3 Critical Website Measures

Sean Parnell - December 4, 2024 5:30 am

Every company knows they need a compelling website to stay competitive. Still, far too many spend little or no time tracking and evaluating the effectiveness of their website and online marketing campaigns. Over the last decade, our experience has taught us that having the answers to 3 basic questions—and knowing what to do with that information—can lay the foundation for higher conversion rates, increased sales, and greater ROI on marketing budgets. These answers can be the difference between success and failure.

How many unique visitors does your site get per month?
What are the top 5 pages on your site?
What are the top 5 sources of traffic to your site?

Unique Visitors

This measure is by far the most accurate for determining actual website traffic. Though search engine web crawlers account for a portion of recorded traffic for all sites, this metric is more reliable than counting website “hits.” Hits are misleading because every file or graphic downloaded on a page can be recorded as a hit. A graphic-heavy page may be recorded as 100 hits, though it’s only accessed by a visitor. Similarly, users hitting the back and refresh buttons can be counted repeatedly.

As a result, knowing your site’s unique monthly visitors is the best indicator of whether your website traffic is increasing or decreasing. It can also provide accurate cues as to whether your online channel performs as expected or needs improvement. One Innovaxis client poured thousands into web design, only to find that it averaged one unique visitor per day. If you don’t know how to measure unique visitors, contact us and we’ll show you at no charge.

Top Five Pages

Knowing the most popular pages on your site directly indicates what content resonates best with visitors, and this information can be used to drive sales. For one Innovaxis client, we found that the owner bios were the #1 content accessed instead of several success stories. This led us to conclude that trust and price played a crucial role in buying behavior, resulting in changes to their content and digital marketing strategy. We carried this idea through all of their marketing materials.

Your homepage is only the starting point for visitors. Knowing what pages grab their attention can lead to insights into how your entire site should be structured and improved. Contact us to learn more.

Top Five Referring Websites

If you advertise on third-party websites, they likely report eye-popping numbers for ad “impressions” (often misleading) and click-through rates for your banner or text ads. Verification is key. An advertising site told one Innovaxis client that their ad received over 30,000 impressions and several hundred click-throughs. However, our client’s statistics indicated less than 20 click-throughs and no measurable impact on sales. Innovaxis then recommended reallocating advertising money to targeted, higher traffic sites that positively impacted sales.

Reviewing and understanding the top five sources of site traffic can lead to more productive business relationships and reveal sites/networks that offer similar opportunities.

Conclusion

Key Ideas

Your website traffic reveals its real value
Focus on unique visitors instead of hits
Monitor web traffic weekly for changes
Online ad ROI = referral traffic

If you need help leveraging site analytics or are unhappy with what you find, contact us and we’ll get your website and overall marketing strategy back on track.

Contact us to learn more about B2B marketing agency services

Frequently Asked Questions

Why doesn’t my professionally designed website generate good leads?

Even the most beautifully designed website can’t drive lead generation without the right content strategy, centered around a clear understanding of the needs and problems of your target market (i.e. brand story) and optimized for search to reflect the solutions they are searching for. Without that, you can waste a lot of time and energy on what are essentially random acts of marketing.

How important is brand storytelling for lead generation?

Brand storytelling is a powerful tool for connecting with your target market and a commonly missed opportunity to communicate the value of your goods and services to your audience. It’s built around understanding their challenges and your role in solving them, positioning your prospects as the hero of their story and you as their guide.

What’s the best way to track ROI from digital marketing efforts?

Simply asking, “How did you hear about us?” during calls and on website forms will help you attribute what generates leads and sales. Once you calculate how much sales is attributable to marketing and divide by the amount of that marketing investment, you will have your marketing ROI calculation. Learn more with the Innovaxis marketing ROI calculator.

B2B Marketing Consulting Agency Blog