Statistics show that the number of digital buyers will reach over 2 billion by the year 2021. Today’s consumers can connect to dozens of mega shops across the world.
This is through the cell phone and other mobile devices. On the other side, hundreds of online retailers in moz are competing to increase their sales figures.
Now, given the rise in competition, it is becoming necessary for e-commerce business owners to rethink their strategies.
Think of Amazon, eBay, Aliexpress, and other online retail stores.
They have grown from a simple store to reach global status and today they are making the headlines.
So, what is the growth hack secret?
The answer is simple! You must redesign your website.
The website needs to match today’s trends to keep attracting customers. Think of your e-commerce website as an invaluable sales tool.
You need to recheck some basic items on your website.
In this article, we look at some of the important features you need to consider when redesigning your existing e-commerce website.
Without further ado, let us dive right into the important growth hack features for your business website.
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Website Moz SEO Score
Search Engine Optimization is gaining greater importance in today’s digital world.
For your online store to keep attracting buyers, you must consider SEO.
This does not mean that the other traffic growth hacks are irrelevant. Consider that over 90% of online activity begins at the search bar!
Avoiding SEO places your website in the worst corner. There are different SEO methods to try.
Some of the SEO tactics to try out include the following:
Find a reputable expert to perform the above for your website and you will see considerable growth in traffic.
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Customer Service for Better User Experience
Having optimized your website, you now have increased traffic, you are not done yet. So, what next after prospects are already on your website?
Think of the website as the front desk in your office. It is the first interaction point your customers will experience from your business.
your business must serve them with top-class customer service.
If the reception is poor, you will experience a high bounce rate.
For high conversions, good customer service is the key!
So, what are some of the ways you can deliver good user support through your website? Let us have a look at some of the customer service options for your website.
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Live chat feature
Through live chat support, your customers can ask questions.
You are at a great advantage when you offer real-time answers!
Successful eCommerce websites have added the live chat support feature to their website. The live chat not only builds customer confidence but also plays a critical role in improving conversion rates.
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Knowledgebase / FAQ
Another customer support feature that is also useful is the FAQ section on a website.
Your customers can quickly refer to the frequently asked questions to find answers that will help them.
Therefore, make sure you are creating a database of the commonly asked questions.
In addition, you can come up with the “how to…” type of posts on your website. These posts will play an important role in educating customers.
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Add the Reviews Section
Online purchases start through a simple online search.
What happens when the customers find a positive review? They will add the item to the wish list or quickly buy the item. When it comes to online business, the biggest challenge is making the customers trust you.
E-commerce business managers need to do whatever it takes to gain trust.
A positive online review is worth more than running a marketing campaign on social media.
When they visit your website, showing testimonials from past clients will definitely count when they are making the final purchase decision.
When customers purchase an item from your online store, encourage them to leave a review.
This will help to build trust from your prospects.
Consider that buyers trust online reviews as much as they would trust personal recommendations. Therefore, it is time you start adding the reviews section to your website.
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Simplify the Checkout Process
Replace the traditional checkout process with a much simpler option.
Consumers are just after purchasing and hence an efficient shopping cart design is desirable.
Having a too complex checkout procedure will lead to abandoned shopping carts.
Here are some of the suggestions to simplify your e-commerce checkout process.
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- Make sure the “Add to Cart” button is visible
- Offer “Buy Now” option for those searching for a single item
- Add a Link to the Shopping cart in case they need to review
- Add more payment options
- Give the customers an option for “Continue shopping” even on the Payment section
- Save Customer details to make it easier next time they are shopping again
A simplified checkout procedure will help to grow the sales volumes.
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Track Critical Metrics for Continuous Improvement
Most successful online stores continue to win a larger share because they make decisions based on metrics.
Are you struggling to know why you are still experiencing a high bounce rate and abandoned shopping carts?
Probably it is time you up your metric tracking. You need to make decisions based on tangible metrics. This will also apply to your marketing campaigns.
Do not just shoot promotional content without measuring to determine where there is greater potential. Similarly, to keep improving your website, you must start tracking metrics.
There are various important metrics to track on your e-commerce website. The conversion rate is one of the most important metrics to start tracking.
Those important updates will help you to increase sales on your website.
Do not undermine the importance of each one of them. Remember that good customer support will lead to more referrals.
7 Important Website Metrics You Should Regularly Track
It’s imperative to monitor your website to gauge its performance continuously. With Google and other search engines surprising web admins by introducing algorithm updates when least expected, you cannot afford to let your guard down.
