Track Web Traffic with These Metrics

Understanding your website's traffic metrics provides invaluable insights that can help optimize performance. By regularly monitoring key indicators like volume, sources, engagement, conversions and loyalty, you gain a detailed view of user behavior that enables data-driven decisions to increase traffic, leads and sales over time.

In this post, we'll explore the core web traffic metrics worth tracking using tools like Google Analytics and DevHunt. We'll look at typical benchmarks to gauge your site's performance and provide actionable tips to improve these numbers.

The key categories we'll cover include:

• Traffic volume metrics
• Source and channel metrics
• Engagement metrics
• Conversion metrics
• Loyalty and recency metrics

Optimizing these web analytics KPIs (key performance indicators) is crucial for any business looking to connect with customers online, capture leads and grow revenue. Let's dive in.

Traffic Volume Metrics

Traffic volume metrics indicate the overall size of your audience and market reach. Tracking these regularly provides insight into demand and awareness.

Pageviews

Pageviews count how many times each page on your site is viewed. It differs from visits, which can involve multiple pages per session. On average, sites see 2-3 pageviews per visit.

With 5+ pageviews per visit, DevHunt is performing well here. This shows visitors are engaging deeply with content. You can further increase pageviews by:

• Adding more in-depth, long-form content
• Optimizing site architecture and navigation
• Building internal links between related content

Unique Visitors

Unique visitors represent the number of individual people who visit your site each month. Typical benchmarks range from 1,000 to 100,000+ uniques monthly, depending on industry.

At around 50,000 monthly unique visitors, DevHunt's traffic significantly exceeds average. Focus on sustaining this stream of new visitors through SEO, social promotion and potentially limited advertising.

Visits

A visit is a session on your site involving one or more pageviews. Average visit length is 2-3 minutes.

With average visit duration of 5 minutes, DevHunt visitors are more engaged than normal. Boost time on site by improving page speed, adding sticky content, and monitoring visitor journeys to reduce fall-off.

Traffic Source and Channel Metrics

Analyzing traffic sources highlights the key channels and referrers driving site visits. This informs outreach and promotion strategies.

Direct Traffic

Direct traffic comes from visitors typing in or bookmarking your URL directly. This accounts for 40% of traffic on average.

Given over 50% of its traffic comes direct, DevHunt has strong brand awareness and repeat visits. Doubling down on branding, retention and loyalty initiatives can further increase direct traffic.

Referral Traffic

Referral traffic originates from external sites linking to your content. Top sources are often industry blogs, publications and partner websites.

Currently driving 30% of visits, DevHunt has robust referral traffic, signaling awareness as an authority site. Building relationships with more partner sites and guest posting can expand referrals.

Social Traffic

Social traffic stems from channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit and more. On average, social accounts for 15-20% of site visits.

At around 10% presently, DevHunt has room to boost social traffic by engaging followers, optimizing hashtag use, running limited paid social campaigns and leveraging UGC.

Organic Search Traffic

Organic search traffic comes from unpaid search engine listings on Google, Bing and others. Most sites receive 25-35% of visitors via organic search.

While not specified, DevHunt can grow search traffic through SEO by optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, content, backlinks and page speed.

Engagement Metrics

Engagement metrics indicate how visitors interact with your content. These provide insight into user experience to guide refinements.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate shows the percentage of visitors who leave after one page. High bounce suggests content is missing the mark. Aim for under 60%.

With an excellent bounce rate of ~25%, DevHunt visitors find the content engaging. Further reduce bounces by improving navigation and page load speeds.

Time on Page

Time on page reveals how long users spend consuming each page. Higher times signal engaged visitors. Benchmark targets vary by industry.

DevHunt could track this to identify the most engaging pages as well as those needing improvement.

Pages/Session

This averages the number of pages viewed per visit. More pages per session indicates sticky content. Averages range from 2-4 pages/session.

At 5+ pages/session, DevHunt performs well here. Boost this further by adding internal links, personalized recommendations and understanding visitor journeys.

Conversion Metrics

Conversion metrics track how well your content converts visitors into leads and customers. These indicate ROI from traffic.

Click-Through-Rates

Click-through rate (CTR) shows how often users click from external pages like search ads or social posts to your site. Higher CTRs drive more traffic.

DevHunt's above average search CTR of 6% is a win. Grow by optimizing landing pages for conversions and creating compelling ad copy.

Form Completion Rates

Form completion rate shows how often visitors submit forms, indicating engagement. Benchmark target rates range from 25-40% on average.

With a 50% form completion rate, DevHunt is performing extremely well. Further optimize form UX, simplify fields and add social proof to increase conversions.

Loyalty and Recency Metrics

Loyalty and recency metrics track repeat visitor engagement overtime. Higher values signal an invested audience.

Return Visitor Rate

This reveals what percentage of traffic comes from repeat visitors. Aim for 40% or higher.

Given 60% of its traffic returns, DevHunt has cultivated an exceptionally loyal audience. Retain visitors by consistently delivering high-value, fresh content.

Visitor Frequency

Visitor frequency shows how often customers return within a given time period. More frequent visits signal higher perceived value.

DevHunt visitors return around 3 times per month - impressive for its industry. Increase frequency by adding exclusive "members only" content and optimizing based on usage patterns.

Recency

Recency indicates how recently repeat visitors returned. Recent visits represent an engaged, loyal audience.

Roughly half of DevHunt's repeat visits happen within the last month, indicating strong retention. Keep visitors engaged through email, social, personalized offers and time-sensitive content.

Start Tracking Your Web Traffic Metrics

Regularly monitoring your web traffic analytics provides invaluable, actionable insights into audience behavior and engagement. By tracking key volume, source, conversion and loyalty metrics using tools like Google Analytics and DevHunt, you can optimize performance over time.

Focus on metrics like loyalty, time on site and conversion rates as key indicators of user experience. Set realistic targets based on your industry benchmarks. With a keen understanding of your web traffic KPIs, you can build an audience that meaningfully engages with your brand.