Website visitors is a useful gauge to understand if you are growing the number of people who visit your website.
There are 3 things to remember when looking at website visitors as a metric.
- Use with bounce rate understand audience quality. You might have had a large increase in Website Visitors. However are they engaging with you, browsing your website and taking action? The quickest way to know the quality of the new visitors is to combine visitors with bounce rate. A high number of visitors and high bounce rate will indicate a disengaged or incorrect audience. A high number of visitors and low bounce rate would indicate the right audience and on the surface things are going well.
- Know your Website visitor type: There are two main type of website visitors. There is the new visitor, those who have never visited before, or are browsing on a different device for the first time. And returning visitors, those who have previously visited your website. Returning visitors will tend to convert better, however to grow you need to attract new visitors.
- Do not confuse Website visitors with visits: Visitors, sometimes referred to as users or unique users are individual devices used to view your website. Visits or sessions on the other hand are the number of time a visitor has come to your website.
The What, Why and How
Website Visitors
What is it?
Website visitors is the number of unique people (on a specific device) who have visited your website.
The higher the number the higher the number of people who have visited.
This might not truly represent unique people, as someone who visited the website one a mobile and a desktop device would be counted as two different people.
Why should I measure it?
To create growth we need to increase our Website Visitors over time.
Depending on the type of product or services we are offering this will vary the type of Website Visitors we have, new visitors vs. returning visitors.
Knowing the time between purchases, will inform what type of Website Visitors we could expect.
If we had a higher time between purchases, a higher number of returning Website Visitors could mean our products last longer on average, and there is less need for people to come back.
A lower number could mean visitors are back in the market for your product or service on a more regular basis.
For example imagine the time between purchases of a dining table vs. stationary.
How to diagnose it
Typically the higher the number of new visitors, the lower the conversion rate.
A quick way of understanding if your growth in website visitors is positive, is to combine it with bounce rate. This way you can understand if the new visitors are engaging with your site or visiting and then immediately leaving without taking action.
Designing the website to meet the needs of the user type is critical.
Recognising returning visitors with personalised content can help make the website experience relevant.
For example not showing products they have previously purchased.
For new visitors, it is about brand recognition and validation plus making it easy for a new visitor to find what they are looking for.
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Where can I see it?
The screenshot is from Google Analytics and shows the change in website visitors, described as “users” can be viewed over time.
In this example bounce rate has been used as a measure of the quality of the traffic and how this has also changed over time, with the increase in new visitors.
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Select “users” as a metric to show the website visitors coming to your website.
2
In this example there has been an increase in website visitors.
3
There has also been a marginal increase in bounce rate.
4
This is where you can see where the visitors have come from, and which channel is contributing the most amount of traffic.
5
In this example the bounce rate is high and might indicate the audience increase is not positive. The audience might not be right for the website, or the content might not be relevant for the audience.
The Crank View
In the graphic we looked at the change in visitors over time to see the impact it had on overall revenue and conversion rate.
In this case we have highlighted two different channels to see if the increase or decrease in website visitors has had a positive or negative impact on revenue.
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There has been a big decrease in the visitors in this period vs the previous period, from Branded Paid Search.
2
The reduction in visitors has improved the conversion rate of the website for this audience, Branded Paid Search visitors.
3
Newsletter visitors has dramatically increased in this period vs the previous period.
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This has negatively impacted the conversion rate for this Newsletter audience, which might suggest an over contacted customer base.
5
Although the conversion rate increased, the overall drop in traffic has negatively impacted revenue.
6
Even though the conversion rate dropped, the overall increase in Newsletter visitors has been positive. The overall revenue has increased for this audience during this period. However this should be monitored given the potential for over contacting customers with newsletters.
People also ask . . .
Who are unique Website visitors to a website?
Unique visitors are those visitors who have visited your website on a specific device over a set period of time.
This is different from visits, which is the number of times a visitor, comes to your website.
For technical definition visit here.
What is a new Website Visitor?
A new visitor, those who have never visited before, or are browsing on a different device for the first time.
What does a returning website visitor mean?
A returning visitor, are those who have previously visited your website. Returning visitors will tend to convert better, however to grow you need to attract new visitors.
Recommended Reading
Below is some recommended content, we have picked out. This content is mixture of resources to help you through to other articles which help understand more about digital.
Download: Budgeting for Marketing research – Our research covers what the leading organisations do to forecast and set their budgets for marketing. Read how they accurately forecast and adjust their budgets to get ahead.
Define: Cost per Acquisition (CPA) – Read about one of the most important metrics when setting your marketing budget. Understand if your website traffic is profitable and how to diagnose the unprofitable channels.
Discover: Resource for senior marketers – See our latest research or white papers to help you get ahead. Alternatively, read our digital marketing glossary for senior leaders to understand the jargon and acronyms of digital.
Recommended Reading
Below is some recommended content, we have picked out. This content is mixture of resources to help you through to other articles which help understand more about digital.
Download: Metrics that Matter – Our whitepaper looks at the metrics you need to keep an eye on. These are split out by job role and help you navigate through all those numbers, to help you track and focus on the ones which will impact your role.
Define: Conversion Rate – Read about a critical metric for measuring the number of people who take action on your website. Learn how to diagnose conversion rate and understand how conversion rate impacts your cost per acquisition.
Discover: Resource for senior marketers – See our latest research or white papers to help you get ahead. Alternatively, read our digital marketing glossary for senior leaders to understand the jargon and acronyms of digital.
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