DAILY VISITORS AND PAGE VIEWS - WHAT DOES ALL OF IT MEAN?

Jan 18

For 8 years all I did was analyze metrics for Style Unveiled ... metrics are anything having to do with a website and the traffic and flow of each visitor:

page views
unique visitors
daily visitors
popular content
activity
referrers
time spent on the website
search queries

I learned what I could do with traffic, how to create an online environment that made people want to click around (not bounce out after 1 page view) and what all of it meant. I now apply those practices and that knowledge to every website I design. My goals are:

create a homepage that makes a visitor want to click to see another page
create a flow and design that leads the visitor to want to learn more about contacting my client
select images that the visitor will want to 'pin' and blog posts they will want to share on FB

Metrics don't lie .... there is no way to fudge them or create metrics that look appealing ... metrics can also be confusing!! Have you ever tried to make sense of Google Analytics? That takes more than a wink and a smile ... which is why I am obsessed with Squarespace metrics << there's an article you will find useful if you are considering switching to Squarespace or if you already have a Squarespace website.

Today I want to specifically talk about daily visitors, page views and audience size. Here is what these are broken down:

Daily Visits: The number of times somebody clicked into your website
Page Views: How many different pages were viewed
Audience Size: How many unique visitors you had

Now, some may ask: aren't 'daily visits' and 'audience size' the same thing? No. Daily visits is the total number of times somebody clicks into your website ... which means that you could have returning visitors (which is awesome!!!) ... so those numbers mean different things. And if they are different: then yay for you!!! This means your brand is memorable and people are coming back for more!

Another question that may be on your mind: what does all of this mean for my SEO (search engine optimization)? USER EXPERIENCE. Google is all about user experience ... if a website has 'clicks in' but not many page views it tells Google that the website isn't engaging the audience and Google may give that website a lower ranking. If Google sees a website with traffic and multiple or many page views per visitor they may rank that page higher because of the experience it believes each visitor is having. You want to engage your audience into clicking around.

You may recall me discussing the importance of MOBILE OPTIMIZATION about a million and one times here on The Editor's Touch ... and this all ties in!! If people are clicking into your website on a mobile device and you don't have a mobile optimized website then that visitor is going to be very cranky and 'click out' ... which tells Google: utoh, this website is creating a bad environment for visitors.

XO~ Heather