Here are 7 essential website metrics that you should regularly track to gauge your website’s performance and get wind of new algorithm updates and adjust your website accordingly.
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Session Duration
Session duration refers to the average time an active website user spends on your website. Different analytics tools have varying ways of measuring this metric. Google Analytics, for example, automatically ends a session if a visitor is inactive for more than 30 minutes.
The type of content on the website has a direct impact on this metric. If a website is educational and not based on interaction, it’s likely for a visitor to remain inactive for half an hour as they read the content.
Why is Website Session Duration Important?
The average website session duration clearly shows how users engage with the content published on the various pages. The more time a visitor spends on your website; the more opportunities you will get to convince them to buy.
That said, the type of content on your website will determine the session duration. If the content requires less interaction, such as long-form articles, the users will click less often even though they are still active on the website.
Thus, it’s recommendable to consider this factor alongside other factors such as bounce rate to avoid making wrong decisions.
How to calculate session duration?
As mentioned earlier, different analytics tools measure session duration differently. We recommend calculating the average result generated by two or more tools that are reputable.
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Average Time Spent
As the name suggests, average time spent refers to a visitor’s time on a page. Most people use session duration and average time spent interchangeably. The two have glaring differences even though they are somehow connected/related.
Average time spent refers to the entire duration a visitor or potential customer spends on the website. On the other hand, session duration is calculated based on the time and interaction with the website content.
Why website average time spent metric is important?
Average time spent will help you to know how interesting the content posted on the site is to the target audience. If the content doesn’t resonate with the visitors, they will spend less time on the website, and vice versa is true.
Unlike session duration, which is calculated based on interactions, the average session focuses on time spent on the page even if the user doesn’t click or interact with the content.
This metric is vital to content creators as it helps them determine which type of content to create and which to delete or improve. It also helps e-commerce websites determine the level of user experience offered by the different pages and identify friction points in the checkout process.
That is, if a customer spends more than 10 minutes on the pricing page, there is a high likelihood that the information presented is insufficient or not straightforward. Improve it to help them move on to the next stage in the sales funnel quickly.
How to calculate the average time spent?
Here is the formula for calculating the average time spent.
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Top Traffic Sources
Every website admin strives to increase organic traffic from different sources continuously. Top traffic sources are an invaluable metric showing the primary traffic sources to your website.
The traffic is grouped into four main categories, namely;
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- Search traffic: Organic traffic from the search engine results page
- Direct traffic: Traffic from visitors who type your website URL on search engines
- Referral traffic: Traffic from clicks on links posted on external websites
- Campaign traffic: Traffic from paid ad campaigns and marketing strategies such as social media marketing
Why are website top traffic sources metrics important?
Knowing the different sources of traffic to your website will enable you to decide which channels to focus on when creating content marketing strategies. Also, it will help you to determine which type of content resonates best with different groups of visitors.
For example, if you get high traffic after posting a video on social media, you should consider creating more such content to generate even more traffic and continuously engage with the audience.
Also, it will give you an idea of how the customers respond to the different marketing and outreach tools.
Save time and money by focusing on mediums that channel the highest traffic to your website. Do away or re-imagine promotions and campaigns that don’t achieve the expected traffic goals.
How to calculate top traffic sources?
Like session duration, there is no specific formula for calculating top traffic sources. The analytics tools synchronised with your website will track the traffic and present the results in a report.
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Interactions per Visit
Interactions per visit are also referred to as events. It tracks every action that a visitor takes on the website. Every click on a CTA button, each letter typed in the search bar, purchase, and other actions are used to calculate it.
There are literally countless variations of interactions, so you shouldn’t compare your website with your competitors since the websites have different types of content.
Interactions per visit refer to the average number of events on a website or page. It paints a clear picture of the engagement an average website visitor makes on a page.
Why is the website interaction per visit metric important?
Interactions per visit will inform you of the engagement levels on different pages.
For example, you will know which elements such as CTA buttons are clicked on the most by potential customers to purchase your product or subscribe to a service.
Use the data to reverse engineer your website. That is, use it to pinpoint sections of the website that need to be tweaked to engage more with the target audience and attract more visitors.
What do we mean? If, for example, the clicks on the “unsubscribe” and “remove from cart” are higher than expected, do an analysis to know why customers click on the buttons.
You can reverse the trend by offering more informative and interactive content about your products to convince the customers that your product is the best option in the market.
