6 Website Performance Metrics You Should Analyze

You’ve done it.

You’ve poured blood, sweat, and tears into a new website launch. Your web designer revolutionized your website so you can start seeing some serious traffic and conversions. Now what?

Web design means nothing if the website doesn’t perform. Before you can maximize your site’s value, you need to understand how it’s doing. That’s where performance metrics come into play.

If you want to create the best experience for your website guests, analyzing website performance metrics is key. But how do you know which metrics to track? Here are the 6 best metrics to analyze.

The Importance of KPIs

There’s no shortage of site performance metrics. Unfortunately, many businesses choose to hone in on one main metric: website traffic.

Website traffic is an indicator of site performance. It’s easy to glance at a report and see whether your web traffic is increasing, decreasing, or remaining stagnant. But website traffic doesn’t tell the entire story.

Let’s say your website saw a 20 percent increase in traffic last month. You might celebrate knowing that you’re getting more online exposure.

It’s important to evaluate what users are doing once they reach your site. Would you rather have a 20 percent increase in traffic or a 20 percent increase in conversions?

Website traffic doesn’t necessarily mean you’re site is performing well. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) allow for a deeper understanding of website performance.

This data reveals the big picture of your website. You can use it to evaluate what’s working, what’s not, and how to make changes.

1. Speed Performance

Did you know the average attention span is only eight seconds?

Attention spans are shorter than ever, especially for the online community. As a result, speed performance is one of the most important website metrics to track.

Speed performance measures the efficiency of your website. It reveals how long your page takes to load after users type in your URL.

Google evaluates page speed on a scale of one to 100. The higher the number, the better the page speed.

You can run a page speed test to check your speed performance. You can also check out example reports to understand how to interpret your results. In addition to loading times, there are several other speed performance metrics to analyze.

Time to title shows the time it takes for the title to appear from the server to a user’s browser. A fast time to title will give user’s a reason to trust your website and an incentive to stick around.

Time to first byte reveals how long it takes for the first byte from your website to reach its destination. Time to last byte shows how long it takes for every byte of information to reach browsers.

Page speed is a huge factor for website performance. Not satisfied with your page speed? You can contact a coder to make tweaks to your website configuration.

2. Average Time on Page

Website traffic is a big metric. Getting users to stay on your page is equally as important.

Average time on page is one of the most revealing web performance metrics. It will tell you whether or not your page is appealing to your audience.

55 percent of users spend fewer than 15 seconds on websites. You need to keep users engaged if you want longer page visits.

How can you increase your average time spent on pages? You need to capture user attention right away.

Focus on big headlines and images to make your site user-friendly. You can also focus on creating engaging content that is valuable, entertaining, and informative.

3. Conversion Rate

Are you looking to increase your website’s ROI? You need to focus on your website’s conversion rate.

Conversion rate is one of the site performance metrics that can directly impact your bottom line. The key to tracking conversions is quantifying the term conversion.

Conversions can be anything from subscribing to a newsletter, opting into an email campaign, or clicking on a call to action. Once they opt-in, you can move them through the funnel by starting a MailChimp email marketing campaign.

You can view this information by logging into Google Analytics. To determine your conversion rate, divide your traffic by the number of conversions.

Traffic is great – but it means nothing without conversion. Focus on your conversion rate metrics to make the most of your website traffic.

4. Bounce Rate

Not all web page performance metrics are positive. Case in point: bounce rate.

Bounce rate refers to the amount of time it takes for users to push the back button once they visit a page. People might bounce because of poor page design, misleading content, or slow loading times.

High bounce rates are a telltale sign of a bad user experience. Even worse, they can negatively affect your SEO. Monitor your bounce rate to make sure your website meets your users’ demands.

5. Exit Rate

Exit rate is another negative metric to follow. It refers to the number of users that exit a website from a particular page. These users might have visited several pages on your website, but decided to leave once they arrived on a specific landing page.

Similar to bounce rates, high exit rates are indicative of onsite problems. Pages with high exit rates could also have bad web design or errors.

Monitor exit rates to identify any weak spots on your website. Use this information to tweak any poor performing pages and to enhance your user experience.

6. Error Rate

No website is perfect. Error rate will help you evaluate onsite errors and issues with your website performance.

Error rate is one of the most important website metrics to monitor. Not only does it identify current site problems, it also shows you weak spots that can cause bigger problems down the road.

You can practice site tests to check for errors before a page goes live. Continue to test your website under different conditions to keep your site as error-free as possible.