Metrics are an extremely important part of being a small business owner. Website analytics are no different. These can show you where your website needs improvement, where you may be losing potential customers, and why. The analytics platform you use doesn't matter, but you can start with a free platform like Google Analytics to get comfortable with tracking your website data. 

This list goes through different metrics, what they are, and why they may or may not be important for your business. Remember that analytics will likely be different for each industry, and even specific businesses within the same industry. The analytics you track may be affected by your goals, your company values, and the way your business is set up. 

This list is evergreen: it's updated often, and more metrics are added monthly. Be sure to bookmark this article and check back often!

Average Stay Duration: Track how long users are staying on your website. 

Important: When your site is the only destination for visitors.

Ignore: When you send your visitors to another site: for example, to make payments, to sign up for event, etc.

Improve: Analyze your page for mistakes leading users away from your website.

• Improve image and text quality.
• Add more engaging content: blogs, quizzes, videos, animations.
• Optimize page.
• Ensure everything loads quickly.
• Clear Navigation.

Actions or Key Events: What users do on your website.

AKA: Activity, User Interactions, Engagements.

Important: Always! Set a goal for your website that you track through these analytics.

For example, if you want to gather leads, track form submissions. If you want more people to read your blogs, track page views. If you want to sell your products, track items added to cart AND purchases made. 

Examples: Decide which of these Events or Actions are relevant to your company; Not all will be!

• Page View.
• First Visit. 
• File Download.
• Clicks (Buttons, links, images, etc.).
• Scroll (How far users scroll on the page, whether they leave immediately or scroll down).
• Video Engagement.
• Add Items to Cart.
• Form Submissions.
• Sharing Content to Social Media.