What is Google Analytics KPIs?
Google Analytics is a special tool for evaluating success in online marketing. At the heart of the software are the so-called Key Performance Indicators – KPIs for short.
Among other things, the KPIs provide information about the number and behavior of website visitors. The link structure, loading time, and other technical aspects can also be viewed. Key performance indicators are the vital signs of a website – whether it’s an online store, a company blog, or a landing page.
Important: Key performance indicators are to be distinguished from metrics. The difference lies in their meaningfulness. Metrics reflect a pure value without a reference point. Key performance indicators are always related to an individual, predefined target value.
In practice, data analysis is mainly carried out by web agencies and specialized SEO agencies. The reason: laypersons quickly lose track of the data given the abundance of data. In this case, a digital marketing agency like ONELINE can help.
Professional SEO agencies pay attention to these 10 KPIs
There are ten basic key performance indicators in online marketing that every web agency includes in monitoring the success of a website. The required data comes from Google’s analysis tool.
1. The number of visitors
A first helpful overview of the success of a website is given by the number of visitors. In its analysis tool, Google not only shows the pure number of visitors. The software also maps how many pages they have visited in each case. If the number of website visitors is high and the number of pages visited is low, this may indicate poor menu navigation, for example.
2. Average dwell time
In digital marketing, dwell time is a significant value. It expresses how long visitors stay on the website on average. A very low dwell time indicates a mismatch between visitors’ expectations and the content of the page. This discrepancy can have different reasons.
Common causes of low dwell time:
- misleading meta description or wrong anchor text
- insufficient user-friendliness of the website
- long loading times
- inferior content without added value
- no target group-oriented keyword optimization
Dwell time is often the first metric that SEO agencies look at as part of their evaluation.
3. The bounce rate
Closely related to the dwell time is the bounce rate – also called bounce rate. The bounce rate says: How many visitors leave the page again without having interacted with it?
Fleeing visitors are a clear indication of the need for optimization of a website. A high bounce rate can be based on content-related, aesthetic, or technical causes. Assuming thorough troubleshooting, the bounce rate is the easiest to improve.
4. Share new and returning visitors
Google uses cookie data to evaluate this metric. The amount of new and returning visitors is not an exact value. The background: many Internet users delete cookies regularly or visit the same website via different devices.
When it comes to the percentage of new and returning visitors to the website, the trend is crucial. This is especially valid if the analysis runs parallel to certain marketing measures.
5. Organic traffic share
The share of organic traffic indicates whether search engine optimization (SEO) is successful. Especially for SEO agencies, this key figure is relevant. The basic question is: How many users find their way to the website organically?
The comparison with the target value forms the basis for optimizations. Possible improvements are an expansion of backlinks, better keyword research, or a more search engine-friendly page structure.
6. Share of visitors through campaigns
Google Analytics can reflect a variety of campaign-related data. In addition to Google Ads, this also includes email marketing campaigns. For each campaign, the tool shows the number of new users, the bounce rate, and many other key figures.
The campaign-related evaluation helps to refine individual catalogs of measures. In addition, it enables you to consistently expand successful campaigns and discontinue weakening ones.
7. Page loading time
How quickly a page load is crucial to its success. If a user has to wait several seconds for the website content, he or she will quickly bail out. The algorithm of the search engine also evaluates a long loading time as negative.
Page speed is one of the most important data points in Google’s analysis tool. Improving this key figure can have a positive effect on the bounce rate and dwell time.
A long loading time goes back to technical causes, such as too large image files on the website or an error in the server. There are special tools that pinpoint the reason for slow loading time.
8. Location of visitors
If you want to target your website to a regional audience, you should take a close look at this data point. Knowing the location of website visitors is essential for successful Local SEO.
9. Conversion rate
All website owners have an individual goal with their web presence – to get users to take a certain action. The conversion rate tells how many of the visitors have performed the desired action. This can be, for example, the purchase of a product or the registration for the newsletter.
If the conversion rate is low, this may indicate poor navigation or a lack of user trust. As with all metrics in online marketing, it is important to look at the conversion rate over time
10. Landing page data
The landing page is the first page a visitor lands on after clicking a link. With Google’s analytics tool, it is possible to take a close look at the bounce rate, dwell time, and many other data of a specific page.
If a landing page shows good key figures, this is a guide for the design of further pages. Conversely, the data analysis identifies starting points for revising existing landing pages.
KPIs are indispensable for success analysis in online marketing
Google’s analysis tool uses key performance indicators to provide insight into the current state of a website. By comparing them with predefined target values, the evaluation of the key performance indicators enables a detailed success control. The most important benchmarks include the number of visitors, the bounce rate, and the average length of stay.
As a powerful software, Google Analytics maps a large number of measurable key figures. Whoever loses the overview given the flood of data should use the services of a specialized SEO agency like ONELINE. As a professional online marketing agency from Zug, we relieve our partners of the time-consuming analysis of success.
