What are the three most important web metrics relating to your digital properties?
If you had some trouble thinking of anything beyond page views and conversions, you’re not alone. When you start scratching the surface of web metrics and key performance indicators (KPI) you can easily find yourself in a very tangled mess of charts and numbers.
So what’s the best way to untangle that mess? You can start by appraising a smaller number of metrics and seeing how they apply to your particular business using these factors.
Know Your Audience
You know, or should know, your audience better than anyone in the world. You know that they are individual people with individual needs.
If you’re doing things correctly, you also know who they are (or at least have a good demographic picture of who they are).
If you don’t know the basic demographic profile of your readership, you’ll never be able to effectively market to them.
Looks for Trends, Watch for Events
Once you’ve secured some basic analytic tools, it’s extremely tough to not peek at them on a daily, even hourly, basis. For that reason, most analytics experts warn marketers to avoid reading too much into one-time data spikes.
While daily events can definitely be important, it’s the big picture that you’ll be wanting to keep in focus. Those macro-trends (i.e. “the big picture”) that really shapes your business. In short, don’t sweat the small stuff at the expense of the bigger issues.
Finally
One of the most effective methods for utilizing data streams in your day-to-day publishing is to be flexible. With so many data options available at a reasonable price to even the smallest publisher, there’s no reason to struggle with data that isn’t exactly what you want.
For more information on selecting web metrics you can really use, check out Content Marketing KPI’s and Metrics: 15 Important Considerations by Rob Garner.