Follow Bill Linkedin Twitter Facebook
Email Bill Email
Marketing & Sales
Mar 15, 2017

Three Ways To Be Smarter With Your Web Data

Sponsored Content provided by Bill Hunter - President & Creative Director, Wilmington Design Company

The world of digital marketing is chock full of numbers and fancy industry jargon. With this deluge of data at our fingertips, it's easy to misread the numbers and draw the wrong conclusions.
 
Imagine you own a tire shop. Let's say 300 people come into your store, but only 50 of them own a car. Out of those 50, 10 currently have bald tires and are due for a state inspection. Wouldn't you want to concentrate your efforts on those who have a car, and especially those who are immediately in need of your business?
 
This is how you should think of traffic to your website and why it's so extremely important to know the right way to read the data.

Overall Traffic

You’ll often hear the number of overall sessions cited in a review of your website’s performance. This number is frequently meant to impress. “You had 500,000 sessions last year” sure sounds exciting.
 
The reality is, this number is easily inflated with poor quality traffic that is uninterested in your service or product and has been “tricked” into visiting your site. It is much more important to have qualified visitors versus an exorbitant amount.
 
This is not to say you shouldn’t look at your site’s overall traffic; just be sure to take the quality of that traffic into consideration.

Bounce rate

By definition, the bounce rate of your website measures how often someone comes to your site and leaves before visiting a second page. At first glance this seems like a great way to measure how interested users are in your product or service.
 
The truth is, the bounce rate must be taken with quite a few grains of salt. A website can have a relatively high bounce rate and be effective if users are landing on exactly the right page, finding the information they need, filling out a form and leaving the website.  
 
This type of interaction would be considered a win by almost any business, but would result in a high bounce rate if it all happened on one page.

Conversion Rate

The conversion rate of a website measures how many of the visitors do something you decide to measure. This could be completing a contact form, making a purchase, downloading a file, or any other action you consider a success.
 
The beauty of focusing on conversion rates is they help sniff out misleading numbers in other categories. A huge number of sessions and a low conversion rate means you are getting lots of unqualified traffic (customers who don’t own cars are shopping in a tire store).  
 
High bounce rates coupled with high conversions rates is a great sign meaning your landing your customers on the right page and giving them all the information they need.
 
One word of warning here - when you look at conversion rates, be sure you’re only measuring conversions that really matter. Is it really a “win” if someone visits a specific page? Bad conversion tracking leads to inaccurate conversion rates.
 
Need help sorting out fact from fiction data from your website?  The team at Wilmington Design Company would love to help solve the case! Contact us at [email protected] or (910) 395-9997.

Bill Hunter and the WDC team believe that honest business and innovative design go hand-in-hand. Their talented team of designers, marketers and developers are as diverse as our work. They offer a range of services, including marketing strategy, branding and creative web and application development, as well as digital marketing solutions specific to your business. Contact Bill at [email protected] or visit  www.wilmingtondesignco.com.  
 
 

Other Posts from Bill Hunter

Wdc 300x250 growyourbusiness
Ico insights

INSIGHTS

SPONSORS' CONTENT
2022052 75 142344351

Elevating Wilmington: Why a New, Taller Bridge is Essential for Our Progress

Natalie English - Wilmington Chamber of Commerce
Jane

It’s Child’s Play

Jane Morrow - Smart Start of New Hanover County
Jordain 422430214

Turn Culture into Cash: The Secret to Higher Profits

Jordan Cain - APPROVE

Trending News

Avelo Airlines To Establish Base At ILM, Add Three Nonstop Destinations

Cece Nunn - Dec 4, 2024

Local Ice Cream Shop Earns National Honors

Staff Reports - Dec 3, 2024

Wilmington-area Residents Appointed To State Panels

Staff Reports - Dec 3, 2024

A First Look At A Planned Aquatic Center And Recreation Village

Staff Reports - Dec 5, 2024

Local Leaders Talk Ongoing, Future Projects At Power Breakfast

Emma Dill - Dec 4, 2024

In The Current Issue

Branching Out

Live Oak Bank’s latest spinoff emerged last month with the announcement of its $4.8 million seed round....


Couple Gets Moving With Beach Carts

The idea for the Beach Mule, an electric beach cart, came to company owner and founder Will Parker while on the Bald Head Island ferry....


Raising A Different Kind Of Glass

While at events, Carter Jewell realized something was missing: an alcohol-free option that wasn’t just water or soft drinks. Something that...

Book On Business

The 2024 WilmingtonBiz: Book on Business is an annual publication showcasing the Wilmington region as a center of business.

Order Your Copy Today!


Galleries

Videos

2024 Power Breakfast: The Next Season