Top 50 Digital Marketing Metrics Part 1: Website Traffic Metrics
In today’s era of technology, businesses of all sizes are leveraging digital channels to reach and engage with their target audience. However, the success of any digital marketing campaign depends on the ability to measure and analyze the right metrics.
Before moving ahead with our comprehensive digital marketing metrics guide, please read our previous blogs explaining what is digital marketing, the importance of digital marketing, and how to do digital marketing, to get a better understanding of digital marketing metrics.
Did you know that over 99% of consumers are influenced by online reviews when making purchase decisions? Or that a one-second delay in page load time can result in a 4.42% reduction in conversions? And these are just a few examples of how digital marketing metrics can impact your business.
There are countless other digital marketing metrics and KPIs (Key Performance Indexes) to track, from website traffic and engagement to social media reach and email open rates. By understanding these metrics and using them to guide your digital marketing efforts, you can create a highly effective and efficient strategy that drives substantial results for your business or organization.
In this blog, let us explore the most important digital marketing metrics & KPIs you need to know to optimize your campaigns and drive business growth. We will provide relevant examples and data to help you understand the impact of these metrics on your business.
Digital marketing metrics are measurable data points that provide insights into specific aspects of a campaign’s performance, including website traffic, click-through rates, conversion rates, bounce rates, social media engagement, email open rates, etc.
On the other hand, KPIs are specific, quantifiable goals that a company sets for a digital marketing campaign. KPIs are used to measure the success of a campaign and are often tied to broader business objectives, such as increasing sales or improving brand awareness. Some examples of KPIs include lead generation, sales revenue, customer lifetime value, return on investment (ROI), etc.
If we have to understand the difference by taking an example, then let’s say a company wants to increase its website’s conversion rate, it might set a KPI of a 5% increase in conversions over the next quarter. They can then track metrics like website traffic, bounce rates, and conversion rates to measure progress toward that goal.
By tracking both metrics and KPIs, companies can gain a deeper understanding of their digital marketing campaigns and make data-driven decisions to improve their performance.
In this comprehensive guide, we will have a detailed view of the top 50 digital marketing metrics that help you accomplish your digital marketing KPIs.
We can divide digital marketing metrics into diverse categories based on their association with various digital marketing channels, i.e., search engine optimization, social media marketing, email marketing, and general digital marketing analytics.
We have formulated a series of blogs under the digital marketing metrics comprehensive guide. In this blog, we will have a look at website traffic metrics.
Part – 1: Key Website Traffic Metrics
Website traffic metrics are measurements that help website owners and marketers analyze the performance of their websites and understand how users are interacting with their content.
These metrics provide insights into website visitors’ behavior, such as how many people are visiting the website, how long they stay on the website, which pages they visit, and how they found the website.
Some of the most common website traffic metrics are explained below:
A session refers to a (time) period during which a user interacts with a website. A session begins when a user visits a website and ends when the user leaves or remains inactive for a specific period (usually 30 minutes) on the website.
For example, if a user visits a website and views three pages, spends 10 minutes on the site, and then leaves. That is considered one session. If the same user returns to the website after an hour and views two more pages, that would be considered a new session.
The important thing to note here is that the number of sessions does not necessarily equal the number of users who visited the website.
Google Analytics is a popular tool to track and measure website traffic metrics, including sessions. It provides detailed information about the number of sessions, how long they last, and which pages are most frequently visited during each session.
By tracking the number of sessions, website owners and marketers can gauge the overall popularity of their site and the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.
If a website has a high number of sessions, it suggests that users are finding the content interesting and interacting with the site frequently.
‘Unique visitors’ is a measure of the number of distinct individuals who visit a website during a specified time. Unique visitors are usually measured by tracking IP addresses, cookies, or user IDs.
For example, if a user visits a website three times on the same day, that will count as three sessions but only one unique visitor.
Also, if a user visits a website for the first time on January 1st and again on January 15th, that user would be counted as one unique visitor for January, even though they visited the website twice.
It is important to note that unique visitors can be influenced by several factors, such as the frequency of website updates, the types of content offered, and the source of website traffic.
For example, a website that frequently updates its content and attracts visitors from various sources may have high unique visitors than a website that rarely updates its content and relies on a single traffic source.
Along with unique visitors, Google Analytics also provides data on visitor demographics, behavior, and other related metrics, which can be used to understand user behavior better and optimize the website for maximum engagement and conversion.
By tracking unique visitors over time, website owners and marketers can assess the growth or decline of their audience and adjust their strategies accordingly.
Page views track the number of times a page on a website has been viewed by users. It is an important metric for website owners and marketers because it provides insight into the popularity of specific pages on a website and helps track user engagement with the content.
