10 Critical Metrics to Watch With Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful marketing tool that allows businesses to achieve success online. When you know which metrics are useful, you should track them and focus on growing your business. But since the metrics span the entire funnel, you don’t have to track everything. Here is a handy guide on 10 critical metrics to watch with Google Analytics.

1) Bounce rate

The bounce rate refers to the number of times new visitors come to your site without completing any action. This shows your website has problems like a poor landing page, weak sources of traffic, etc. Since there’s no engagement after the initial page view, you can easily track the length of the session. If you experience a drastic bounce rate, this could drive visitors away.

2) Conversion rate

This refers to the final action taken by a visitor. It includes signing up for an email list, downloading a newsletter, making a purchase, etc. When you track the conversion rate, you can identify which path of your website is the most effective. Think of the ultimate goal you want to achieve. If more people are converting from email than social media, its time you rework your social media strategy.

3) Average session duration

The average session in Google Analytics shows how long the visitors are staying on your website. You can calculate this by dividing the total duration by the number of sessions. The session duration will depend on the engagement hits. When you track the duration on specific pages, you can know which pages need to be reworked. The longer a visitor spends on the website, the higher the chances they are likely to convert.

4) Landing pages

This is the first page a visitor sees when they get to your website. It could be an SEO-focused landing page, a product page, or a blog post. There are many benefits of tracking the frequency of these pages. For instance, you can know the keywords that help to drive traffic to your website. Secondly, you can assign specific URLs to social media posts or paid advertisements. Make sure you optimize these pages for a great user experience.

5) Exit pages

It allows you to see where your traffic drops off. If the exit page is a subscription page, then your visitors converted successfully. But if the landing page works as the exit page, you may want to reexamine it. When visitors view hundreds of pages and leave on a specific one, the page has a high exit rate. Check what you can do to stop the visitors from leaving.

6) Site speed

Let’s be honest: a website that loads slowly can be a visitor’s nightmare. You should identify the areas that need improvement to help users see and interact with your content. How quickly is the page available for interaction? How fast does the image load? Keep in mind that low site speed can increase the bounce rate. This is an incredible ranking factor.

7) Traffic sources

What sources drive traffic to your website? The top sources include direct, organic search, referral, and social. You should keep track of these sources to understand whether your marketing efforts are paying off. While all sources are important, they have different levels of interaction. You should analyze how each traffic source is converting and take action based on these numbers.

8) Interactions per visit

When visitors come to your site, you should monitor their behavior. Apart from that, you should check what they are doing and how you can influence their behavior. Each interaction is important because it will determine the end goal. More specifically, you should pay attention to downloads, subscriptions, purchases, and the like.

9) Return visitor conversion

When visitors return to your website, you should know why they do. If they don’t, you should come up with a strategy to bring them back to your site. May be your brand didn’t leave enough impression. Your goal should be to increase the number of return visitors. You can prompt them to join an email survey or offer exclusive deals/coupons.

10) Pageviews

The page view metric shows how often visitors access the content on your website. If there are high page views, there’s high-quality content on your website. A low page view is an indication that visitors can’t find what they are looking for. You should compare the page views to get an insight into the traffic flow.

Final thoughts

If you have a new website, you should focus on converting visitors into loyal customers. But what matters most is how you choose to optimize the metrics of Google analytics to best fit your site. Be sure to follow the above guide and nothing will stop you from growing your brand. You should take the time to understand how each metric impacts your business.