10 Website Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to Track with Google Analytics

Whether you’re first setting up your website or completely redesigning it, you want to ensure that you accurately assess how well it’s serving you. The only way to do that is to track website key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help you understand how well your site is performing.

Website KPIs allow you to measure the success of your website and digital marketing efforts. They can help you understand how well certain features are performing and what changes you need to make to improve your site so you can attract and engage more visitors who may potentially become customers. For those looking for an inclusive resource to help track their website KPIs, Google Analytics is a great tool to help you get started.

Google Analytics Can Be a Data Gold Mine

Google Analytics is a free platform that gives you insights into your website traffic and digital marketing effectiveness. You can use it to track your website KPIs and assess which areas of your website are performing well and which areas need improvement.

Google Analytics can help track the number of visitors to your site, how they found your site, what pages they viewed, how long they stayed on your site, and what actions they took while there. When used correctly, the data that Google Analytics collects can help you understand what is working and what isn’t, so you can optimize your website for future success.

With this tool, you can monitor and analyze your website KPIs. You simply need to install the Google Analytics tracking code on your website. From there, Google displays the data collected in your Google Analytics account, allowing you to track your website KPIs easily.

10 Website KPIs You Should Be Tracking

Google Analytics gives website owners a clear idea of how their site is being used and how effectively it attracts visitors using several different key performance indicators.

By tracking website KPIs, you can make the necessary changes to improve your site and give your audience a better overall user experience when they visit.

Not quite sure where to begin? Here are 10 website KPIs to track on Google Analytics, why they’re important, and what to look for.

10 Website KPIs to Track

1. Site Visitors

Site visits are the quantity of traffic your website gets in a given period. This will count external customers, internal users, and anyone working on your website. Site visits are an important KPI to monitor because they give you an idea of the reach of your website.

If you have a lot of site visitors, it means that people are finding your site and are interested in what you have to offer. If you have a low number of site visitors, it could mean that your site is not well-optimized for search engines or that you aren’t optimizing it for the right keywords and phrases that would drive traffic to your site.

It’s important to note that you’ll get a cleaner number if you exclude IP addresses for employees and web service personnel so that you’re (mostly) looking at current and potential customers.

2. Unique Visitors

A unique visitor is somebody who has never been to your website before or somebody who hasn’t been to your website within a given time period. This is important to track because you want to see how many new people are coming to your site and how often people are coming back. If you see a high number of unique visitors, it means that you’re reaching a lot of new people.

What sets a unique visitor apart from a site visitor is that a unique visitor indicates that a new person has visited your site. A site visitor can track multiple visits from the same person. While site visitors are a good measure of how many people are coming to your website (new and returning), unique visitors are a better way to track how many new visitors are finding and engaging with your site.

A simple way to break this concept down is to compare your site visitors to your unique visitors. If you have 10,000 site visits and 5,000 unique visitors, each visitor was on your site, on average, twice.

3. Sessions

A session is the period of time a user is actively engaged with your website. A session begins when a user arrives at your site and ends when there are 30 minutes of inactivity. If a user leaves your site and comes back within 30 minutes, it will be counted as one session. If they leave and come back after 30 minutes have passed, it will be counted as two separate sessions.

This is an important metric to track because it tells you a lot about how your users engage with your site.

4. Pages Per Session

Pages per session is a separate metric you can track on Google Analytics. It’s different from the previous metric because it shows you the average number of pages viewed during a single session. This metric can tell you a lot about how users are navigating your site and just how engaging your content is.

If you see that a user is spending a lot of time on a single page, then you know that the information on that page is likely very valuable to them. However, if you see that a user is bouncing around your site and not sticking around for long, you know that your content isn’t engaging them and that you need to improve it to give visitors a more satisfying experience.

5. Average Session Duration

Average session duration is the average time a user spends on your site during a single session. This is different from sessions because sessions track the number of sessions in a given period, whereas average session duration tracks the average time per session.

The amount of time a user spends on your site can indicate how engaged they are with your site. For instance, if a user is spending most of their time on your site looking at product pages, then you know that they are likely interested in the products you sell.

However, if they are spending their time reading your blog content, then you know that they are likely looking for information to better educate themselves about your industry. Of course, if there is a mixed bag of product and content pages engaged during a session, you know your user is likely browsing your site to get to know your brand.

6. Bounce Rate

Consider looking at the bounce rate alongside your sessions and session durations. A bounce is when someone lands on your site and then leaves from that same page. This is a sign that though the ad or marketing efforts got them there, they weren’t engaged enough to stay.

The bounce rate is calculated as the percentage of people who land on your site and then leave from that same page. For instance, if you have a bounce rate of 20%, then that means that 20% of the people who landed on your site were not engaged enough to stay and interact with your site or content.