A page view is recorded each time a user loads a page on a website, regardless of whether it is a unique visitor or a returning visitor. It means that if a user loads the same page multiple times during a single session, each load is counted as a separate page view.
For example, if a user visits a website and views the homepage, then clicks on a link to a blog post and reads it, this would be considered two page views – one for the homepage and one for the blog post.
Page views are an important metric for website owners and marketers because they provide insight into the popularity and engagement of individual web pages of the website.
By tracking page views, website owners and marketers can identify popular content to create more of it and identify content that is not performing well and make changes to improve it.
‘Pages per session’ measures the average number of pages a user views during a single session on a website.
‘Pages per session’ is calculated by dividing the total number of page views by the total number of sessions during a specified time. For example, if a website had 1,000 sessions and 3,000 page views for a specific time, the pages per session would be 3.
Sometimes industries also affect the number of ‘pages per session’ metric. For example, a news website may have a high ‘Pages per session’ metric, as visitors tend to read multiple articles during their session. On the other hand, an e-commerce website may have a lower ‘Pages per session’ metric, as visitors may only view a few product pages before making a purchase.
It is an important metric for marketers because it provides insights into how engaging a website’s content is for visitors and makes informed decisions to optimize the website for better user experience and engagement. They may also want to examine the website’s navigation and layout to ensure that it is easy for users to explore multiple pages.
A high number of pages per session indicates that users are finding value in the website and are willing to explore multiple pages.
On the other hand, low pages per session may indicate that users are not finding what they are looking for or are experiencing difficulties navigating the website.
‘Time on site’ is a website traffic metric that measures the time a user spends on a website during a single session.
For example, if a website has 10,000 sessions in a month, and during those sessions, visitors spent a total of 100,000 minutes on the site. In this case, the ‘Time on site’ metric would be 10, which means each visitor spent 10 minutes on average on the website during their session.
It is an important metric because it provides insights into how engaging a website’s content is for visitors and how well the website is performing in terms of user experience.
A high ‘Time on site’ metric indicates that visitors find the website engaging and spend more time exploring the site. A low ‘Time on site’ metric may indicate that visitors do not find the content interesting or engaging enough to stay on the site for an extended time.
However, some web pages on your website have comparatively low time than others. For example, a blog website may have a high time as visitors tend to spend more time reading articles and exploring related content.
On the other hand, a landing page for a marketing campaign may have a lower ‘Time on site’ metric, as visitors may only spend a few seconds on the page before deciding whether to take action.
Session time is the time a user spends on a website during a single session. It is calculated by subtracting the time a user exits a website from the time they entered.
It is an important metric for website owners and marketers because it provides insight into how engaged users are with a website and how well the website retains users.
By understanding how long users spend on a website and which pages and content are most engaging, website owners and marketers can make informed decisions about optimizing the website for better user experience and engagement.
It is to note that there is a significant difference between ‘time on site’ and ‘session time’.
Time on site refers to the average time a user spends on a website across all sessions. On the other hand, session time refers to the amount of time a user spends on a website during a single session.
For example, if a user visits a website three times in an hour. During the first visit, they spent 4 minutes on the website. During the second visit, they spend 6 minutes, and during the third visit, they spend 5 minutes.
The total time spent on the website is 15 minutes, and the average time on the site is 5 minutes. The session times, however, were 4, 6, and 5 minutes, respectively, for each session.
‘Bounce rate’ measures the percentage of visitors leaving a website after visiting only a single page during one session. For example, if a user visits a website and leaves without clicking on any other pages, then the ‘Bounce rate’ for that user would be 100%.
Let’s say that a website has 10,000 sessions in a month, and during those sessions, 1,500 visitors left the website after viewing only one page. In this case, the ‘Bounce rate metric would be calculated as follows:
Bounce rate = Number of single-page visits / Total sessions * 100
Bounce rate = 1,500 / 10,000 * 100
Bounce rate = 15%
This means that 15% of the website’s visitors left after viewing only one page during their session.
A high ‘Bounce rate’ indicates that visitors are not finding the website’s content engaging, relevant, or informative enough to explore further.
On the other hand, a low ‘Bounce rate’ indicates that visitors are finding the content engaging and exploring the site further. According to Semrush, the ideal bounce rate may fall between 30-50%.
Generally, a website that provides quick answers to specific queries, like a calculator website or a recipe website, may have a high ‘Bounce rate’ as visitors get the needed information quickly and leave the site.
Exit rate measures the percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing a specific page. The exit rate is separate from the bounce rate, which measures the percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page.
The exit rate provides insights into which pages of the website are causing visitors to leave and can be used to identify opportunities for optimization. According to a popular study, the ideal exit rate should fall below 25%.
