Last week I dove into a topic very critical for nearly every website – metrics – in a post entitled: Increasing the Conversion Rate: Critical Metrics for e-Commerce Sites. The post covered analytics you need to be paying attention to if you run an e-commerce site, as well as common metrics for all types of websites.
The analytics you should devote your time to depends on what type of website you have. Here’s a quick classification of a few analytics:
Side Note: Relative importance of site metrics based on site type. Critical goals should be measured and improved. Trend indicators can tell you if your site is headed in the right direction. Good means that it's something to keep your eyes on but it's not a primary indicator. Don't waste your time with Not Important indicators.
Beyond these, there are certain internal numbers you may want to track, especially for a lead-generation site. For example, you may keep a log of web-leads after they go to the sales department. Wouldn't it be great to know if leads from a certain keyword or web site turn into deals more often than other types of leads? Integrating your web site with a good CRM (Customer Relationship Management) suite can show you these types of things. Examples of CRM include SalesForce.com, SugarCRM, and my personal favorite, ZohoCRM, which is free for the first few users.
Join me after the jump for critical metrics common to all sites, as well as an intensive breakdown of critical metrics for lead generation websites. Read more »
