Any good developer will tell you that it is extremely important to track your website analytics, as tracking will determine if your efforts are paying off. But, if you don’t know how to analyze the data, you’ll be left running around in circles.

A 2015 Forbes Insights report indicates that while marketers feel analytics are important, only 22 per cent of them have data-driven initiatives that achieve significant results. This insight is somewhat startling, as the importance and prevalence of analytics in marketing helps prove ROI. Understanding this data will assist developers in creating and designing more effective and efficient websites and IoT devices, as they can analyze current trends to improve their product for future developments.

Understanding how to use analytics will benefit your deliverables and your business.

Depicting the journey of your buyers, analytics are essentially the measurements of marketing efforts and success rates. In previous years, it was easy to ignore this data because of a lack of knowledge and resources, but the rise of digital marketing has rendered that excuse useless.

The ability to collect, aggregate, and calculate data allows insight into what is working and what can be improved upon. Marketers and developers can work hand-in-hand to ensure their product is reaching target goals, and that users are satisfied with their experience. But, for analytics to be useful it’s important to track, watch, and measure them effectively.

Website analytics for a single time frame can be useful, but can also lose relevance when not analyzed for an extended period of time. By analyzing the data over multiple or lengthy periods of time, it will provide valuable information around trends. In turn, this information will provide a developer with the insight required to create an innovative website.

Consider examining a year in review, or even a quarterly or monthly review, to analyze trends and make adjustments accordingly. Take note of dips in traffic, and look at the possible reasons for such fluctuation. Once you analyze the data at a granular level, you will be able to filter your development needs to cater to specific marketing trends.

When focusing on analytics, there are a few things you should keep an eye on.

New or unique visitor conversions

This information will tell you how a returning user interacts with your website, and how that differs from a first-time visitor. In order to improve the experience for first-time visitors, you must isolate the conversion rates from returning visitors or loyal customers. Once you know which page on your website they are visiting first, you can improve this initial visit and overall experience. If you have a low conversion rate for new or unique visitors, your website may not be user friendly. Meaning, as a website developer, you will need to find a better way to ensure an easy-to-use and effective platform.

Assessing bounce rate and average session duration will help you develop effective apps and websites.

Bounce rate

Your goal should be to increase the value per visitor, and minimize the bounce rate. The bounce rate is the amount of time a new visitor visits the site, and then immediately leaves, without completing any actions. If you have a high bounce rate it may mean you have irrelevant or weak sources of traffic, or weak or irrelevant content on your landing page.

Average session duration

Average session duration refers to the length of time that a visitor spends in a session on your website. This duration of time has a direct correlation with how relevant your website is to the visitor. The more relevant and interesting your website is, the more time that a visitor will spend accessing information. When the duration time is high, but the interactions per visit are low, that could mean a web page or the information is confusing. Thus, forcing visitors to spend more time on a page, as they attempt to sort out the information on it.

Once you learn what each metric means and how it works, you will be better positioned to utilize your analytics, track the progress of your website, and develop a more impactful strategy. These stats will arm you with tools you need to accomplish all of your website and development goals.

Happy tracking!

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