For example, a website has 1,000 visitors a day, and 500 of them visit a product page. Of those 500 visitors, 100 exit the website after viewing the product page. In this case, the exit rate for the product page would be 20% (100 exits ÷ 500 visitors).
It’s important to note that a high exit rate does not necessarily mean that a page is performing poorly. For example, a thank-you page after a form submission may have a high exit rate because visitors have completed their intended action and are no longer interested in browsing the website.
However, a high exit rate on a product page or a landing page may indicate that there may be some issue with the page’s design or content.
To reduce the exit rate on a specific page, website owners can conduct A/B testing to identify what page elements are causing visitors to leave. For example, changing the headline, call-to-action, or web page layout may improve its performance and reduce the exit rate.
New v/s returning visitors is the percentage of website visitors who visits the website for the first time (new visitors) and those who have visited the website before (returning visitors). Tracking new v/s returning visitors to your website helps you understand the audience’s behavior.
For example, if a website has 1,000 visitors in a day, out of which 600 are new and 400 are returning, the percentage of new visitors will be 60%, and that of returning visitors will be 40%.
New visitors are important for website owners because they represent potential new customers. They have discovered the website through various channels, such as search engines, social media, or advertising.
They are not familiar with the website’s content or brand, so the website must provide a good first impression and an intuitive user experience to engage them.
Returning visitors are valuable because they have already shown an interest in the website’s content or products. They may have bookmarked the website, subscribed to its newsletter, or followed it on social media. They are willing to spend more time on the website, visit more pages, and have a higher conversion rate.
Analyzing the new v/s returning visitor data can help marketers identify patterns and trends.
For example, a sudden increase in new visitors could indicate a successful marketing campaign or an improvement in search engine rankings.
A high percentage of returning visitors could indicate that the website has a loyal following and that its content or products are valuable.
Average session duration is the average amount of time a visitor spends on a website. It is calculated by dividing the total duration of all sessions by the total number of sessions.
For example, let’s say a website had 1,000 sessions in a day, and the total duration of all those sessions was 10,000 minutes. In this case, the average session duration would be 10 minutes (10,000 minutes ÷ 1,000 sessions) for that day.
A high average session duration indicates that visitors are spending more time on the website, which means they are engaged with the content and find it valuable.
However, a low average session duration could indicate that visitors are leaving the website quickly, which could indicate that they are not finding what they are looking for or that the website’s content is not engaging.
Marketers can use this metric to identify areas for improvement on their websites.
For example, if the average session duration is low, they can analyze the data to determine which pages or sections of the website are causing visitors to leave quickly. They can then make changes to the website’s design or content to improve engagement and encourage visitors to stay on the website longer.
Also, marketers can use this metric to track the performance of their marketing campaigns.
For example, if they are running a social media advertising campaign, they can track the average session duration of visitors who arrive at the website through the campaign. This can help them determine whether the campaign is attracting engaged visitors or whether changes need to be made to improve engagement.
Scroll depth measures how far down a webpage visitors scroll. It helps website owners understand how engaged visitors are with the content on their website and whether visitors are scrolling to the bottom of the page or leaving early.
For example, if a website has a long webpage with a total scrollable length of 1,000 pixels. If a visitor scrolls down 500 pixels before leaving the webpage, the scroll depth would be 50%.
Website owners can use scroll depth data to identify trends and patterns in visitor behavior.
For example, if visitors consistently leave the webpage before reaching a certain point, it could indicate that the content is not engaging enough or that there is a problem with the page design or layout.
On the other hand, if visitors are scrolling to the bottom of the page, it could indicate that they are highly engaged with the content and find it valuable.
By analyzing scroll depth data, website owners and marketers can make informed decisions to improve their website’s content and design.
If visitors are leaving the webpage before reaching a certain point, marketers can add more engaging content or improve the page design to encourage visitors to scroll further down.
Alternatively, if visitors are highly engaged with the content, they can consider adding more content to keep visitors on the page longer and further improve engagement.
Conclusion
Website traffic metrics play a vital role in evaluating the effectiveness of a website and its content. It is crucial to regularly monitor and track these metrics to identify trends and make adjustments as necessary.
By analyzing metrics such as page views, unique visitors, bounce rate, session duration, traffic sources, conversion rate, exit rate, CTR, referral traffic, and organic traffic, website owners and marketers can gain insights into their audience’s behavior and make data-driven decisions to improve their website’s performance.
If you are looking to improve your website’s performance, start tracking your website traffic metrics today and take your online presence to the next level! Contact our experts at ABK Digital to create an effective action plan to increase your website performance.
It is important to note that website traffic metrics are just one piece of the puzzle and should be used, in conjunction, with other data and insights to make informed decisions. Continue reading our next blog in a series describing Search Engine Optimization metrics.