7. Acquisition/Traffic Sources

Acquisition/traffic sources give you an idea of how users are arriving at your site. You can find this data under the Acquisition tab on Google Analytics. The most common source of traffic is direct traffic, which is when a user types your URL into their browser or clicks on a bookmark. Other common sources of traffic include organic search, social media, email marketing, and paid advertising.

Taking a detailed look at your traffic sources can help you identify which marketing channels are performing the best among your target audience and which ones you either need to invest more in or eliminate.

8. Conversion Rate

Getting someone to come to your site is great, whether from organic traffic, a Google ad, or another marketing effort. However, you want to engage with them so they don’t bounce back out before a conversion is made. This is where the conversion rate comes in.

Conversion rate tells you what percentage of visitors convert from a visitor to engaged audience members. The higher the percentage of people who convert, the more successful your site is. You should also monitor how much your visitors are spending with you in dollars and cents when making their conversion. If you have a high conversion rate, but the dollar amounts are low, you can do better. Alternatively, a lower conversion rate with higher dollars may be just as good.

9. Goal/Event Completions

Goal and event completions can help you measure the effectiveness of your marketing and advertising efforts. You can use each of these website KPIs to track how users interact with your site.

Events are actions that users take on your site, such as clicking a button or video views. You can use events at the individual level to track visitor behaviors, which can help you collect valuable data not only on your website but also on your audience and their interests.

Goal completions are conversions that you want users to make, such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase. When someone lands on your site and completes a goal, you’ll be able to better measure how effective your marketing campaign and landing page content have been. For example, if you have a lead generation landing page that converts well, you can be certain that your email marketing (if that’s how they landed on the page) efforts are working well.

10. Top Landing Pages and Exit Pages

Finally, to measure the effectiveness of your landing page, you’ll want to make sure you’re tracking both the top landing pages and the exit pages.

The top landing pages in Google Analytics are the pages that receive the most traffic volume. Google Analytics uses several factors to determine which pages are the top landing pages, including the number of visitors, the number of page views, and the amount of time spent on the page.

The top exit pages in Google Analytics are the pages that have the highest rate of users exiting the site from that page. The exit rate is determined by the number of people who leave that page divided by the total number of people who viewed that page. The exit rate is important because it can help you identify which pages are losing your users’ attention and which pages need improvement.

Both of these performance metrics play a crucial role in determining the success of your landing pages, and when it comes time for website maintenance, you’ll know exactly where to focus your efforts.

Top Website KPIs for Different Types of Sites

The right website metrics are crucial to understanding how your content is performing. However, if you’re a small business owner or marketing manager, you may not have the time or the resources to maintain a detailed analysis of your site’s performance. That’s why it’s important to focus on the right website KPIs. Here are the top website KPIs for a few different types of sites.

Top Website KPIs for Different Types of Sites

Top KPIs for Blogs

A blog is typically a website run by an individual or a small group of people that regularly posts articles, usually on a specific topic. The intention of a blog is usually to share information or opinions, though some blogs are simply used as a platform to sell products or services. The most important website KPIs for a blog are usually measures of engagement, such as:

  • Bounce rate
  • Average session duration
  • Average pages per session
  • New/returning visitors
  • Conversation rate
  • Click-through rate
  • Traffic sources

Top KPIs for Ecommerce Sites

Ecommerce sites are websites that sell products or services online. Ecommerce sites are different from other types of websites because they have a transaction-based goal. The most important website KPIs for an ecommerce site are measures of conversion, such as:

  • Event completions
  • Total number of conversions
  • conversation rate
  • Traffic sources
  • Sessions
  • Bounce rate
  • Abandonment rate

Top KPIs for Google Ads

Google Ads is a form of online advertising platform created by Google that allows businesses to display ads on Google Search, YouTube, and other websites. With Google Ads, you can set a budget for an advertising campaign and only pay when someone clicks on the ad you created. The most important website KPIs for a Google Ads campaign are measures of both engagement and conversion, such as:

  • Conversions
  • Clicks
  • Click-through rate
  • Average cost per click
  • Impressions
  • Bound rate
  • Top landing pages
  • Top exit pages

Make the Most of Your Website with Fingerprint Marketing

As you can see, there is a variety of website KPIs that you can track with Google Analytics to help you make the most of your website. However, remember that not all KPIs are equally important for all businesses. You should focus on the KPIs that are most important for your business goals.

Before you can decide which KPIs are most important for your business, you need to set some marketing goals for your website. What do you want your website to achieve? Do you want to increase sales, generate leads, or build brand awareness? Once you have set your goals, you can decide which KPIs will help you achieve them.

Here at Fingerprint Marketing, we help our clients increase their website traffic and engage their target audience base by taking a holistic view of their website and helping them focus on their specific goals and how they can achieve them.

If you’re not sure how to get started tracking KPIs on your website or which KPIs will be most informative for your business and marketing model, contact Fingerprint Marketing for a free consultation on making your website the best it can be.

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