1:03

As a business owner , being able to look at your

1:05

website's history and

1:07

trends is crucial to knowing

1:09

where you're going in your business . While

1:11

we shouldn't really obsess over the past

1:13

, being able to look at where we were

1:16

in our business can help us learn

1:18

and make the present day better and make sure

1:20

we're on the right track . In

1:22

this episode , we'll be diving into what

1:24

you should be reviewing regularly with your

1:26

website metrics , and why

1:28

so . This is going to be a little bit different than last week's

1:31

episode , where we talked about business

1:33

metrics . Now we're going to be talking about website

1:35

metrics . Welcome

1:37

to the e-commerce made easy podcast . I'm

1:39

your host , keri Saunders . When we started

1:42

this business , all I had was a couch , a laptop

1:44

and a nine-month-old my main goal To

1:47

help others . Now , with over 20 years in

1:49

the e-commerce building industry and even more

1:51

than that in web development , I have seen a lot

1:53

. I love breaking down the hard tech into

1:55

easily understandable bits to help

1:57

others be successful in their online business

1:59

. Whether you're a seasoned e-commerce veteran

2:01

or just starting out , you've come to the right place

2:04

. So

2:08

sit back , relax and let's dive into the world of e-commerce together

2:10

. Welcome back to this week's episode of the e-commerce made

2:12

easy podcast . So last week

2:14

, in episode 51 , we talked about

2:16

three key performance indicators in

2:19

your business that you should be tracking regularly

2:21

. These are mostly metrics

2:24

focused on cash and sales

2:26

in your business . Today , we're

2:28

driving into what are three key

2:30

website performance indicators that you

2:32

should be reviewing specifically

2:34

on your website using some analytic

2:36

software such as Google Analytics . Now

2:40

, if you listen to this episode in basically

2:42

real time or close to real time

2:44

and haven't already heard , google's

2:46

universal analytics data is

2:48

going to be deleted . All your data

2:50

is going to be deleted starting July 1st

2:52

of 2024 . This

2:54

is a bit of a big deal for many businesses

2:57

who have been around for a while , because they like

2:59

to look back , especially as established business

3:01

, look back at what their

3:03

history is on their website

3:05

, how much traffic's coming in , etc . So

3:08

I wanted to use this opportunity

3:11

to help you understand , as

3:13

you're growing and maybe you're already

3:15

a growing business , but you're not looking at these

3:17

metrics what should you really be

3:20

looking for it ? So , even if you're listening

3:22

past July 1st of 2024

3:24

, we're going to be looking at what you should

3:26

be looking at on your website

3:28

regularly and how we

3:30

can do that in a way to

3:32

help propel our business forward . Now

3:35

I know for some of you thinking

3:37

about looking at website metrics I get a lot of

3:39

feedback on this can sound super

3:42

scary or overwhelming . I have a lot

3:44

of customers and clients and business friends

3:46

tell me this all the time . I

3:48

just don't know what to look at , carrie . I

3:51

get so confused , I get so overwhelmed

3:53

. Those are the words they use all the time

3:55

when talking about looking at their website

3:57

analytics . But we're going to

3:59

be breaking things down and making them simple

4:02

. Plus , not tracking

4:04

these essential elements is pretty

4:06

much guaranteed to slow down

4:08

your business and your business growth , and

4:11

I know that we all want faster and better

4:13

business growth , so let's dive right in

4:15

, all right . So first

4:17

off , what are some of the key metrics

4:19

you should minimally keep an eye on and I'm only

4:21

going to go over three in this episode . These

4:24

are my top three that I think are really important . That if

4:26

you minimally look at these , it's going to go over three in this episode . These are my top three that I think are really important . That if you

