Website Engagement

Engagement can be measured in different ways.  Some ways produce a higher customer satisfaction rate than others, however, metrics cannot always determine the difference between a satisfied customer or an unsatisfied customer.  Metrics can measure the time spent on the site, the pages visited, how long the visitor was on each page, etc.  The issue with these metrics is it can’t tell if the engagement matches its true definition “The Marriam-Webster dictionary defines engaging as “tending to draw favorable attention or interest.” (Avinash Kaushik, 2010, p. 56) If a person spends ten minutes enjoying the content they are finding then that produces a high customer satisfaction.  If a person spends ten minutes looking for something on your website and not being able to find it, that produces low customer satisfaction.  Either of these examples can contribute to your page views per visit.  The viewer may love the content and be looking for more content to enjoy or they could be having a terrible visit and search many pages without finding what they need.  Kaushik states, “My friend Theo Papadakis shared this brilliant insight with me: quantitative data (web analytics) is limited in that it can measure the degree of engagement but not the kind of engagement.” (2010, p. 57)

Additional ways Kaushik points out to measure engagement are:  subscribing to your RSS feed or newsletter, leaving a comment, or downloading content.  (2010, p. 58) One way you can measure the kind of engagement you are receiving is online or on-exit surveys which will produce qualitative data that you can compare against the engagement rates.  One issue with these surveys is often businesses set these up to pop up too soon on a page when the visitor has not interacted with the page or even browsed additional pages.  From my own experience, when this happens, it can cause frustration with the visitor that may cause them to leave the page without visiting other pages.

Page Exit Ratio

The page exit ratio lets you know which pages people are visiting and then leaving from.  When someone browses through your content and then leaves at a certain point, it is left up to you to determine if that person left because they were just finished browsing or if there is a disconnect on that page that causes them to leave.  According to Kaushik, the exit rate is what is considered a bad metric because everyone will leave your page at one point or another, where they leave does not necessarily reflect on the page itself. (2010, p. 54) Page exit ratios may not determine if a page is good or bad but a bounce rate can tell you if the page is having issues such as the design, load time, functionality, etc. 

Individual page bounce rate/exit ratio

Bounce Rate

If a visitor visits only one page for five seconds or less, metrics considers it a bounce.  A bounce means that the person visited and found something they didn’t like, the page didn’t work, or it wasn’t what they were looking for, so they didn’t continue looking through pages for additional information.  The way metrics analyzes this is by giving the bounce rate percentage of people who visited your site and then left without looking at additional pages.  You can measure the bounce rate for the entire site or you can measure it page by page.  When you measure the bounce rate by page, you get to see which pages have the highest percentage of bounces which may clue you in to an issue with that page.  The one case this may not be true is a blog post because people will come to specifically read that blog and may not click on additional pages once they completed the action they intended. 

Another way to track engagement is by using a Facebook pixel.  When you pay for an ad placement, you can set different pieces of Facebook pixel code into the pages, which ones depends on the action you want to monitor.  When someone clicks on the ad and goes to your website or landing page, the Facebook pixel begins monitoring their path and can track them until they leave or complete the desired action.  

Overall bounce rate

Conclusion

Overall, engagement metrics can be useful in determining some disconnects, however, they cannot give the analyst insight into the motives and thoughts of the visitor.  This can particularly be difficult when there isn’t a specific action to be taken such as purchasing a product.  For service based companies, the best way to determine the interest of the visitor is if an action is taken such as contacting the business.  An example would be a realtor website.  They get many views from potential homebuyers, however, the majority of those are just searching properties instead of thinking in terms of finding a realtor.  Ways to get engagement would be to offer a newsletter with helpful information for potential homebuyers as an incentive to sign up.  The bounce rate for a realtor website may be lower if the visitor is spending time looking at homes.  The more information they include about the home, the lower the bounce rate may be.

Works Cited:

Kaushik, A. (2010). Web analytics 2.0: The art of online accountability & science of customer centricity. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing.