It's possible that your website is totally fine. It's bringing in traffic, your company is making money, everyone is happy. But… what if you could do better than fine? Your website is telling you a story that could bring in more traffic, convert that traffic into paying customers, and increase your profits. In order to understand that story, however, you need to know these critical website metrics.

1. Home-Page Metrics

Your home page is the page that sees the most traffic and acts as a doorway into your site. Some of the things that home-page metrics can tell you include:

• Top Referrers. Where does your traffic come from? Can you strengthen relationships with those websites, thereby bringing even more people to your site?
• Time Spent on Page. Do your visitors leave instantly or do they stick around to read the page? What effect would different images, stronger and more relevant headlines, and maximizing the effect of hot spots have on this metric?
• User Paths. Where do your visitors go, after they leave the home page? What links are attracting the most attention? Are you effectively leading your visitors in the direction you want them to take? Could you increase performance by changing your calls to action or copy?

2. SEO Metrics

If you're optimising your site to rank well in search engines (and with so much free traffic to be had, why wouldn't you be?), then SEO metrics can help make your efforts more successful. Critical SEO metrics include:

* High-Traffic Keywords. Which search terms are driving the most traffic to your site? Are they highly relevant? Do you fulfill the expectations of people who come to your site looking for those keywords?

* High-Profit Keywords. Sometimes, the keywords that drive the most traffic aren't the ones that convert the most customers. Which searches bring the people who are ready to buy to your site?

* SEO Focus. Your SEO metrics can tell you where you should focus your search engine optimisation. Are you failing to drive traffic for key search terms? Do you need to provide more content to support high-profit search terms, in order to get a better ranking for those terms?

3. Conversion Metrics

Your check-out process is the next area where metrics can help you increase your profits. Types of critical information you can glean from these reports include:

• Most Successful Pages. Which pages or user paths work best to usher your visitors to your purchase point? What do those pages have that others don't? Can you replicate their success in other areas of your site?
• Shopping Cart Performance. How many people start the check-out process and then abandon their chosen items? What can you do to lower that number? Can you streamline your process, improve shopper confidence, add more visible value to your product, or clarify the information you offer?
• After the Sale. What do your shoppers do, once they finish the check-out process? Could you leverage their positive attitude to make more profits? Are you losing up-sell opportunities, chances to invite them to your newsletter to encourage repeat sales, or chances to convince them to leave a testimonial or invite their friends to your site?

Your website metrics could be the key to increased satisfaction and loyalty among your customers, and increased profits for your business. Learn how to understand the story they are telling you, and use that story to implement positive changes to your site. If you would like to discuss improving your web metrics, please call 08452 579606