Website Metrics
Analysis for online success
Terry Fine
Most dental laboratory owners have embraced having a site for their business. Unfortunately, that is where many stop. A website can provide a host of valuable statistics and metrics that can aid you in improving not only the content on your website but also your conversion rate and overall sales. Obtaining this insight and implementing it effectively requires an understanding of what you are viewing. Some of the key metrics you should be analyzing for your website are bounce rate, time on page, and the number of pages visited.
Bounce Rate
The bounce rate of your website refers to the percentage of visitors who navigate away from your site after visiting only one page. A high bounce rate may indicate that at least one aspect of your website is not functioning well. Your content could be doing a poor job in leading your visitors through your website, giving them no direction on what to do next. Ideally, visitors who land on your site will navigate through to either your contact page or online case submission portal. You should not consider all bounces as bad, so long as a page fulfills its purpose. For instance, if the goal of your website is to have potential clients fill out a form on your contact page, then there is no need to lead them to other pages if they initially land on the contact page. Every page on your website should be taken into consideration when looking at bounce rates, and you need to calibrate your goals against the purpose of each page.
Time on Page
The time-on-page metric provides you with insight into how long the average visitor spends on each page. This average can fluctuate depending on the length of the content on the page, so a short visit to a page does not necessarily mean the page is performing poorly. Nonetheless, you do not want a visitor to spend 10 minutes on your brief, to-the-point contact page. Instead, they should be filling out a contact form or gathering your laboratory's information and exiting the page. If you have a robust all-on-4 page detailing the ins and outs of the restoration, you want people spending quite a bit of time there; you should ensure that the content reads well and is valuable to those who want to learn more about this approach.
Acquisition
Google Analytics is the best option for most businesses when it comes to data acquisition. Although there are alternatives, they always fall short either by not providing all the necessary metrics or costing more, since Google Analytics is free. This service provides insight into the number of visitors and individual sessions your website has experienced during a chosen period, the calculated bounce rate, average session duration, and average time spent on particular pages. Once you begin using Google Analytics, it is important to wait and obtain a substantial amount of data before making any decisions. Having as much insight as possible will allow you to accurately analyze how your website is performing with your target audience. Once you have gained this insight, you will be able to implement changes that can help you increase conversions and get more cases showing up at your laboratory. These changes can include beefing up content, simplifying the flow of your website, and improving search engine optimization (SEO).
Website metrics are often an overlooked asset when it comes to improving the sales and conversion rates of a laboratory. Through the use of tools like Google Analytics, you can get a clearer picture of whether your website is or is not benefiting your laboratory. Using that insight, your team can start tweaking existing features and implementing new ideas into the site to directly impact the results of your marketing efforts and overall success.
About the Author
Terry Fine is President of AMG Creative in Fort Collins, Colorado.