How to calculate interactions per visit?
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Exit Pages
The exit pages metric indicates visitors’ last page or pages before exiting the website. It is primarily influenced by the type of content published on the pages.
Why is the exit pages metric important?
Knowing the pages that a majority of your website visitors visit before exiting your website will enable you to develop ways of encouraging them to spend more time on the page. Chances are that they exist because the content on the page doesn’t match their needs or is not sufficient.
When doing conversion rate optimisation, if you realise the conversion rate is lower than expected, take a closer look at the top exit pages. Also, content and navigation issues could be the root cause of the problem.
The point where they decided to leave is often the point where they encountered a challenge or felt that your website doesn’t address their needs adequately.
For instance, if many customers abandon a cart, it could be either because the checkout process isn’t straightforward or the product/service information is not convincing enough.
Develop a plan to improve the exit pages listed in the Google analytics tool or any other tool installed on your website to get better results.
Note that if your website has “purchase successful” or “order complete” pages and they are listed on the report, the customers went through the entire sales funnel and completed the purchase successfully.
You can re-engage with such satisfied customers by applying cross-selling and up-selling strategies. That is, display other products similar to what they purchased to increase the order value.
How to calculate top exit pages?
There is no formula for calculating top exit pages. The analytics tool will monitor the website’s pages and generate a report.
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Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is a metric that records the number of visitors who exit your website after only viewing one page without interacting with the elements. The main difference between exit and bounce rates is the lack of interaction sets.
For instance, if a visitor decides to exit your website through the same page they accessed it initially but makes one or more interactions with elements such as the CTA button, that action won’t be included in the bounce rate calculation. However, the page will be listed in the exit pages’ report.
Why is the website bounce rate metric important?
Interaction rate and exit pages are essential as they pinpoint areas of the website that need to be improved. Bounce rate encompasses both as it focuses on visitors who visit the website but don’t interact with the web elements.
Interaction also encompasses additional pages that the visitor checked but opted out of because they didn’t find the content meaningful or were distracted by other external factors.
Your goal when optimising website content should be to keep the bounce rate low. A low bounce rate means that most of your visitors find the content meaningful. If it’s high, it means that the content doesn’t match the needs and expectations of your target audience.
Apart from polishing up your content, you may also have to re-think your website design. Probably the visitors exit because they cannot navigate the site or it’s not mobile-friendly.
The rule of thumb is to ensure that your website contains rich content that matches the needs of your target customer. You are better off publishing ever-green content than unoriginal and generic content.
The website design should offer seamless navigation and be accessible on multiple devices. Conduct A/B tests on the different pages to know the top-performing pages and which ones should be improved. More importantly, hire a reputable website design agency to create a custom site for your business to stand out from the crowd.
How to calculate website bounce rate?
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Returning Visitors vs. New Visitors
As the names suggest, returning visitors refer to people who have previously visited your website via the same device.
New visitors refer to people who have never visited your website via a particular device or are revisiting the site after a given period. Google Analytics has a limit of two years, so if a visitor revisits your website after two years, they are considered a new visitor.
Why are Returning visitors vs. new visitors’ metrics important?
You can tap into the relationship between the two metrics to enhance your website. A visitor’s return because something on the pages stood out and makes it memorable.
Focus on providing them with more valuable content to strengthen your relationship with them and encourage them to keep revisiting.
On the other hand, new visitors are new to your website and expect to find content, products, or services that match their needs. Please give them a reason to stick around for a while to get enough time to convince them your brand is an authority and shouldn’t opt for your competitors.
You can achieve this goal by publishing succinct content, enhancing site navigation, and creating an intuitive and user-friendly user interface.
We recommend thinking outside the box and comparing the data in the report to know which areas of your website need improvement. For example, if you notice a spike in new visitors after redesigning one landing page, consider doing the same for every product or service you offer.
In addition, increasing the site conversion rate will be difficult if the number of new visitors increases but the number of visitors remains the same. There shouldn’t be a huge difference between the two.
Word of mouth has a potent ability to enhance your digital marketing and brand awareness efforts. Thus, even as you focus on getting new visitors, you should be careful not to ruin your relationship with the returning visitors.
The latter can easily become brand ambassadors if you deliver quality services and products.
Final Thoughts
Consider these seven metrics and the Moz updates recommendations to position your website for success.
MediaOne Marketing team is on standby, ready to do a comprehensive website audit and improve your website.
Get in touch with us today for more details.