4:28

minimally look at these , it's going to really

4:30

help you out . First off is

4:32

traffic volume . Then

4:34

next we're going to look at bounce rate and

4:36

what that is . And then , finally

4:38

, we're going to be looking at traffic sources , or traffic

4:41

acquisition as it is now called

4:43

in Google Analytics 4 . So

4:45

I'll be defining and getting to the details of what these

4:48

metrics mean in a few moments , but

4:50

I want you to keep in mind something

4:52

first For all of these

4:54

metrics , we want to look at trends

4:57

. Please try not to obsess

4:59

over the daily fluctuations . Some

5:01

people will do that and look at the daily fluctuations

5:04

and get really panicked or really

5:06

excited , depending on whether it's going up or

5:08

down , but likely you're

5:10

going to want to look at these metrics monthly

5:12

, maybe weekly , if your business is

5:14

pretty up and running and very established

5:17

and moving quickly . They each

5:19

contribute to your understanding of the health

5:21

of your website . Also

5:23

, if you aren't looking at any of

5:25

these yet , please give yourself grace

5:28

. It is something that even I

5:30

fall off the bandwagon on and don't

5:32

look at as regularly as I really

5:34

should . So part of this episode is really

5:37

speaking to myself and reminding me I need

5:39

to be doing this . So , and

5:41

if the thought of looking at all of these overwhelms

5:44

you , please pick one first to

5:46

work with and I'll go over which one I recommend

5:48

the most over all of them If

5:50

you can only handle doing one , and

5:53

then , a few months later , once you've got that one

5:55

under your habit and are looking at it regularly

5:57

, add the next one and then the

6:00

third one and then , if you

6:02

really want to go gangbusters , you can keep

6:04

on looking at more data . But we

6:06

also want to be reasonable and not look

6:08

at too much data and not be working in

6:10

our business and on our business . So

6:13

make sure looking at one of these

6:15

is better than looking at none

6:17

of them . So just give yourself grace . Remember

6:19

that if you're not looking at any of them , looking

6:22

at one is better than none . All right , so

6:24

let's get started . So

6:27

we're going to first look at traffic

6:29

volume . As the name implies

6:31

, it's basically how much traffic you're

6:33

getting to your website . Obviously

6:36

, if this number trends downward , then

6:38

something's wrong and you're not getting as much traffic

6:40

as you used to be getting . So

6:43

either it could be your content , it could

6:45

be your website functionality Think about

6:47

your speed or any website errors you

6:49

might have , could be marketing

6:51

strategies and could be search

6:53

engine optimization Really , just to name a

6:55

few . So if you , like I

6:57

said , if you only track one metric I stress

7:00

, this is the one metric you do want to

7:02

track . This is also

7:05

one that I recommend looking

7:07

at at a weekly or monthly basis . For

7:10

our website , for example I know I mentioned this

7:12

before on Saturdays and Sundays

7:14

, our traffic volume drops . That's

7:16

very common for us . It's happened over

7:19

the 20 some years we've been doing

7:21

this business . Our traffic is just lower on

7:23

Saturdays and Sundays Because

7:25

our target market is other online

7:27

businesses . Many of them aren't working

7:30

on Saturday or Sunday , and

7:32

some of them that might have their online businesses

7:34

like a side hustle or they're building it up

7:36

. They might be on it on Saturday

7:39

and Sunday , but in general , most of our traffic

7:41

is Monday through Friday and it usually

7:43

peaks on the Tuesday , wednesday

7:45

and Thursday days . Honestly . So

7:48

I know not to panic when I

7:50

see that traffic drop on Saturday and

7:52

Sunday , because I know that

7:55

is my website's trend . So

7:57

when you're looking at this data more regularly

7:59

, you're going to see patterns like that , so

8:02

that you know , okay , wednesday

8:04

is my most popular day and

8:06

Friday is my least popular day , so just

8:08

keep that in mind as you're looking at this

8:10

. Now , obviously

8:13

, if we see a general downward trend

8:15

across weeks or months of data

8:17

, then I know that there's something wrong with

8:19

our website that needs to be fixed . Either

8:22

my website's functionality is broken maybe

8:24

we added a feature and we thought we tested

8:26

it thoroughly and we missed something or

8:29

maybe my content is not in great

8:31

quality anymore . Maybe we're , you know

8:33

, think we're doing our best on our content

8:35

, but it's really just not landing right . I

8:38

could have added a feature to our website that

8:40

might be slowing it down and causing issues

8:42

with consumers . You know

8:44

, maybe we don't notice because we're here

8:46

near our servers , but other

8:49

people out in the internet will notice

8:51

the slow down more than us . Or maybe

8:53

because our computers are pretty fast , because that's

8:55

what we do is work on websites , so

8:57

maybe we need to try it on another device that's

8:59

a bit slower , or maybe

9:01

my marketing efforts aren't landing

9:03

anymore . So this

9:05

metric is really a general

9:08

great heartbeat of your website

9:10

and ideally , of course , you

9:12

want to see a growth curve on

9:14

traffic volume . All

9:17

