site at all and do not engage with your site in any way. Obviously, the ideal bounce rate for your website would be 0%, but a typical website bounce rate falls between 40% and 60%. Bounce rate is an important KPI to measure as it can affect your SEO ranking if users are not finding your site relevant to their searches. If you notice your website’s bounce rate increase, it may be time to reevaluate your digital marketing strategy. Conversely, average session duration measures how long users spend on your website on average. The longer the session duration the better. This KPI helps determine if your target audience finds your website content valuable and how motivated they are to continue to read, click and complete the desired action.
Pages Per Session
While you are tracking how long users are staying on your website, you should also track how many pages are engaging with during their visit. The size and site structure of your business’s website determines how many pages are needed for this metric to be considered strong. Pages per session is another KPI that helps determine how valuable your target audience finds the content of your business’s website, which also correlates with search engine optimization. While having visitors that engage with many pages of your website is important, attention-grabbing CTAs should be conveniently placed throughout your website to encourage users to complete the desired action.
Top Exit Pages
Tracking what pages website visitors are using to navigate through to your site is obviously important, but seeing which pages users are seeing last before is key. It is important to remember that exit pages are not inherently negative. Especially if the last page most website users see is a thank you page after submitting a form. But if you notice a trend of users leaving on pages that are intended to engage them further, you might need to rethink that page. Knowing this KPI can be helpful in determining which parts of your site need to be updated to improve the performance of that specific page.
Conversions & Leads
So, your website is doing the job of attracting and engaging your target audience. That’s great, but are they converting? Conversions are actions you hope a user completes when visiting your site. Conversions can be making a purchase, asking for more information or subscribing to a blog or email list. Once you’ve determined which type of conversions make the most sense for your business and have incorporated CTAs to help get the job done, tracking if users are actually completing this action is necessary. Good conversion rates vary depending on the business industry. If your website is lacking in the conversion department, it might be time to reevaluate your strategy and user experience.
Conclusion
Tracking the performance of your business’s website for the above mentioned metrics is necessary for it to continue to accomplish your business goals. Monitoring all these KPIs and making the necessary adjustments to improve them can be both overwhelming and time consuming. Partnering with a digital marketing agency that has extensive experience in this area removes some of the pressure off of your business and ensures your website is always getting the attention it needs. TechArk Solutions is an award winning digital marketing agency located in Norfolk VA, that specializes in improving the online visibility of businesses just like yours. Contact TechArk today for help with a personalized digital marketing strategy that will get results.
