If you currently use Google Analytics or another web analytics program, you may be overwhelmed by the amount of different website data available for you to analyze. If you are looking at too much data on a regular basis, it may cause what is called paralysis by analysis. Looking at and attempting to analyze too many stats may overwhelm you and keep you from taking any action. Don’t get lost in the data. Don’t worry about all the stats that you may not even understand or what they are for.
Instead, look at the important stats that show you how your site is performing at-a-glance. You can do this by creating Key Performance Indicators, also known as KPI’s, for your website. To go along with your KPI’s, you should establish a baseline and goals to measure future performance against. A baseline is where you now. For example, if your existing Conversion Rate is 4%, that’s your baseline. If want increase your Conversion rate to 8% by a specific date, that’s your goal.
Let’s take a look at a few examples and what I recommend for KPI’s.
Recommend KPI’s for an e-Commerce Site
- Unique Visitors (Google Analytics calls them Absolute Unique Visitors)
- Bounce Rate
- Conversion Rate
- Number of Sales
- Average Sale Price
- Acquisition Cost
If you have a site where the main goal is to provide information, such as a blog, your KPI’s might look something like this:
- Unique Visitors
- Average Time on Site
- Pages per Visit
- Conversion Rate (If you have an opt-in email list or an option for people to subscribe to your blog)
You should look at these KPI’s on a daily basis as well as a monthly basis. Depending on what type of site you have some the KPI’s may vary.
You can add your KPI’s to the Google Analytics Dashboard. To do this, navigate to the item you want to use as KPI, then click on the “Add to Dashboard” button.
Google Analytics Add to Dashboard Button
For example, if you want to add Absolute Unique Visitors to the Dashboard:
- Click on “Visitors” in the left navigation menu
- Click on “Absolute Unique Visitors” in the main window
- Click on the “Add to Dashboard” button on the top of the page
Resources:
Google Analytics Glossary – definitions of “Bounce Rate”, “Unique Visitor”, etc.
http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/topic.py?topic=11285
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Good advice Damian!
Interesting post, keep the good stuff coming, good content appreciated!