Website metrics reveal how visitors interact with your site. However, with so many different metrics, we understand it can be challenging to determine where to begin and which ones can drive growth. So, here’s a guide that lets you know 16 important metrics to keep in mind when working on your website design in Melbourne.
First things first—
What Are Website Engagement Metrics?
The goal of any website is to turn guests into leads and leads into buyers, but the journey can be difficult to understand without hard data. Fortunately, website engagement metrics are here to clarify.
Website engagement is a broad term that covers many actions a visitor takes on your website design in Melbourne, from landing on it to the time they spend there and the interactions they have with the site. You can access these metrics with the help of an analytics tool like Google Analytics.
Note: Since Google Analytics transitioned to the new GA4 format, some familiar favourites in terms of metrics have had an update. For example, you won’t be seeing metrics like Bounce Rate or Time on Page.
With so many website metrics available, it’s easy to become swamped, especially if you’re just beginning. So, here are 16 of our favourite engagement metrics for your website design strategy in Melbourne.
1. Views
Views (formerly page views) measure the number of times a page on your website is seen by a visitor. Each time a page on your website loads in a browser count as one page view. So, if a visitor loads a page, and then reloads the same page, this would count as two page views.
2. Average Time on Page
Average time on page estimates how long guests spend on a web page on average. The longer you hold them on a web page, the better. Longer time on a page also suggests that you’re attracting quality visitors who value your information. At the same time, shorter times typically indicate less interest.
This metric is now called Average Engagement Time Per Session on GA4 — which is better because it covers not just how long someone sat on your web page, but how long they were paying attention or interacting.
3. Average Session Duration
Average session duration calculates how long guests spend per session on average. A session is a set of interactions with your website within a set period, typically one to two hours.
A session can be roughly equated to one person’s visit to your website design in Melbourne. This could mean that a person is viewing a single page or that they’re exploring more of your site.
4. Pages per Session
Pages per session ( or “Views Per User” on GA4) is an estimation of the average number of pages a user views each session. This data point helps you think: While the average session duration might be high, how are visitors using this time? Do they stick to one or multiple pages? Pages per session can answer these questions.
The biggest riddle to increasing Pages per Session is satisfactory navigation and internal linking structure. For example, include related posts at the bottom of your website design in Melbourne.
5. Bounce Rate/Engagement Rate
One of the most interesting changes when GA4 came out was the replacement of Bounce Rate with a new metric called Engagement Rate.
Engagement Rate is essentially the opposite of Bounce Rate. Both measure how many sessions on your website were “engaged,” but the Engagement Rate is a percentage showing the number of sessions that were engaged, while the Bounce Rate tells you the percentage of sessions that weren’t engaged.
6. Traffic Sources
Traffic sources determine where your site traffic is coming from. This is one of the reports you need to spend considerable time on because most projects typically involve multiple channels that need to be continuously evaluated. While the amount and types of traffic sources vary by analytics tool, some common ones are:
- Direct: These people arrive at your site through a browser bookmark or by entering the URL directly into the browser bar.
- Organic search: These users arrive at your site through non-paid results on the search engine results page (SERP). Most likely, Google Search.
- Paid search: These visitors arrived by clicking ads displayed on search engine results pages.
- Referrals: Referral traffic comes to your site through links on an external website.
- Email: This traffic comes to your website design in melbourne from the links included in your emails.
7. New Visitor Sessions
New visitor sessions measure the number of times a new unique user visits your site during a specific timeframe. If a particular user initiates more than one session during that time, they are still counted as the same visitor.
In GA4, you’ll find this labelled as New Users, and it provides into overall website and brand growth.
8. Social Referrals
Social referrals are referral traffic that you get from paid or organic social media.
Every traffic source is useful to track. However, because social media is so central to small businesses, you may want to monitor social media referrals particularly. It’s a website engagement metric that tracks an important segment of your buyer journey.
Reach out to Make My Website, a reliable agency for SEO and website design in Melbourne. Set a meeting with its experts and listen to their opinions on your website. You will surely find it worthwhile!
