This post was most recently updated on February 7th, 2024
1. Unique Users per Month
One of the easiest ways you can tell if someone doesn’t understand the online business world is if they still use hits. Hits are a thing of the past. It’s an obscure way of measuring the traffic that is not representative. Traffic is now widely measured by unique users per month. A unique user is a specific IP (An internet connection). It is widely assumed to represent one person give or take.
It is important to maximize the number of unique users on your website however they have to be qualified, unique users. For example, if you have a local construction company that only operates in your city, only the users that log in from within your city are important. All other unique users are unimportant.
2. Page Views/User
A page view is one browsed page. Every click on a link will generate a new page view. Unique users tell you how many people browse your website and page views tells you how engaged they are. If you divide your total page views by the total unique users that entered your website you get the average page views per user.
Pageviews/user are important to measure the level of engagement of your users. If your website content is compelling and people generally like your website they will browse your site longer. A more engaging site is a more trusted site and trust is the most important factor in making a sale.
3. Top Keywords
It is important to always know your top keywords. These tell you how people find you and what they are looking for. If these keywords have nothing to do with what you’re selling you should be changing your keyword strategy. You will increase your sales if you target the keywords that have more to do with what you’re selling. Remember, it’s all about qualified traffic.
4. Exit Percentage
It is important to go through the content section of your website and see which pages have the highest exit percentages. You should analyze each page and make deductions of why users are leaving this page. Are these pages part of your purchasing process? Is there any way you can entice users to stay on your website? Is there any intuitive next step after that page?
You should ask yourself all those questions. Your top exit percentage pages represent some of the lowest hanging fruit in terms of monetizing your users.
5. Conversion Rate
This puppy is the heart of your metrics. It’s the last step before the actual purchase. If you boost this guy, you’re looking at a direct revenue boost. You always have to monitor your conversion rate whenever you make changes to the website. It’s important to compare conversion rates between products and to measure seasonality. Any major changes in your conversion rate should be closely examined and interpreted. You should know your conversion rate as the back of your hand.
How do measure your conversion rate? Well, on everybody’s favorite free analytics program, Google Analytics, you can set up goals. You can set up goals by editing your profile add a new goal. You will set up a funnel visualization and your goal will be set on your thank you page (Always, always, always have thank you pages!).
Funnel visualization will allow you to see where users are dropping out of the buying process. It is important that you’re able to narrow down specific faults in your buying process. This way you can boost your conversion rates from step to step.
Kean Graham is the CEO and founder of MonetizeMore & a pioneer in the Adtech Industry. He is the resident expert in Ad Optimization, covering areas like Adsense Optimization,GAM Management, and third-party ad network partnerships. Kean believes in the supremacy of direct publisher deals and holistic optimization as keys to effective and consistent ad revenue increases.