right , so next we're going to go into bounce rate

9:19

. Now . It is the one

9:22

that Google took away when they brought

9:24

out Google Analytics 4 . And

9:26

users complained so much that

9:29

they brought it back . It is a very useful

9:31

tool to have on your website . It

9:33

really is a vital thing

9:36

and it helps you understand

9:38

your website a lot

9:40

better . So if you only want to look at

9:42

two metrics , I recommend the traffic volume

9:45

and the bounce rate . It's

9:47

the next one that I would totally add to your

9:49

list to look at regularly once you're in the

9:51

habit of doing this . Bounce

9:53

rate simply shows whether people go to your

9:56

website and leave right away . So

9:58

the word bounce comes from . They basically

10:00

bounce onto one page of your website

10:03

and then they're gone , so kind of like jumping on

10:05

a trampoline and then jumping right back off . They

10:07

land there and they're like nope , this is not for me

10:09

, and they jump right back off . So

10:11

if you have a high bounce rate , or

10:14

if you see your bounce rate getting higher

10:16

, then something is probably wrong

10:18

with your website . Typically

10:20

, it's one of two things . One

10:22

, the wrong people are getting to your website

10:25

. Or two , the right people are getting

10:27

to your website , but they find it unengaging

10:30

and they don't want to stick around . So

10:33

to fix both of these , generally

10:35

you need to fix your messaging , and

10:37

it could be either the messaging on the front end

10:39

, your marketing message or

10:41

it could be the messaging on the back end , basically

10:43

the content on your website's messaging

10:46

. So are you

10:48

messaging and marketing

10:50

to the wrong people ? Are the wrong people

10:52

come to your website and then when they get there it's

10:54

something else than what they expected . Or

10:57

are the right people getting your website

10:59

but then the content they see is

11:02

not engaging and they kind

11:04

of felt like you're going to have something else

11:06

to give them . So

11:09

you'll want to do some digging here and

11:11

this can be a little bit hard

11:13

to nail down as to why

11:16

your bounce rate is high . So you really need

11:18

to be digging into this one and be

11:20

patient with it . So talk to some current

11:22

customers , talk to potential

11:24

customers to see if your website

11:27

resonates with them . You know you're going to

11:29

need to do some detective work here and

11:31

get some other people's opinions . Get

11:34

some opinions of trusted people in your business

11:36

too . An outside look

11:38

on your messaging for both

11:41

your marketing and your content can really help

11:43

narrow down where the disconnect is . Now

11:46

, if you think you've got your marketing messaging

11:48

as well as your website messaging nailed

11:50

down and you think that's pretty solid and good

11:53

, a few other reasons your bounce rate

11:55

may be high . Is that one your website's

11:57

too slow . You might have something

11:59

broken on your website and don't realize it . Maybe

12:02

it only is broken in

12:04

Chrome on a Mac computer

12:06

, or maybe it's only broken on

12:08

an Android phone , for example

12:12

. Another thing could be is your website isn't

12:14

visually appealing or is too cluttered and

12:16

they just get there and they're overwhelmed and they just

12:18

want to leave . So

12:20

for the website too slow issue , you

12:23

can refer back to episodes 20 and

12:25

47 , which we'll link to in the show

12:27

notes , for how to understand and test

12:29

speed metrics on your site and

12:31

how to improve them . Having a

12:33

too slow website can also affect your

12:36

search engine optimization , which we talked

12:38

about in previous episodes too , which

12:40

will also affect your traffic volume

12:42

. So Google is going to penalize

12:44

you if your website's too slow and it's going

12:46

to send less people to your website , and

12:49

the people that get there are

12:51

probably going to bounce because it is too

12:53

slow and they're just going to give up and leave . And

12:56

many of these metrics are interconnected

12:58

, so keep that in mind , ok

13:01

. So , lastly , we're going to talk about our third

13:03

metric , which is traffic sources

13:05

, or acquisition , and the new Google

13:08

Analytics 4 , they

13:10

use the word acquisition for this , and

13:13

so what does this mean and why do we care

13:15

? So traffic sources shows you

13:17

where your traffic is coming from , as

13:19

the name actually implies . This

13:22

metric's very important as it can help you understand

13:24

which of your marketing efforts

13:26

is working . So let's

13:28

say you're running some social media campaigns

13:31

or even some social media ads . If

13:33

you look back at that week or that

13:35

month's worth of traffic source where

13:37

you're doing these sort of campaigns whether it's

13:40

free campaigns or paid campaigns and

13:42

you don't see an increase in traffic from

13:44

your social media compared to a previous

13:46

time set where you weren't doing these types

13:49

of marketing efforts , then

13:51

you know your marketing efforts are

13:53

off somehow . Maybe it's

13:55

your messaging . Again , you know messaging is

13:57

so important We'll be going into this later on

14:00

in our podcast episodes . But

14:02

without knowing that your

14:04

