While having a website is a pre-requisite for businesses these days, many companies aren’t effectively using their best tool for generating leads.
I’ve heard countless leaders tell me:
- We hate the way our website looks or works
- I never send anyone to our website
- I have no idea if we get any visitors or leads from our site
Having a website just because is no way to run a business. It would be like opening a store and never checking to see if anyone came in today. Or actively encouraging people to call you instead of coming in.
So, if your website is working, how would you know? Here are a few tips on measuring performance on your site.
1
determine what role your website will play
in your sales and marketing process
Every business has a unique method of taking a person from awareness to conversion. Your website may not serve the same purpose as other businesses in creating sales.
Do you need to create interest in your products and services? Blogs, guides, and checklists can attract prospects and make a case for your business more quickly than setting up half a dozen phone calls.
Is your website a part of the consideration process? Make sure your site has case studies and testimonials that display your ability to solve customers’ problems.
Do you sell your products online? If so, you should design your site to drive people towards a conversion quickly.
Once you’ve decided what role your site will play, you can now…
2
choose what to measure
New digital tools allow us to gather a seemingly infinite amount of information. Knowing what to measure gives us focus and avoids information overload, which can paralyze us.
If your site is part of attracting prospects and creating awareness, you won’t be measuring sales conversions on your website. Consider your sales funnel and think of it as part of the top of the funnel. The goal should be to generate traffic that sticks.
You can do this with tools like Google Analytics, which will show you visitors and lead sources so you can figure out where to put more emphasis.
- Look at traffic sources to determine what is driving people to your site.
- See what pages people are spending time on to learn about what interests your prospects.
- Track your visitor data. Are they primarily male or female? Are they using your site on mobile or desktop? Do they have any other interests that might help you get in front of them?
- Keep an eye on pages with a high bounce. Either the wrong traffic is getting there, or the content on the page needs a refresh.
- Similarly, watch for pages with a high exit rate. If visitors are spending time on your site but always leave on a particular page, the content may need to be updated. Or you may need a more compelling CTA to keep them moving through the sales process.
Other tools like Hotjar might be useful to figure out why people are leaving your site at a particular spot. Use heatmaps to see what links people are clicking. Screen recordings show you what path visitors are taking through your website.
If you’re selling on your site, there are two things you must measure: conversion rate and abandoned carts. ECommerce sites are all about creating sales, so anything getting in the way is taking money out of your pocket. Determine where in the process people are leaving their cart. There could be an issue with your checkout process. Or people may need an extra push to complete the sale.
No matter what you’re measuring…
3
Do something with the data
Most companies have more data than they can ever use.
If you’re not going to do something with it, what’s the point of measuring anything?
Choosing a few metrics as a starting place will help you get a baseline for performance. Then test out things to improve areas of concern. Or put money behind driving traffic towards what is working.
- Is social media creating good traffic with low bounce rates and high time on site? Create more content and increase ad spend.
- Are particular lead generators (free guides, checklists, and quizzes) growing your lead list? Drive people to these pieces using digital marketing and email.
- When it comes to digital advertising, keep an eye on Return on Marketing Investment. You should be making money off your ad spend, so eliminate any ads that aren’t producing.
- Is a web page underperforming? A/B test new CTAs and messaging to see if you can identify the issue.
- Are a lot of customers leaving their cart without completing the sale? Send follow-up emails reminding them about their cart and offer incentives to come back and finish the transaction.
4
solve significant performance issues
Aside from content on your site, serious issues can keep it from showing up in Google, increase bounce rates, and cost you money.
Uses tools like GTMetrix, Google’s PageSpeed Insights, and Search Console to make sure your site doesn’t have any of these issues.
- Slow load times contribute to high bounce rates and lost traffic. Unnecessary plugins and code, or images that aren’t appropriately sized will slow down your page and frustrate visitors.
- A poor mobile experience will lead to people leaving your site more quickly. Modern websites should be designed specifically with mobile in mind as more customers use their phones for web searches.
- Sites without the proper tagging and development will struggle to show up in web search results (SERPs). SEO is complicated, and showing up on the first page takes work. But a few missteps in building the site can make it impossible.
Even with these recommendations, some business leaders don’t have the time to dedicate to measuring and managing their website. If you’re in that boat, reach out to us. We can perform a full website audit for you and let you know what critical errors are keeping your site from being a productive part of your sales and marketing funnel.
Don’t let an ineffective website hurt your business. Get a website that works for your business.
Schedule a call today to begin the process.
