When it comes to measuring the success of your website, you will need to know a few different Key Performance Indicators or KPIs. I’ll break down what a KPI is, what KPIs to track for a small business website, and ways to improve your numbers.
What is a KPI and why use them?
KPI For Small Business Websites indicators are metrics that measure performance over a period of time. Using key performance indicators can help you measure the health of your business. These measurements help you make data-driven decisions and boost performance. They help you stay focused on the results that matter most.
Key performance indicators can be financial, operational, or strategic. The types of metrics you choose should relate to your business and website goals. Some KPIs are more quantitative, while others are more qualitative.
Product or Service reviews
Aside from providing SEO value, product reviews offer social proof for your product or service. If you want to rank higher on search engines it’s not all about the words on your website, but also the content outside of your website. Reviews on your Google Business Profile, Yelp, Facebook, BBB, Angi profile can make a big difference.
Think about it, if someone searches for your company, or a business in your industry- they will compare and contrast their options. If you have several positive and recent reviews, you will have a better opportunity of getting the lead and closeing the sale.
How many reviews you need and how to get them
So, how many reviews do you need? I always like to have 2 or 3 more than the competition. This is a nice metric, and it doesn’t matter what your industry, population, or anything else is.
It’s best to collect the URL’s of all the places to leave you a review. After a sale or completed project, send your happy customer an email asking for a review with all those links. Thank them for choosing you, and let them know that reviews are important to your business. The links make it easy for them to leave that review without friction or fatigue.
Time on Site
‘Time on site’ measures the amount of time visitors spend on your website. This is a good KPI for small business websites because it measures the deeper their engagement with your brand. You can find this metric by signing up for Google Analytics and then connecting your site. This powerful tool can tell you a lot of different things, and time on site is one of them.
You can also track ‘time on page’. This is helpful as it is a metric that is relevant to each specific page, and not the entire site. Some pages will have low “time on page” and that would make sense. For example you wouldn’t expect someone to visit your contact page for ten minutes. People are often on the page a short amount of time because they are just looking for a phone number, hour of operation, or address.
What’s a good time on page, and how to improve it.
Most businesses will have a two to three minutes goal, although this number may be lower for smaller companies or more specific industries. If you want to boost your time on page, you must start with your target avatar.
With your ideal client in mind, look at the page you want to improve. What would make this page more helpful for your target avatar? Would a video, helpful infographic, or additional content improve the page? If you can identify a way to improve the page content, do that and you will likely be rewarded with an increased time on page/ site.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate refers to the percentage of people who visit your website, and immediately leave. Bounce rate is a good KPI for small business websites can also signify a lousy website, so measuring your website’s bounce rate is essential.
It suggests that your website’s content or design is not meeting your readers’ expectations. Moreover, it’s unlikely that you’re reaching the audience you want to target. You’ll have to optimize your website to improve the bounce rate if you’re going to grow your business and maintain a healthy profit margin.
What’s a good bounce rate and how to lower it
A good bounce rate is often 40%. You can always expect that search engines may serve your content to someone, and it isn’t quite what they are looking for.
Some quick ways to improve your bounce rate is to ensure your meta title and description are clear and accurate. This will clarify what your page is about, and reduce the likelihood someone will click and immediately bounce.
You can also improve that page content. If your page really is lousy, improve it. Update the content, photos, and add some cool features. Make the page something that really helps your client, because helpful pages have lower bounce rates.
Click-Through-Rate
Another KPIs for small business websites to measure is to monitor your click through rate (CTRs). Bounce rate estimates how many people arrive on a page and leave. The Click-through rate measures how many people land on the page and continue to read other pages.
Once again this is a metric you can easily track with Google Analytics, for free. You want someone to read a piece of content, and want to learn more information. Maybe they go from your homepage, then to your about, and finally the visit your contact page and use the submission form you.
What’s a good CTR and how to improve it
Ideally, you want a click-through rate of 20%. To do this, you will want to have quality content, clear links, clear buttons, and organized content. In a blog, you will want to find ways to link to more relevant content or content that makes the sale. Find ways to really cross-promote different information on your website, and try to make everything available within 3 to 4 clicks.
Conversion rate
Your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete the conversion process.
So, what is a conversion, and how do you measure it?
Well, that is unique to you and your business. To some, it’s a phone call, submission form inquiry, or sale. It’s specific to the industry, for example, a car dealership website gets a contact form submission after recieved a salesperson follows up, who can then win or lose the sale. A conversion in this industry is often the submission form request as the website can’t control if the salesperson is able to convert the sale.
What is a good conversion rate and how to improve it
Once again this KPI for small business websites is really specific to you. First you need to figure out how much you make per each sale, and then how many leads actually convert into a paying client, then you must figure out how many leads you need to generate to produce enough money to pay your bills. Some people have big bills to pay, others not so much.
To improve your conversion rate, make it clear to the viewer what you want them to do. If a conversion is a phone call, don’t hide the button to make a call. Make sure it is optimized for mobile users, so they just click the button and it automatically starts the call. Find any all ways you can optimize the page to make it easy as possible for your client to do what you want them to do.
Summary: KPIs For Small Business Websites
These are just a few KPIs for small business websites. You can benchmark your website’s KPI rate against your competitors and those in your industry.
The best advice for anything you do on your website is to make the website helpful and easy to use. Do your best to focus on the basics and provide your customers with good information. Answer their questions and give them insights that others cannot. This will likely increase all KPIs listed above.