There is no denying the importance of measuring your Web site’s visitor actions, how else would you know if your site is working for you? But, are you tracking the right metrics?
I can’t tell you the amount of times I have been in meetings and conversations with clients and colleagues where the subject of Web metrics comes up and the conversation immediately shifts to measuring visitor traffic. While measuring traffic is important, that really does not tell you anything more then how many people are visiting your site. The real questions are, what are they doing and are they doing what you want them to? I recall a recent conversation I had where a client was concerned about a decrease in visitor traffic to their site. Understanding this is a concern, we looked at the metrics more closely and found that the total number of conversions (visitors completing a goal) had actually increased. Looking further we saw that the bounce rate (visitors who land on the site then immediately leave without visiting another page) decreased as well. So despite the lower traffic figures we were actually getting better, more qualified, visitors to the site. This insight of course made the client very happy because things were not so bad after all, in fact they were quite good.
As Movéo’s Director of Interactive Services I work with clients to help them define their internet strategies and how their Web site will support those strategies. One of the key components of our process is defining site metrics, specifically conversions (AKA goals). Often, web and marketing managers, particularly in the B2B space, equate conversions with ecommerce and therefore overlook them because their site is not an ecommerce site. This of course is not the case. A conversion is a goal and a goal can be anything from a file download, to a page visit, to a completed contact form. The important thing is to understand and define what action(s) you want your Web site visitors to take and then measure whether or not they are taking them. Armed with this information you can optimize you site’s user experience and marketing efforts to ultimately increase your ROI.
For some insight into defining your Web strategy, check out my article on Moveo.com titled “A Little Strategy Goes a Long Way.“
