KPIs

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are specific metrics used by businesses to see how websites are doing and if they are reaching their agreed-upon performance goals.

Measuring your website’s performance can prove challenging. However, tracking these KPIs can help businesses optimize their sites and, more importantly, their online revenue. KPI management software enables companies to set goals for their KPIs, track them, and visualize their performance to improve outcomes.

To get the most out of these metrics, it’s important you know exactly what data you’re looking for and how it can work in your favor in the long term.

Here’s 5 KPIs you should be measuring to increase site performance.

  1. Look at your bounce rate

This metric measures how often visitors stay on the same page on a site before clicking off. Many shrug this off as invaluable knowledge but it can really open up your eyes to some important elements going wrong.

A survey from Microsoft has recently suggested people generally lose concentration within seconds of getting to a new website. This means that if your website doesn’t interest customers enough, they will click off and move on. 

If you’re getting plenty of page views but not much customers or online engagement, this might be your problem. Sure your business may look appealing from the outside, but if your website is no good, the likelihood is you won’t even be given a second chance by most visitors.

F and Z patterns are particularly important when creating landing pages. Why? This is the way humans look at visual information according to eye-tracking technology. The ‘F’ theory states people first read horizontally along the upper section of a page before doing the same further down the page, then move vertically down the left-hand side. This works with word – dense pages, such as blog posts.

For lighter landing pages, humans often view using the ‘Z’ formation which, you guessed it, is where viewers read from the top left in a Z formation to the bottom right. 

Place the most important information along the F or Z pattern to keep viewers on your pages longer, and more likely to purchase or register interest with you.

Another thing to look out for is making sure your pages load quickly and your site’s navigation is easy.

2. Pay attention to your site’s top landing pages

The first page your visitors land on when entering your site is very important, as it will show you what content you’re getting exactly right.

It’s also important to pay a lot of information to these pages to optimize them as much as possible to continue growing them.

Keep a lookout for ways to keep viewers on your site once they’ve reached your popular landing pages.

You should create a sense of urgency on your pages that make the viewer feel they have to act now to avoid missing out on something big/important. 

Keep your copy simple to keep the reader interested and make sure it includes a keyword to enhance the website’s search engine optimization.

 It is also important to create an element of scarcity in your product. Telling the customer the product they are viewing is low in stock or isn’t offered anywhere else will make them feel the need to buy immediately. Not sure if your landing pages are performing well? Then you should explore working with some of the web analytics services providers out there on the market today. 

3. Understand unique website visitors

Unique visitors are defined as visitors new to your site over a certain period of time. Visitors who haven’t visited for a while but have returned are also counted as new.

These numbers are collected from unique IP addresses alongside a cookie on viewers’ browsers. This means that if someone visits your site repeatedly throughout the day on the same device, this will count as just one unique visitor. 

However, if the same person visits on different devices, each new device will count as a new visitor. 

This metric will help you to understand what is causing spikes in your performance over time. Promotions may give your site a spike of new visitors, for example. But once this is over and visitor numbers go down, it’s important to look at this metric to see how you can boost quieter times.

4. Searches made on your site are more important than you think

A custom search engine tracker is very important for your analytics. By adding this metric to your analytics platform, you’ll be able to see exactly what people are searching for on your site.

This will make it very clear where your website is going wrong. If people can’t find something you deem important on your site through your navigation system, this is a huge problem as many will simply go somewhere else rather than search.

Identifying these issues is key to optimizing your site and your overall marketing efforts.

On top of this, search results will tell you exactly what your audience wants to see on your website. 

If you see a search result that you know isn’t on your site, it might be worth looking into including it to add to your page views and benefit your business’ custom. 

5. Top exit pages will indicate where you’re going wrong

It’s just as beneficial to check out your top exit pages, where people leave your site, as it is starting pages. 

This metric can be analyzed using Google Analytics to see exactly what content your customers aren’t interested in and don’t want to see, which is vital in creating the perfect content strategy.

Pay close attention to these exit pages and work on them to lower the amount of site visitors lost.

Look at small elements such as the language used on your page to see where you went wrong – is your content driving your audience to another place? Is it positive? Does it seem to help the customer?

If you seem to be losing views because of a lack of confidence in whatever you’re trying to sell, it’s important to use social examples. By telling potential customers how many people use your products or services, you’re adding a sense of reliability to your site. KPIs