Hits, Goal Tracking and Key Performance Indicators
When you discuss your website’s performance, what do you use to judge success? The number of "hits" a site gets refers to the number of files downloaded. As every image downloaded on a page would qualify as a "hit", you could double your site"s hits by simply adding more images. While it might sound nice in a meeting to report the increase, it doesn’t help the business obtain its goals.
Most modern site analytical packages allow administrators to set up "goals" and configure customized reporting. So, your business could track orders, requests for quotes and leads. Additional key performance indicators such as new vs. returning visitors and referrals can also be tracked. By identifying and tracking the KPI most relevant to your business, you gain better insight.
Usability and Conversions
Obviously you know your business and have good insights into what is best for your website, but more than likely you are not in your target demographic. Additionally, as you helped develop your website and use it frequently, you know where information is located and how the site is used. The point is that you are not a typical user. I am on the Internet 9-12 hours a day; I am as far from being a typical user as one can get.
Useful analytics gives us insight into the customers’ experience interacting with our brand on the web. Once a month can you identify one change that would cause one out of every thousand visitors to convert into a customer? Maybe that change is making a button read "Buy Now" instead of "Add to Cart" or adding a link "Easy Returns" to a landing page. By using modern analytical solutions, you can test these modifications and fine-tune the customer experience.
Will this really impact your bottom line? You bet. Let’s say a new company on the web has a 1% sales conversion rate (1 out of every 100 visitors makes a purchase). Every month you make a small change that causes an extra 1 out of every 1000 visitors to convert. Assuming you make changes in 10 out of the 12 months, by the end of the first year, you have gone from a 1% to a 2% conversion rate, doubling your online sales. After several years, you can easily raise your conversion rate to 4-6%. The key is testing modifications for impact.
Better Information Lets Us Make Better Decisions
Clients ask me all the time, "Would it be worth it to _____?" The answer is simple, I don’t know, let’s run some tests.
We can track goals and segment reports by a variety of factors. You can send out two versions of an email or ad and test for which one performs better. Which day of the week should we send a newsletter out on? Which ad will perform better? Is it worth $1000 a month to advertise here? By testing, we remove a tremendous amount of guesswork and make better business decisions.