OMG! I actually think I am going to pull my hair out!!!! It’s going a bit grey anyway, to be fair, LOL.
So, let me ask you… You are about to embark on a long trip in your car from Aberdeen to Brighton for a weeks holiday, but you discover your dashboard and satnav (ok, just go with it, I know you can get map or pull your phone out) have completely broken! Do you crack on regardless knowing that you are most likely to make a few odd turns and detour to via Wales, you run out of petrol and have to pay for someone to come out and give you more, worse still the oil runs out and now you are being towed to a garage for a new engine and costly bill, you’ve had to stop umpteen times to throw water over your windscreen before your reach a garage to get a refill and so on… But, you made it to Brihhton at last to only find that everyone else made it well before you, taken all the rooms and worse still, you’ve taken so long to get there that the kids have to be back at school the next day!!
“What a preposterous scenario Rebecca, what idiot would do that”? I hear you say!
Abso-flipping-lutely, my sentiments entirety. So why on this EARTH would you do that with your website! So many people I speak to say they never look at their Google analytics or whatever they choose to use!! What! Seriously! Are you mad! You want to make this hard for yourself, take longer and miss the boat!
Come on folks, if you are serious about your website you must be reviewing your analytics to see how you are doing. If you don’t do anything, look for these 4 key metrics:
1. Bounce rate – the lower this is the better your site is. If it is high, then people are coming to your site and bouncing straight back off. So either, your site was just not appropriate, they did not see what they wanted or simply did not like your site! Look at the difference in your bounce rate for mobile and desktop! Remember that more and more folk are using their phones for researching and now buying online.
2. How many new visitors are you getting? You should always be getting a good 75% of new users. This is an indication of your customer base growing and the fact your site is well optimised for people finding it.
3. How many returning visitors? A good 25% would be good. This indicates that you are retaining your customer base.
4. The all important conversion rate, percentage. You really ought to be aiming at 3%. It’s obvious, the higher this means that when people do arrive at your site they clearly like what they see and buy it.
When you are not happy with any of these metrics, that’s when you need to start talking to your agency about what can be done to improve them. Don’t be afraid to experiment! That is the beauty of online shops, you don’t have to work up a leaflet, put an ad in the paper, have people ready to talk through your products etc. You can test something that morning and turn it off that morning!!
Naturally and forgive me, but I have to mention Magento! If you have a well built Magento website then your options are almost limitless and the majority are completely in your control! No asking developers to update a product or add a promotion or add a new landing page, it is all in your control. Lost opportunity is money in my books and a Magento online shop can go a long way to reducing this.
Now, go dig out your google analytics and get making to real money with your online shop!!
