What You Need to Know About Your Website Traffic

We believe that every business website should have some form of analytics or tracking installed so that traffic can be measured and analyzed. Along with that though comes the need to understand the information that is captured. An analytics report will give back an awful lot of data & metrics but what does the business owner really need to know in order to evaluate the performance? Keep reading and we will tell you exactly what's most important to know:

One of the single most important (and often overlooked) aspects of a website traffic report is the % of new visitors vs. returning visitors. Google defines a "new visitor" as someone who visited your website for the first time. Your current customers most likely search for your business by name. But prospective customers tend to search by topic, such as "dentist" or "florists" or "oil change".


If a major goal of your Internet marketing program is to generate potential new customers (as it is in most cases) then the new visitor % stat is a really important one since it's a great indicator of who is visiting your website. Is your website traffic mostly existing customers and returning visitors, who probably typed your business name into a search engine? Or do you have a higher percentage of new visitors (potential new customers) who found your website by typing in a new business search (like "insurance agent", "transmission repair shop", "roofing company in Boston", etc.)?

The ideal new visitor % in your website traffic report will differ based on your business category but if you are finding a small percentage of your website traffic coming from new visitors then you probably have a case of poor search engine rankings for new business searches in your local market. For example, if you are a dentist in Providence, RI and your website does not show on the first page of Google for the keyword search "Dentist Providence, RI" then you most likely are not getting a large percentage of new visitors to your website. Instead, your website traffic is mostly comprised of existing patients who need to find your phone number or address. Existing customers finding you is certainly a good thing but if business growth from the Internet is a goal then you also need a healthy percentage of new traffic consistently visiting your website.

Have questions about whether your website traffic is helping you achieve your business goals? Contact us!