Contextual Analytics: In Search of Useful KPIs

by Tomy Ames

While all good online marketing specialists employ some type of analytics reporting, oftentimes these one- or two-page automated reports contain only the typical key performance indicators (KPIs) for the entire site or section.

KPIs such as visits/sessions, visitors, page views, pages/session, average session duration (time on site), and bounce rate can be helpful to gauge the effect of large-scale site changes, but to make strategic decisions about specific conversion funnels—the page/action path of users as they enter the site, navigate through it, and convert—it’s even more important to look at these and other KPIs in a much more granular and contextual fashion.

To say that “our visitors spend an average of two minutes on our site, looking at two sections” means nothing absent a consideration of the site as a whole. For example, is it a sleek and modern one-page site, an informational brochure-style site, or a fully interactive experience for visitors? Each of these site styles has architectures and visitor funnels that can drastically change the way success is measured or gaps are discovered.

Similarly, per-section and per-page analytics must also take context into account, but with a different perspective: While architecture and design are still important, KPIs are much more dependent on content and calls-to-action (CTAs), because it’s on these pages where conversions are more likely to occur.

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