traffic source from

14:06

social media isn't increasing as you

14:08

would expected , you wouldn't know

14:11

you need to pivot in your marketing efforts

14:13

there . You wouldn't know that you might need

14:15

to change your messaging on your social media

14:17

posts or maybe your messaging in

14:19

your social media advertisements . So

14:22

keeping an eye on this is going to be very important

14:24

, especially once you start having advertisements

14:26

to your websites . Also

14:29

, with having traffic sources too , you

14:31

can see how much organic traffic you get

14:33

. This will help you understand

14:35

how your search engine ranking is doing

14:37

so . Organic traffic basically

14:40

is traffic that comes

14:42

to you organically it's

14:44

just kind of the name of the word . It just comes

14:46

to you naturally via search engine results

14:48

. So if you see your organic

14:50

search rising

14:52

your organic search term it's

14:54

kind of hard to say altogether then

14:57

you know your search engine optimization

14:59

is making progress and

15:01

this is great for long game tactics

15:03

like search engine optimization to really

15:06

monitor and make sure it is working . Another

15:09

one I love to look at under traffic

15:11

sources or acquisition is referral

15:13

traffic . So this is traffic

15:16

that comes to your website being an external

15:18

link from somebody else's website

15:20

. If you're getting good quality links

15:23

back to your website , this not only

15:25

helps increase your visibility from other websites

15:27

, obviously , but it also boots

15:29

your search engine optimizations because

15:31

you're going to look more important

15:33

to Google and the major search engines . If

15:35

other websites are linking back to your

15:37

website , getting

15:54

some business relationships or connections outside of your circle and getting some more

15:56

links back into your website , which is going to help boost your credibility , it will help boost

15:58

your search engine optimization rankings

16:01

and all those things . It's going to be a

16:03

nice snowball effect . So if you see

16:05

your referral traffic is low . That

16:08

might be something you might want to target next as

16:10

your goal for , like the next quarter , is

16:12

hey , I want to try to increase my referral

16:14

traffic so that I can get some more diverse

16:17

inbound links into my website

16:19

. Okay , so hopefully

16:21

that wasn't too much and too overwhelming , so

16:23

let's recap where we came from , all

16:25

right . So first off , we talked about three

16:27

metrics that I feel like are minimally

16:30

a great thing to review on your website

16:32

regularly . Again , make

16:35

sure this fits you or you won't do

16:37

it . You know , maybe it's monthly

16:39

, maybe it's every quarter . Don't feel

16:41

bad if it's not all the time

16:43

. The really big

16:46

, really busy websites may be looking

16:48

at this weekly , but honestly , most

16:50

businesses are going to look at this at

16:52

most monthly , and I

16:54

recommend minimally quarterly would be

16:56

a really good idea . That way you have some data

16:59

to look at , some , you know , long-term

17:02

data to really see what your trends are

17:04

. And the things that we talked about

17:06

looking at is your traffic volume how

17:08

much traffic are you getting to your website ? Is it increasing

17:10

? Is it decreasing ? How are you ? How traffic are you getting to your website ? Is it

17:12

increasing ? Is it decreasing ? How are you ? How fast are you

17:15

increasing ? Hopefully you're not decreasing

17:17

and if you are , hopefully it's a slow decrease

17:19

and then you can bounce that back up and

17:21

get it to increase again . The

17:28

next one we talked about was bounce rate . Are people landing on your site and leaving

17:30

right away ? That is a very big , bold red flag , for something

17:32

is seriously wrong . If your bounce rate is high

17:34

, you either have your messaging wrong

17:36

on the traffic that is coming

17:39

into your website or

17:41

your website . There's some functionality

17:43

was wrong or slowness is wrong . And

17:46

then you can use that in conjunction with the next

17:48

one , the traffic sources , to

17:50

see what your bounce rate and whether

17:52

your traffic sources , where they're

17:54

coming from and what might be the source

17:56

of problems with your website

17:59

, and whether you're increasing your traffic sources

18:02

from social , from referrals and

18:04

things like that . We want to make sure that we're growing

18:06

in the areas that we are focusing on

18:08

. All right , so

18:10

that's it for this week's episode . I

18:13

hopefully that was super helpful for you and

18:15

not overwhelming . I appreciate

18:17

you joining me this week on the e-commerce made

18:19

easy podcast . Be

18:21

sure to visit our show notes and other episodes

18:24

on e-commerce made easy

18:26

podcastcom or your favorite

18:28

podcast player . If you're watching

18:30

this on the YouTube channel , make sure you hit that subscribe

18:33

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18:35

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18:39

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18:46

helps me reach more listeners

18:48

and empower more people like you

18:50

to thrive in the online business world

18:52

. Thank you again for listening and

18:54

we will see you next week .