After covering ways to make your site attractive, searchable and actionable, it’s time to think about whether or not the tactics you’re using are working. Your site, like your agency, is unique, and what works for others may not work for you and your client base. To find out what does work, you’ll need to set up and monitor specific site analytics.
Analytics are a way to measure different aspects of your site, such as how users found your site, how long they stay on each page, and how many unique visitors you get each month. Monitoring analytics help you judge your site’s effectiveness. When gathering analytics you should look at stats that answer the following questions:
HOW is your site found?
These stats help you determine the different ways current and potential clients find your site.
- Direct visits: Users who typed your website into their address bar or have it saved as a bookmark
- Organic visits: Users who came to your site through unpaid search results
- Referral visits: Users sent to your site by other sites (i.e. insurance raters, blogs, etc.)
- Top non-branded keywords: Keywords that send people to your site. These do not include your agency’s name, but are something like “auto insurance Ohio”.
WHERE do users go?
These categories let you know which pages are attracting users and what they’re doing on these pages.
- Top landing pages: These are the pages through which users enter your site. Direct visits are usually to the home page, but search and referral visits could send users to other pages like “Request a Quote” or “About Us”.
- Top visited pages: Shows which pages are visited most often, and for the longest length of time.
- Bounce rate: This is when a user visits your site and leaves without interacting with a page.
- Percent exit: Similar to bounce rate, this shows the percent of users who leave your site from a specific page.
WHERE, WHEN and HOW OFTEN do users contact you?
These stats are usually found through:
- Number contact forms completed
- Most effective call to action
- Percent total site visitors completing a form
- Most effective day and time for completed forms
Other great stats to look at include pages indexed in Google and link popularity. Pages indexed shows you which pages on your site are known by Google, making it easier for Google to direct users to those pages. Link popularity provides info on the number of links to your site from other websites, and the quality of the sites that link to you. These stats are helpful in your searchability, which, as it improves, helps you bring in more potential clients.
Google Analytics is a great free tool for tracking your site’s stats, or you can ask your site’s administrator if they provide analytics. Regardless of which you use, have a professional look over your stats to analyze them and provide advice on how you can improve your site’s look, usability and reach.
Other great contacts to help improve your site are those in your agency management systems user group. We at SIS know the importance of connecting with other agency owners, and our NASPA user group is always buzzing with new ideas. To find out more about NASPA, and the latest updates to Partner XE, contact us today!
