Start at the beginning

Web Analytics seems like a big, scary, mysterious thing - like the great and powerful Oz. Many companies don't know where to start when it comes to web metrics; they don't even know what questions to ask. Others know what to ask, but they are afraid because they fear the answers might be beyond their reach. So, they "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" so-to-speak and maintain the status quo, never really moving forward or achieving their business goals (at least, not that they can track anyway). It's true that there are a lot of metrics and even more ways to apply them, but a basic understanding of key metrics can help a company evaluate their online presence and compare it to business goals and objectives.

So, where do you start? Like Glinda tells Dorothy before her journey down the yellow brick road, "It's always good to start at the beginning” (LeRoy & Fleming, 1939).

The yellow brick road starts with objectives. Without objectives, all the metrics and analysis in the world will mean nothing. For help in setting business objectives as they relate to web metrics and analytics, visit Avinash Kaushik’s blog. He offers great insights and step-by-step instructions for setting measurable goals and it's well worth the read.

Once objectives are established, it becomes easier to determine what metrics need to be measured; unique visitors, visitor loyalty, conversion rate, etc. But, before going in too deep, it’s important to understand the basic metrics measured by most analytics programs. Without an understanding of introductory metrics, it will be difficult to understand the more complex metrics and how to measure key performance indicators (KPI).

Google Analytics, a popular free analytics tool, displays the following metrics on the homepage:

Basic definitions:

Visits

The total number of visits, or sessions, started on the website.

Unique Visitors

The number of individual people who visited the website. If Mary visits the page five times and Tom visits the page once, there are six total visits and two unique visitors.

Page Views

The number of pages within the website that were viewed during the visits in the specified time period.

Pages/Visit

The average number of pages viewed during a visit. This is calculated by the number of page views and divided by the number of visits.

Avg. Visit Duration

The average amount of time spent on the website during each visit. The longer the better – it means that people are spending a lot of time consuming the content on your site.

Bounce Rate

The percentage of visitors who came to your site and left immediately. As Kaushik (2010) puts it, “They came. They puked. They left.”

% New Visits

The percentage of visits from visitors who have never been to your website before.

% Returning Visitor vs % New Visits

Shows the percentage of new visitors who have never been to the website before compared to the percent of returning visitors.

Of all of these basic metrics, a key one to review is bounce rate. The bounce rate helps determine where to focus your attention. In his article, Quinn (2011) says, “As a rule of thumb, a 50 percent bounce rate is average. If you surpass 60 percent, you should be concerned. If you're in excess of 80 percent, you've got a major problem.” Review the bounce rate of your website, landing pages, keywords, etc; it will reveal the areas that are not meeting expectations. It could be outdated content, technology errors or information that does not meet the needs of the visitor. It is imperative that the reason for the bounce is analyzed and corrected. It could take several tries to optimize the page - do not be afraid to experiment. If visitors aren’t sticking around, you won’t meet your objectives.

The path to the great and powerful Oz is a little dizzying, at least at first. But, taking small steps forward will eventually get you where you need to go. 

References:

Kaushik, A. (2010). Web analytics 2.0: The art of online accountability & science of customer centricity. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing, Inc.

LeRoy, M. (Producer) & Fleming, V. (Director). (1939, August 25). The Wizard of Oz [Motion Picture]. United Sates of America:  Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Quinn, M. (2011, January 31). How to reduce your website’s bounce rate. Inc. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/guides/2011/01/how-to-reduce-your-website-bounce-rate.html