Often start-ups and small businesses evaluate their web site based on a few key metrics:
Traffic
Time on Site
Bounce Rate
and of course Conversion.
These are all good metrics to use to understand the quality and quantity of your web site traffic and the performance of your web site. But which one is most important? The answer often depends on the goals of the company or organization. For almost every brand though, Conversion is the primary focus.
And that's great, but remember that in its simplest form Conversion is made up of two variables: # of visitors and # of converted visitors. The reason I bring this up is because many marketing managers and CEOs focus on the second variable. I encourage you to always be evaluating your traffic-driving techniques in terms of driving qualified traffic only, and really work to actually bring the first number (# of visitors) down.
Down?
Yes. More traffic is not always better. In fact, more can be worse because it costs your more in terms of advertising and customer service. It essentially drives up your overall marketing cost of customer acquisition and drives down your conversion rate.
Drive qualified traffic by refining your advertising and outbound marketing efforts to engage your target audience as best as possible. It takes more work up front to find the right sites, keywords, etc., but it will pay you back in form of lower costs and a better-performing site.
Need help evaluating your marketing programs or web site? Email me.
