{"id":1054,"date":"2017-10-03T19:53:38","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T17:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capturly.com\/blog\/?p=1054"},"modified":"2023-11-08T10:22:04","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T09:22:04","slug":"how-much-is-your-web-analytics-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capturly.com\/blog\/how-much-is-your-web-analytics-worth\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much is Website Data Analytics and Visualization Worth?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s like writing that test for which you’ve studied so long. You hope you\u2019re going to get an A+, but want to know the results, and how the teacher sees it. It\u2019s the same with websites. Building a website that looks good and has content is just the first step<\/strong>. The real deal comes after you show the world what you’ve got, and the search engine gives you a grade. If you get a bad one you can cry or do something<\/strong>\u00a0to correct your mistakes by analyzing them.<\/em><\/p>\n

Long story short, without web analytics<\/em><\/strong> you can\u2019t monitor how your site performs. It\u2019s important to analyze website traffic<\/em><\/strong> because without it you can\u2019t measure the effectiveness of your marketing strategy<\/strong>\u00a0and sales funnel performance. In other words, if you skip this part, you have no clue if the time and resources you are putting in your website are worth it.<\/p>\n

So you need DATA!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Easy to say, but where should you start? Where do you get the data from? What kind of data are you looking for?<\/p>\n

\"lego<\/p>\n

Web analytics tools can be really overwhelming. You fire up Google Analytics and suddenly you are surrounded by all kinds of metrics telling you something that you probably don\u2019t understand. One thing you have to understand is data is just a pile of numbers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAlice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from\u00a0here?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get\u00a0to.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Alice: I don\u2019t much care\u00a0where.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cat: Then it doesn\u2019t matter which way you go.\u201d\u200a\u2014\u200aLewis Carroll, Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Important metrics you should\u00a0track<\/h3>\n

Unique Visitors <\/em><\/strong>\u2014 they aren\u2019t unique because they are super awesome. The number of unique visitors represents the people who visited your site during a specific time frame<\/strong>. Let\u2019s say a user lands on your homepage 5 times during the week, while another just comes to say Hi once.<\/p>\n

How many unique visitors do you have?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Two. Exactly. In order to get the exact size of your audience, you count each visitors only once.<\/p>\n

Referrals<\/em> <\/strong>\u2014 If you want to get more traffic from a certain source<\/strong>, for example, social media, you start posting more on the platforms. Web analytics can tell you which platform is the most successful through the referrals.<\/p>\n

Bounce rate <\/em><\/strong>\u2014 A high bounce rate is often a good indicator that something is wrong<\/strong> with your website. A bounce happens when the visitor of your website immediately closes the tab or slams the back button on the web browser. Now, of course, \u201cmisclicks\u201d can happen but if your web analytics show a high bounce rate for a longer period, it\u2019s probably a good idea to inspect your funnel and search for leaks. Tools that have built-in website heatmap<\/a><\/strong><\/em> features like scroll heatmaps, click heatmaps, can make things a lot easier\u00a0with data visualization.<\/p>\n

Note: Don\u2019t confuse this with your \u201cExit pages\u201d. Exit pages indicate where your visitors are heading. An exit action is triggered usually after the visitor visits more pages<\/strong> on your website. Also, there can be pages producing higher exit rates, for example, a checkout page of a webshop.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Conversion rate <\/em><\/strong>\u2014 The cool kid on the block. Probably one of the most popular<\/strong> metrics out there. It shows the percentage of those visitors who have achieved a certain goal on your website, for example, got subscribed to your newsletter, completed a purchase etc. If your web analytics show that your conversion rate is low, it means your site is not attractive or somehow you attract people who aren\u2019t part of your target group. The conversion rate can often drop because of usability issues. For example, a company<\/strong>\u00a0that has annoying captchas on its site could lose out on 3.2%<\/strong><\/a> of all their conversions!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"capturly<\/figure>\n

Understanding Key Performance Indicators<\/strong> (KPIs)<\/h3>\n

KPIs are often confused<\/strong><\/a> with business metrics. This doesn\u2019t mean they aren\u2019t metrics;\u00a0 they just serve a purpose that is critical for the company<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric that helps you understand how you are doing against your objectives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Once you have an overall idea on what you wish to achieve, you can start selecting your Key Performance Indicators. KPIs can be defined<\/a> as a measurement of any business performance<\/strong>. \u2014 Who would\u2019ve thought \u2014 As a website is an essential part of a modern business we are focusing on KPIs that measure the effectiveness of websites.<\/p>\n

Websites can be very different, and companies often take the lazy way and adopt metrics as KPIs blindly, not even bothering to dig a bit deeper.<\/p>\n

Example KPIs for blogs:<\/strong><\/p>\n