Over 13 website metrics to track for your online store to boost revenue.
Do you have a website? If yes, have you set up tracking on your website? If your answer is NO, let’s get you started today. Website analytics is one of the most important steps to growing your online presence and achieving high conversions.
With web analytics, you will be able to understand how your customers behave on your website and their preferences. With these valuable insights, you can better guide them to take the desired action.
As a former analytics consultant, I will share all about website analytics, including the importance of web analytics, web analytics metrics, and how you can select web analytics tools suitable for your business in this article.
This post is all about introducing website metrics to track.
The Importance of Web Analytics
Before delving into the realm of KPIs, it is crucial to grasp the importance of web analytics and why it is indispensable for your online presence. Whether you have constructed your website from scratch or utilised platforms such as Shopify, WordPress, SquareSpace, or Wix, collecting data is a necessity. Why? It can help you to…
- Analyse Customer Behaviour: Gain the ability to analyse customer behaviour on your website.
- Identify Traffic Sources: Understand where your customers are coming from.
- Enhance UX/UI: Improve the user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) of your website.
- Optimise Online Customer Experience: Possess the capability to enhance the overall customer experience online.
- Identify Funnel Drop-offs: Know exactly where customers are dropping off in your sales funnel.
- Data-Backed Strategies: Formulate strategies grounded in data rather than relying on intuition alone.
By understanding the fundamentals of web analytics, you lay the groundwork for informed decision-making and the ongoing success of your online endeavours.
Must-have KPIs and Metrics
Now that we have established the importance of web analytics, let’s delve into the must-have Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that you should be collecting.
When crafting your KPI list, I recommend organising them into four categories:
- Acquisition
- Engagement
- Conversion
- Retention
Each category serves a distinct purpose and is typically used by different teams. For instance, marketing teams often focus on acquisition and engagement metrics, while business teams concentrate on conversion metrics.
Web Analytics Metrics Breakdown
Consider who will benefit from the data, and reflect on the pages, features, buttons, or forms on your website. Here are some popular KPIs, categorised accordingly:
#1: Acquisition
- Bounce Rate
- Growth Rate of Visits
#2: Engagement
- Add to Cart Rate
- Product List Page View Growth
- Product Click Interaction Rate
- Product Page Interaction
- Product Detail Page View Growth
#3: Conversion
- Average Revenue per buyer
- Average units per transaction
- Average product revenue per order
- Ecommerce conversion rate
- Checkout funnel drop off rate
#4: Retention
- Account Login Growth Rate
- Account Completion rate
Additionally, consider breaking down each KPI further, analyzing factors like device type, country/region/city, page type, medium, registered user/non-registered user. Take the example of bounce rate. You will want to understand where customers exit on your website, what device they are using and explore patterns among them.
- Bounce rate by device (desktop, tablet, mobile)
- Bounce rate by page type (eg landing page, product page)
- Bounce rate by country
- Bounce rate by region
- Bounce rate by city
Align these considerations with your business and marketing objectives.
Selecting Your Web Analytics Tool
Now that you have designed your KPI list, the next step is selecting a web analytics solution. Consider these six factors to make an informed choice:
1. Compatibility with your website
No matter where your website is hosted—be it on platforms like Shopify, WordPress, SquareSpace, or Wix—research the compatibility of the web analytics solution. Incompatibility could mean limitations in what you can track, leading to potential gaps in your data.
2. Capability to track all your KPIs
Ensure that the chosen solution has the capability to track all the KPIs on your list. Sometimes, you might face a situation where one solution can track KPI A but not KPI B, and another might be the opposite. In such cases, create an additional column and prioritise the importance of each KPI—high, medium, or low. This way, you can filter out solutions that don’t track your most crucial KPIs. The goal is to pick a solution that can track as many as possible.
3. Technical complexity to set up
Consider the technical complexity, especially if you didn’t build your website yourself. Those who have had their websites built from the ground up have the advantage of tracking anything they want. For those on platforms like Shopify or WordPress, be cautious about relying solely on platform-offered connections, like inputting a GA4 measurement ID. Instead, opt for plugins that allow you to insert a “Datalayer” onto your site. This ensures data reliability and sustainability in the long run because you set up the tracking yourself.
If you have a WordPress website, read this article to learn how to set it up yourself.
4. User-friendly interface
Look for a web analytics solution with a user-friendly interface. It should be easy to use, allowing you to access your data, apply filters, and navigate around without feeling like you need to be a technical expert. It should be idiot-proof.
5. Dashboard capability
Make sure the solution offers two things—ready-made dashboards and customised dashboards. Ready-made dashboards save you time for quick analysis, while the option to customise your own dashboards gives you the freedom to tailor them based on your business needs. It’s like having the best of both worlds.
6. Segmentation capability
The analytics solution should allow you to break down your data by device type, country/region/city, page type, medium, registered user/non-registered user, and more. This aligns with what you have set up in your KPI list.
Popular web analytics solutions include Google Analytics 4, Adobe Analytics, and Mixpanel. Keep these factors in mind to choose a solution that seamlessly aligns with your tracking needs and business objectives. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out—I would love to have a chat.
Armed with this valuable information, it is time to take action today and create your own KPI list for your website. Remember, in the world of business, action takers are money makers! Don’t hesitate—start identifying the key metrics that matter most to your online business today!
This post is all about selecting website metrics to track for your Ecommerce store.
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