Companies need to know how they can keep track and calculate their web traffic because their websites contribute to the overall business value, as well as the revenue they can generate. Companies need to stay on top of their web traffic to understand the performance of their campaigns and strategies, along with figuring out any trends or potential obstacles that consumers are facing.
Measuring
To keep track of website traffic, companies need to stay on top of various metrics, including the page views, the time visitors spend on a page, as well as referral sources. By knowing those numbers, companies can figure out whether any potential leads are getting lost in the lead generation process whenever there’s a decrease in traffic, or take note whenever a link or a page ends up breaking on the website. Put simply, the website traffic is what helps companies figure out where their business websites are performing well, and which things need to be improved to increase their performance and overall user experience. In fact, website traffic is helpful in answering detailed questions regarding a company’s sales, marketing, and growth efforts, as well as big-picture questions about the company itself.
Questions and answers
Many companies that do actually keep track of the right metrics regarding their website performance, including the website traffic, still end up generating negative results with their efforts. That’s simply because they’re not asking the right questions. That means companies have to think about which questions they want to get answers to before they can start gathering any data. Of course, the questions can end up changing along the way, and over a long period of time, but they’re necessary for understanding the website performance and the traffic that’s generated. Those questions also need to be very specific to the business website, the company itself, and its goals.
Analysis
Before a business can start collecting any website date, it’s smart to set a specific time limit on when that data is going to be collected. That’s because oftentimes, many businesses find that checking data ends up making them feel like they’re following a social media feed. In that, by checking too often, the company ends up spending a lot more time tracking the data points instead of taking action on the insights that the data provides. However, by checking too rarely, the data can end up getting misinterpreted which can impact any future decisions. That’s why it’s important for companies to be consistent in monitoring their website traffic and the data that’s generated to ensure there’s an accurate idea of what is and isn’t working on the website. Companies that recently had a new launch, or those that operate in fast-moving industries can benefit from daily checks, for example. However, if a business isn’t able to act on those insights with great speeds, it might opt for weekly data checks. It’s also important that businesses set aside some time when they’ll analyze all the website traffic in more detail, such as quarterly or monthly. Depending on the size of the business, there might be a separate schedule for different campaigns and efforts, but it’s important that businesses stick to those schedules once they’re set.