The digital business space is constantly growing, and given the rising popularity of entrepreneurship and people participating in the gig economy, it should be no surprise why you might hear some of your close friends and family launching a new startup right from the comfort of their home. Plus, once you account for the disruptive innovations introduced by blockchain development and cryptocurrencies, we’ll find many more inspiring opportunities like women of color taking the lead in NFTs in the very near future.
However, when it comes to managing an online business and establishing your presence online, far too many up-and-coming entrepreneurs don’t know enough about digital marketing other than building a brand through social media like many other modern influencers. And to help both newbies and business veterans better understand the impact good marketing can have on a company’s future, we’ll be diving deep into web analytics and why understanding these metrics can make or break your chances of success.
Understand How Digital Users Interact With Your Website
From an outsider’s perspective, seeing all the graphs, charts, and trends can seem daunting at first. It’s not uncommon for new entrepreneurs and the uninitiated to the digital space to assume that big numbers equal good results. However, understanding the meaning behind the metrics and different performance evaluations shown through web analytics can help you grasp how your users interact with your website and brand, highlighting both its weaknesses and strengths.
- A Disconnect Between New Versus Returning Visitors: Firstly, one of the easiest things to point out when looking through your brand’s web analytics is seeing all the new visitors, current online users, and total page views. But, while you might find it relieving to observe a high total number, a disconnect between new versus returning visitors translates into bad retention. As a result, more people leaving than staying will cause your current customer base to crumble.
- Struggles Of Increasing Average Session Duration: In addition to comparing new versus returning visitors, an excellent metric that can help you evaluate how engaging and effective your brand’s website is can be seen through average session duration. If website visitors stay on for more than a couple of minutes, then you have yourself a pretty good web page. But, on the flip side, anything less than two minutes indicates you’ve failed to catch anyone’s attention.
- Higher Bounce Rates And Low Conversions: Lastly, high bounce rates and low conversions are some of the most important web traffic analyses at your disposal because these numbers show what percentage of visitors click off your website after the first page. Therefore, regardless of a high total of page views, it will all be for naught if they don’t explore further and click off the web page after a few seconds.
Expanding The Customer’s Path To Purchase
Web analytics helps us better understand customer behavior and their perception of a brand. What you want to do to maximize the utility of this data is expand the customer’s path to purchase according to highlighted demand and reinforce weak points in your website. And while there exists a multitude of ways to address these concerns, we recommend structuring the foundation by (1) adding engaging digital content, (2) personalizing landing pages, and (3) improving the overall customer experience.
- Add Engaging And Valuable Digital Content: Nobody enjoys reading through blocks of text, and unless you’re writing a New York Times Best Seller, we can guarantee that web visitors want something more than just an information dump. For example, a professional microneedling treatment business in the healthcare industry should include interactive Q&As, images, and direct information about packages to appeal to the customers’ needs.
- Personalize Landing Pages By Point Of Entry: Apart from adding digital content that provides value to your web visitors, we recommend personalizing landing pages according to their points of entry. You see, your business might have a booming Instagram page, so you want to cater to this audience when directing them back to your website. And that goes for all points of entry, whether through a guest blog post or from your TikTok influencer partners.
- Focus On Improving Overall Customer Experience: Last but not least, a fundamental change that you should incorporate into your online platform to increase user engagement and reach better web analytics scores is improving the customer experience. At the end of the day, website visitors will always prefer something functional, aesthetic, and with direct customer service over anything else. So, it is in your best interests to work towards that goal.
Don’t Just Connect But Capitalize On Digital Opportunities
In conclusion, surfing the web and making good use of it for your business isn’t just about establishing your presence on an online platform but actually capitalizing on those opportunities. So, before you dive headfirst with your startup, we recommend getting to know the basics of digital marketing, especially the ins and outs of web analytics beforehand.