Recently I had a chance to hear Doug Karr talk about social media and web metrics. In an information-loaded presentation which made my head spin and hand cramp from writing, he shared tips on measuring social media and internet marketing campaign performance. While the entire presentation was filled with worthwhile content, my favorite part focused on what to do with the data. Doug discussed strategies to use to improve performance on key metrics. These strategies are not just busy work, but part of an integrated approach to make you web sited the center-point of our overall marketing strategy.

As he began discussing the measures, he cautioned us to beware of measuring day to day or week to week. Often ripples in traffic may be the result of factors outside your control. Holidays, weather changes or big new stories may temporarily distract your visitors. He suggested business owners look at the trends over time, adjusting strategies to create a generally upward trend.

His metrics can be divided into three categories: types of traffic, traffic sources and performance. I will take a closer look at each of these categories over the next few days, but here is a brief summary:

  • Traffic Measurements should include: Total visitors as well as a closer look at both new and returning visitors. While you want to to grow the total, the strategies for new vs returning visitors are very different. Typically new visitors will represent about 75% of your total traffic. Is your traffic in balance?
  • Evaluation of  Traffic Sources should including: Referring sites, key words and landing pages. This will give you the best insight into WHY people come to your site.
  • Performance: Are you engaging visitors when they arrive. Measures such as page views, bounce rate, time on site and conversion will tell you if you are meeting visitor expectations.

Check back all week as we take a closer look at each of these elements.