Your website is a crucial part of your online presence, and it’s important to make sure that it’s performing well. 

Once you’ve built your website and got it up and running, you need to keep track of its performance.

There are a lot of different factors that can affect website performance, but in this article, we’ll focus on the 12 key KPIs (key performance indicators) that you should be tracking. 

By monitoring these KPIs, you’ll be able to identify potential issues and take steps to improve your website’s performance.

1. Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is one of the most important website performance KPIs that you should be tracking. Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave your website after only viewing one page. 

A high bounce rate indicates that visitors are not finding what they are looking for on your website. They may be leaving because the content is not relevant to them, or because the website is difficult to use.

Bounce rate can be improved by ensuring that your website has relevant and targeted content. You should also make sure that your website is easy to navigate and use. If visitors can find what they are looking for easily, they are less likely to bounce.

Monitoring your website’s bounce rate is a good way to gauge its overall performance. If you see a high bounce rate, it’s a sign that you need to make some changes. By improving your website’s content and usability, you can lower your bounce rate and keep visitors on your site longer.

2. Returning Visitors

One of the most important website performance KPIs to track is the number of returning visitors. This metric tells you how many people are coming back to your site after their initial visit. 

A high number of returning visitors is a good sign that your site is providing value to its users.

There are a few different ways to track returning visitors. One way is to use Google Analytics. You can set up a goal in Google Analytics to track when someone visits your site for the second time. 

Another way to track returning visitors is through your website’s server logs. This method can be more accurate than tracking with Google Analytics, but it requires more effort to set up.

No matter which method you use, tracking the number of returning visitors is an important KPI. It can give you valuable insights into how your site is being used and whether or not it is providing value to users.

3. Session Duration

Session duration is the length of time a user spends on your website in a single session. 

This metric is important because it can give you an idea of how engaged your users are once you’ve built your website. If you see that users are spending a long time on your site, it means they are finding your content useful and engaging. 

On the other hand, if users are only spending a few seconds on your site, it could mean that they are not finding what they are looking for or that your site is difficult to navigate.

4. User Journey

Your website’s user journey is the path that your users take as they interact with your site. Tracking this KPI will help you to understand how well your site is designed and how easy it is for users to find what they’re looking for.

There are a few different ways to track your user journey. One is to use the Google Analytics Behaviour Flow report. This report shows you the most popular paths that users take on your website. 

You can also use heat mapping tools to see where users are clicking.

Another way to track your user journey is to ask your users directly. You can do this by conducting interviews or using your own online surveys. This will give you firsthand feedback about what users think of your site and where they had difficulty navigating it.

No matter which method you use, tracking your user journey is an important KPI for website performance. It will help you to understand where users are having difficulty and how you can improve the design of your website to make it more user-friendly.

5. Domain Authority

Domain Authority (DA) is a metric that measures the strength of a website’s domain. It is used by search engines to determine how likely a website is to rank for certain keywords. 

A high DA indicates that a website is more likely to rank well in search results.

There are a number of factors that contribute to a website’s DA, including the age of the domain, the number of backlinks, and the quality of the content.

You can check your website’s DA using a number of different tools, including Moz’s Open Site Explorer and Ahrefs’ Site Explorer.

Improving your website’s DA can be a long-term process, but there are a few things you can do to start seeing results. These include building high-quality backlinks, creating great content, and improving your internal linking structure.

6. Search Rankings

Search rankings are one of the most important KPIs for website performance. 

If your website is not ranking well for relevant keywords, you will miss out on a lot of potential traffic. 

There are a number of factors that can affect your search rankings, such as the quality of your content, the structure of your website, and the number of backlinks you have.

It is important to track your search rankings over time as part of your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy, in order to see if there are any changes. 

You can use tools like Google Analytics to track your search rankings. If you see a sudden drop in your search rankings, it could be an indication that something is wrong with your website.

7. Traffic Sources

It is important to track where your website traffic is coming from. This will help you to identify which marketing channels are most effective at driving traffic to your site. You can use Google Analytics to track website traffic sources.

Some common traffic sources include organic search, direct traffic, referral traffic, and social media traffic. 

Organic search traffic comes from people who find your website through a search engine such as Google. 

Direct traffic comes from people who type your URL into their browser or click on a bookmark. 

Referral traffic comes from people who click on a link from another website that leads to yours. 

Social media traffic comes from people who click on links from social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

By tracking these different traffic sources, you can get a better idea of which ones are bringing the most visitors to your site. You can then focus your marketing efforts on the channels that are most effective at driving traffic to your site.

8. Pages per Session

Pages per Session is a website performance KPI that measures how many pages on your website a user visits during a session. 

This KPI is a good indicator of how engaged your users are with your website content. 

If you see a high page per session number, it means that users are spending more time on your site and are likely finding your content helpful and interesting.

Similarly, if you track your pages per session stats and discover that users are only visiting one page per session, you can presume that the navigation and engagement of your website content need some work.

9. Page Speed

Your website’s page speed is an important metric to track for a few reasons. First, it’s a good indicator of how well your website is performing. 

Second, it can have a direct impact on your bottom line. Studies have shown that 40% of users would abandon a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. 

Page speed is also now a factor in Google’s search ranking algorithm. This means that if your website loads slowly, it could negatively impact your search engine visibility and traffic levels.

There are a few different ways to measure your website’s page speed. One popular method is Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. This tool will give you a score for your website’s performance on mobile devices and desktop computers.

10. Conversion Rate

Another key metric to track is conversion rate. 

This is the percentage of users who take the desired action on your site, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. 

Conversion rate is arguably one of the most important out of all the website performance KPIs you can track. 

After all, it’s no use having visitors land on your website if they aren’t undertaking the end task you’re hoping for such as making a purchase or inquiring about your services. 

Website design icons, colors, navigation, and the quality of your content can all impact your conversion rate.

11. Customer Lifetime Value

What is the customer lifetime value and why should you care about it? 

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the estimated net profit a company makes from any given customer. 

CLV encompasses the total revenue a customer brings in minus the costs of acquisition and retention. 

From a high-level perspective, CLV is a measure of how much profit a company makes from its customers.

There are a few key reasons why CLV is an important metric for companies to track:

• It provides insights into which customer segments are most profitable and where to focus marketing efforts.
• It helps companies make decisions about pricing, product development, and investment strategies.
• It can be used to predict future cash flows and profitability.

12. Dwell Time

If you’re looking to improve your website’s performance, one of the key metrics you should be tracking is Dwell Time. 

Dwell time is the amount of time a visitor spends on your site before moving on to another website or online task.

There are a few different ways to improve dwell time on your site. One is to make sure that your content is engaging and relevant. Carefully considering your audience’s interests and needs can help you build an effective content plan that keeps customers engaging with your company.

If you can keep them interested, they’ll spend more time on your site. 

Another way to improve dwell time is by reducing the amount of time it takes for your pages to load. If visitors have to wait too long for your pages to load, they’re likely to click away before they even get a chance to see your content.

Making sure that your site has a good Dwell Time is important for a few different reasons. 

For one, it can help improve your conversion rates – if visitors are spending more time on your site, they’re more likely to take the desired action, whether that’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out a form. 

To Conclude

There are a lot of website performance KPIs that you could be tracking, but these are the ones that we think are the most important. 

By tracking these KPIs, you can get a good idea of how your website is performing and where you need to make improvements. 

If you’re not already tracking these KPIs, we encourage you to start doing so as soon as possible.