As we get nearer to the end of 2016 it’s time to start analysing data and statistics for the year gone by. Many businesses already do this for their end of year sales and profits, but rarely do they do this for their website. Analysing website data and statistics can potentially open a whole new world for your business and marketing. It’s important that you do this as you will soon uncover what has and hasn’t worked for you in 2016.
In this article, I will be discussing some key areas that you can analyse which will help you come to a conclusion on how successful your website has been for your business in 2016. Back In January, I posted an article called ‘How To Measure Website Effectiveness In 2016’ and almost 11 months on it’s now time to analyse just how effective your website has been.
If you’re reading this article and have any questions either leave a comment or contact us today.
Before we start looking into each area it’s important that you have data and statistics you can review. The best thing to do is to have Google Analytics installed on your website. If you don’t have this installed don’t worry, once you install it, and have data, you can then review the following areas. If you have not heard of Google Analytics here is a great article which explains what it is and how it can be used - How Google Analytics Works.
Now let’s get started before 2017 comes…
Website Visits
Now this is probably one of the quickest and easiest statistic to look into. This will tell you exactly what it suggests. It will tell you how many website visits you have had over the year of 2016. If you have previous data, then compare this year’s statistics to last year’s statistics. This will tell you straight away if you’ve had more visits this year or previous years.
Once you have analysed this area you can then move onto thinking what could have been done to improve this. If you’re happy with the yearly visit numbers then great, but always remember it can be increased and improved. Maybe it was the case you didn’t do any marketing for the website. There are many different marketing strategies that can be implemented to help increase website visits. Here are just some of the strategies you can try:
- SEO Marketing
- PPC Marketing
- Targeted Online Advertising
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Conversion Rate Optimisation
Website Orders
The next area to look at is only for E-Commerce websites and businesses. If you’re not E-Commerce then you can move onto the next section of this article. This area is again an easy one to look into as it’s the total number of website orders for the year of 2016. Again, you will firstly need to think about what you would expect to see here.
Once you review this information you will then find out whether or not the figure is lower or higher than your first thought. If you’re happy with the yearly number of website orders then great, but always remember it can be increased and improved. If you want to learn more about how you can improve your E-Commerce website and get more sales here are some fantastic articles:
- 8 Ideas For A Great Ecommerce Website Home Page
- 9 Things Every E-Commerce Business Should Be Doing To Succeed
- 4 Quick Ideas To Increase Sales For An Ecommerce Business
Website Enquiries
This area is a little more difficult to look into and it will take some time to get these statistics together. The next area you want to look into is how many website enquiries were made during 2016. By this, I mean how many form submissions were completed by potential customers. These forms could include contact forms, request a quote forms, request a free call forms etc. Again, you want to have a rough idea in your mind and once you get the information together you can then review how close the actual number is to your number.
If the number was less than what you thought it could be for a number of reasons. It could be that you don’t have many forms on your website, there was a period where the forms did not work or perhaps you’re not asking visitors to complete your forms. We’ve posted some great articles on how you can help improve the amount of enquiries you get:
- 4 Reasons You Aren't Getting Website Enquiries
- 10 Steps To An Effective Website That Attracts Enquiries & Sales
- How to Get More Enquiries From Your Website – An 11-Point Checklist
Website Upgrades
The next area that you can review is in regards to any website upgrades that may have been implemented throughout 2016. This may not be an area where you can review statisticly but when analysing your website performance you also need to look at website upgrades. Website upgrades are often made to improve a website's performance or to add a new functionality. When reviewing any upgrades made, you need to think about whether or not they had a positive impact on your website. You could even ask existing customers to review the new upgrades to gain feedback on whether they were actually needed or not.
If you’re thinking about making upgrades to your website in 2017 or looking at a brand new website design, here are some articles on this subject:
- How Much Does a Website Cost?
- 7 Mistakes To Avoid When Launching A New B2B Website
- Avoid Website Failure By Testing These 5 Key Elements
SEO Campaigns
If you’ve been running an SEO Campaign it’s also important that you review and analyse just how successful that campaign has been. If it’s the case that you’ve hired an agency, like ourselves, then the best thing to do is to give them a call and run through how 2016 went. If it’s the case that you ran an SEO Campaign in-house, then you will need to ask the team that managed it how it went and run through the figures with them.
Learn more about SEO campaigns with these articles:
- How To Know If Your SEO Company Is Doing A Good Job For You
- How to Check if Your Local SEO Campaign is Performing Well
- How Long Does SEO Take?
PPC Campaigns
Again, similar to the SEO Campaign, if you’ve been running a PPC Campaign you need to know how successful it was over 2016. It may be the case that you got another company to manage your PPC so you will need to contact them and run through the data with them. If it was managed in-house you will need to speak to the team that worked on this and ask the same questions.
Here are some questions we regularly get asked about:
- How Long Does PPC Take To Get Optimal Results?
- Why Use A PPC Agency To Outsource Google AdWords Management
Final Thoughts To End With
No matter how successful your year has been it can always be improved and results can always get better. By analysing data and statistics it will show you key areas that you need to focus and work on. By doing this you will be able to put a solid plan together which you can work to throughout 2017!
Remember: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance!
