Engagement Metrics: Beyond Rankings
When it comes to SEO, most companies focus on rankings as a measure of success. While rankings can provide a relative measure of success, engagement metrics can provide much more insight into your SEO campaign’s overall performance than rankings alone. There are a number of engagement metrics a Tampa SEO company should use to analyze and monitor your SEO campaign. Three of the most important of these metrics include your bounce rate, average time on site, and conversion rate.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is the percentage of users that are directed to a landing page on your site and “bounce” or leave without visiting any other pages. Your bounce rate is a good indicator of how well or poorly your landing pages are performing, and is very useful in determining the quality of traffic being directed to those landing pages.
A high bounce rate is not good. This means that the traffic being directed to your site is, a.) not finding what they are looking for, b.) not engaged enough to venture onto other pages within your site, or c.) not part of your intended target audience. When looking to increase the quality of traffic to your site, this metric is a great tool for evaluating how well your site engages users, and if those users fall within your target audience.
Average Time On Site
The average time on site metric is pretty self explanatory. This metric measures the average amount of time users spend on your Web site. The longer, the better. If users find your Web site to be easy to navigate and the content to be of significant value, they will be more likely to stay on it longer. The longer users stay on your site, the more opportunity your Web site has to convert them.
Conversion Rate
The conversion rate of your landing pages is one of the most important indicators when determining the quality of traffic on your site. A high conversion rate means that a high percentage of users fall within your target audience, find your site’s content to be useful and relevant, and understand your call-to-action (CTA).
Conversions lead to sales, and sales lead to profit. In order to see a positive impact on your bottom line, your Web site needs to be able to convert visitors into customers. To increase your site’s conversion rate, consider making your Web site more attractive to users by making your site more user friendly and incorporating content that is compelling for your target audience. Also, if you have a competitive advantage, make sure users are aware of it, and draw attention to calls-to-action by using vibrant colors like bright red or orange.
In summary, when evaluating the success of your SEO efforts, rankings are just the beginning. Look to these three engagement metrics for deeper insight into your campaign’s overall success.
