If you are looking to increase sales from your store, at some point you absolutely must read what your website analytics are telling you.
It’s not enough to just drive more traffic to a site or add more products in the hope of increasing sales. Sure, that may have a small and limited impact, however, to really increase and sustain sales, you must find out where your problem spots are. You can locate these problem spots by reading your website analytics. They hold the key to your success.
However, oftentimes users ask … “there are so many numbers in my analytics, where do I start”?
The most logical place to start is to find out where users are leaving your site.
While there are a number of key metrics that are important within your analytics, none can be more important initially than your “Single Page Bounce Rate” in determining where problems are.
Assuming you are receiving qualified traffic to your site, “Bouncing” a potential customer due to circumstances completely within your control is like kicking them out and saying “I don’t want you here.” That’s no way to make money.
Bounce Rate is NOT the same as the Exit Rate. Both are very important and worthy of review, but do not confuse what the two metrics report on.
Likewise, website bounce rate and single page bounce rate, although similar metrics, report on two different areas of a site. For purposes of this article, I’ll focus on single page bounce rates.
While each are important in determining problem spots, the first one to focus on is the Bounce Rate (I’ll explain why later in this article.)
Wikipedia defines a Bounce as:
“A Bounce occurs when a website visitor leaves a page or a site without visiting any other pages before a certain session timeout elapses.”
More detailed information can be found by going to Bounce Rate at the Wikipedia site. I highly recommend reading it if you have not already as it contains some very helpful information on the topic.
Why Should I Focus on Bounce Rate First?
[Read more…] about 1 Key Website Statistic That Maps the Road to Success