You measure almost anything on your website—traffic, bounces, clicks, etc. Evaluating engagement metrics is when you determine what happens after a searcher arrives on your website.
Essentially, you measure whether or not your website is as effective as possible. With so much data and tracking available, what are the most important metrics to measure? What metrics will provide a comprehensive understanding of viewer engagement?
Here are the top 4 key website engagement metrics you should be tracking on your website! (Not sure how to do it? Contact the experts at Full Circle SEM… wink wink.)
#1 Bounce Rate
Your bounce rate is the percentage of total visitors that land on your site and leave after viewing only one page. If your bounce rate is high, this probably means this page doesn’t deliver enough value to the viewer.
If you’re running a PPC campaign, your bounce rate could reveal if your ad targeting connects with the correct audience or if your offer matches what they want. Remember that a high bounce rate is not always a bad sign.
For FAQ, location, or contact pages, it could mean they were able to answer a specific question right away or followed an off-page call to action such as “call now.”
To improve your bounce rate, consider updating the following elements of your website:
- Embed videos to enhance user experience
- Run A/B testing with different headlines
- Switch it up with a new call to action
#2 Conversion Rate
Your conversion rate is the ultimate measurement of the effectiveness of all your marketing efforts combined. People may visit your website in droves, but do they buy or complete the desired action?
Calculate your conversion rate with this simple formula: Divide the number of conversions or actions by the total number of visitors. For example, 35 conversions (sales, registrations, etc.) divided by 1000 total visitors equals a conversion rate of 3.5%.
Several factors play into conversion rates, and they will vary significantly depending on the industry, price point, and target audience. To improve your conversion rates, try these tweaks:
- Keep forms simple and require only basic information
- Remove any distracting visuals
- Install a pop-up offer if they attempt to navigate away (Do this with caution… at Full Circle SEM we’re not the biggest fans of pop-ups, but we can help with an alternative option)
- Enhance call-to-action copy
#3 TOP: Average Time On Page
Only tracking traffic and visitors to your website doesn’t tell the whole story. How long they stick around offers a more complete picture of the effectiveness of your messaging and content and overall engagement metrics.
Your average time on page or “session duration” is calculated by the time on one page or the total time on your site. This metric is beneficial for content-driven strategies that depend on video or written content to keep people engaged.
A marketing survey conducted by the analytics and reporting software, Databox, shows that 45% of participants reported their average time on page was 3-5 minutes. 2-3 minutes was the runner-up average, followed by 5-7 minutes and 7-9 minutes in equal portion.[1]
Analytics software and tools will help you track user behavior and even provide a heat map to visualize where and how someone spends time on your website. Here are a few simple ways to increase your average time on page:
- Include video content
- Format long content so it’s easy to read
- Use lists and images to break up content
- Link to other valuable resources on your website
- Produce content that resonates with your target audience
#4 Event Tracking
Event tracking gives context to the time people spend on your website. Unlike conversions, events are other on-page actions and indications of user behavior.
Do too many visitors get stuck in the same spot on your sales page and leave? Is your messaging unclear, or is your button text confusing?
With comprehensive analytics, you can track unique actions such as:
- Keyboard actions
- How far people scroll
- Clicks and navigation
- Form submissions
- Cart changes
- Video views
- Downloads
Based on event tracking data, you can create a picture of your visitor’s journey, identify trouble spots along the way, and enhance elements that consistently underperform.
Website Engagement Metrics: The Bottom Line
Track what matters! What do you want your visitors to do? Depending on your marketing goals, it could be any one of these engagement metrics that has the most impact on your overall campaign.
Measure what matters to you! If your goal is to increase conversions, that’s what you need to measure. Focus all of your enhancement efforts on whatever will increase conversions. Run A/B testing to determine what enhancement increases conversions more effectively.
Suppose you’re not sure how to tie all of these elements into your website and marketing goals. That’s where we come in! The team at Full Circle SEM helps businesses like yours succeed through exceptional marketing and reporting services.
Contact us today to start boosting your engagement metrics!
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