If you're not actively reviewing your website's metrics, it's time to start. This data reveals valuable insights into the success of your website and the progress of your company's goals. They can even alert you to cybercriminal activity on your site. This helpful guide from the Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce offers tips on how to use this information to your advantage and how resources like bounce rate monitors and PDF editors can help.
Helpful Analytics to Track First
If you are new to analytics, here are a couple of metrics to focus on first:
Unique Visitors
Look at your unique visitors for an accurate picture of your website's popularity and size. This metric tells how many people visited your site for the first time and helps you see the reach of your company's brand. Tracking this analytic after a marketing campaign lets you determine the effectiveness of your advertising efforts to attract new customers to your website.
Bounce Rate
Another important indicator of your website's performance is the bounce rate, which reveals how many visitors click on one page of your site and quickly leave. Suddenly seeing high bounce rates is a signal to check for issues on those pages. Slow loading speeds, errors on a page or outdated content could be the cause and are easy problems to fix.
Business Benefits of Website Analytics
As you can see, your site's metrics reveal a lot about the success of your website. You benefit from these numbers when you implement an analytics plan and review it regularly to look for trends. Some of the advantages of this practice include the following:
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Improved User Experience: Metrics reveal what pages customers love and which ones they avoid. You can then study your successes and repeat what works. Then, take steps to fix the user experience on the pages with low traffic.
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Increased Search Engine Rankings: Your search engine rankings increase when you fill your pages with quality content that attracts new visitors and keeps current customers active on your website.
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Track Your Business Goals: Look at the metrics that show the progress of your company's website goals. For example, if your focus is to increase conversion rates, the analytics on click-throughs, time on the website, purchases, and newsletter sign-ups reveal your progress on the goal.
Security Benefits of Website Analytics, PDFs, and PDF Editors
Cybercriminals attack an average of 4,800 retail websites monthly to steal credit card numbers. Regularly checking your website analytics alerts you quickly to site activity commonly associated with a data breach. This information helps you identify the affected pages and take immediate action to secure your site and prevent any data loss of customer information.
One effective way to protect your customers’ information from data breaches on your website is by using PDF files. These files offer the security of encryption and robust password protection, which limits access to the information to only those who need it. In addition, PDF files are lockable, so unauthorized users can't add malicious content or edit the document. Using an online PDF editor will let you make changes to drawings or documents without the need to print them out. Just upload the file to the tool, make the necessary edits, then download and share it with whoever is authorized to view it.
Review, Revise, and Reap the Rewards
Reviewing your company website's analytics helps your business make the most of your site. As you gather data, like your bounce rate and number of unique visitors, use that information to make strategic changes to content and design. In addition, use this data to help you maximize your digital marketing budget by highlighting business successes and revealing any problem areas that need attention, but don’t forget to encrypt your PDFs (and use PDF editors as needed to update them) to preserve your customers’ security. Together, these efforts will help you to increase your marketing and reach more potential customers.