There are many metrics offered by
reporting tools. The tool that I am
specifically using is Google Analytics which is free to use and extremely
helpful. It is important to have a firm
understanding of the metrics used so you can understand what you are looking at
and how the information will benefit your business or your employer’s
business. There are six categories of
analytics; foundational, visit characterization, visitor characterization,
engagement, conversion, and miscellaneous.
In this blog I will be focusing on visitor characterization.
Visitor Characterization covers how
many people are visiting your page and how often. These metrics help segment the visitors to
your website and can influence the way you set up your website, keywords you
use, as well as internally referring visitors so they can see additional
products or services you offer. In the
world of metrics this data can greatly impact your website and business
strategy. With this information in mind,
I will be going over some of the basic metrics and how they impact your
website.
New Visitor
A new visitor of course is just as
the metric implies, it is the “number of unique visitors with activity
including a first-ever visit to a site during a reporting period.” (week 1
lesson, 2018) This doesn’t necessarily mean that this person has never visited
your website prior to this time, it just means this is the first time they have
visited your site during a specific reporting period. According to the Web Analytics Association, “Because
the technology used to identify visitors is not perfect, there can be a
discrepancy between identified visitors and actual visitors. New visitors are
often over-counted due to cookie deletion, usage of multiple computers or
browsers, and other reasons.” (2008)
Returning Visitor
A returning visitor is the “number
of unique visitors with activity consisting of a visit to a site during a
reporting period and where the unique visitor also visited the site prior to
the reporting period.” (week 1 lesson, 2018) Basically this means that a new
visitor who comes back in the same reporting period will not still be
considered a new visitor but rather become a returning visitor in the reporting
metrics. This metric shows you who has been
to your site more than once in a reporting period but has not been back
multiple times. “The return visitor
metric, when compared with the new visitor metric, is helpful in determining
the overall loyalty and affinity of visitors to the site being analyzed.” (Web
Analytics Association, 2008)
Repeat Visitor
A repeat visitor is the “number of
unique visitors with activity consisting of two or more visits to a site during
a reporting period.” (week 1 lesson, 2018) This is when the visitor is visiting
your site multiple times which takes them out of the category of being a return
visitor. The repeat visitor is
categorized as a new visitor if they visited for the first time during the
reporting period and visited multiple times. This keeps the visitor from being
categorized many times which would throw off the data being collected. In the chart below, you can see how each
visitor is categorized. (Web Analytics Association, 2008)
Visits Per Visitor
The visits per visitor is the “number
of visits in a reporting period divided by the number of unique visitors for
the same reporting period.” (week 1 lesson, 2018) The reporting period could be
for one day, one week, one month, etc.
This may be useful to determine the number of visitors who visited your
page when you used a paid ad, ran a special, etc. If you are a retailer and your visits per
visitor is high and you aren’t making many sales, this may be caused by a
disconnect somewhere in the purchase process.
Recency
Recency is the “time since a unique
visitor performed a specific action of interest to the analyst.” (week 1
lesson, 2018) This specific action could be downloading content, purchasing a
product, etc. The analyst could measure
any action over any period of time such as a week, month, months, or even a
year. This is helpful in determining the
loyalty of consumers. If your reporting
period is three months and you have a unique visitor make a purchase one month
after they previously made that action, they could become a loyal customer.
Frequency
Frequency is the “number of times an
action was performed by a unique visitor.” (week 1 lesson, 2018) This metric
goes along well with recency. If your
reporting period is three months and you have a consumer (unique visitor) who
purchases products from you once a month, the metric would infer a loyal
consumer.
Conclusion
Ultimately, visitor characterization
metrics are very important because they allow the analyst to understand the flow
of traffic to their website. Without this
information, the analyst wouldn’t know where the disconnects were and if there was
a possible issue with SEO. Depending on what
type of business you have, you may not have many return or frequent visitors. For instance, a photography website may have several
return visits during a reporting period. The potential client may be looking over the portfolio
and pricing to decide if they wish to contact the photographer or they may be consulting
with their significant other, family, or friends. In the case of a specialty ecommerce platform who
sells only a few select products such as an informercial product (oxyclean is coming
to mind), the returning and frequent traffic may be significantly less because they
will be coming to the website to purchase one thing.
Works Cited
Week 1 Lesson: Intro to Web Analytics and
the Basics of Web Analytics. (2018). West Virginia University.
Comments
Post a Comment