You may have thought that 6 metrics were enough, but here are 7 more Google Analytics you should be using in your CRO strategy.
1. Exit %
When we focus on exit rate, we’re looking at those who visited multiple pages and on their last page, decided to leave the site. If we’re focusing on bounce rate, those visitors arrived at a specific page and left that same page without visiting any other part of the site. This rate becomes especially important if we’re looking at a visitor’s journey through the site. In e-commerce, for example, as the user is going through the checkout process, if the cart page exit rate is high, that means it’s an area to optimize so more visitors are making it past the cart and potentially making purchases.
2. Site Speed
The next metric we’ll focus on is site speed. Studies have found a direct correlation between slower site speed leading to fewer conversions. When we use site speed through Analytics, we can measure by site overall or break it down by specific pages. By breaking it down page by page, we can pinpoint what could be causing the site’s speed metrics to be reduced and focus solely on that page. Below is a breakdown of site speed across multiple pages:
A good rule of thumb is that any page taking over 7 seconds to load could be optimized. Anything below is probably fast enough that it’s not having a direct impact on site functionality and visitor impressions.
3. Goal Funnel (Funnel Visualization)
In the Conversions section of Analytics, if set up properly, we can review our conversion funnels. By looking at the Funnel Visualization below, we’re able to see how many users dropped off from each step, indicating areas of optimization.
As we can see, it breaks down that we have a significant number of people dropping off after they reach the cart page. Maybe there’s an area for optimization to reduce that drop-off amount.
4. Path Length
Under Multi-Channel Funnels, we can use the Path Length tool to measure how users are interacting with our site and how long it’s taking them to convert. Looking at the chart below, we can use path length alongside our remarketing strategy to grab users after they visit.
From this information, we are reassured that users are converting after returning to the site. This would be a great opportunity for CRO to create a new landing page experience for these visitors and drive them to convert by creating a more personalized experience.
5. Acquisition
Another tool we can use is the Acquisition Overview section of Analytics. This information could further tell us what types of visitors are converting at a higher rate as well as what other types of visitors aren’t converting at such a rate.
For example, let’s focus on Social. Social bounce rate is one of the higher metrics on this report. This is an area for improvement and where we could focus our CRO testing. By evaluating the separate channels, we can work on creating individual experiences for those users that will improve conversion rate and overall performance.
6. Behavior Flow
Behavior Flow outlines the way users are navigating throughout your website. By looking at this data, we can find the most common paths that users take. As an example, if they’re going from a Program Overview Page to an Insurance Verification Page and finally to a contact form, try to connect those dots and optimize that experience. If it’s widely used by the majority of your website visitors, you can be reassured that most visitors will appreciate the optimizations and ultimately lead to more form fills.
7. Content Experiments
The last Google Analytics tool we’ll be looking at is Google Content Experiments. This tool gives us the option to set up split URL page testing within the Analytics interface. Once we set up our basic parameters, we’re able to view reports like below to analyze performance of the split test.
If you have URLs in place or are testing existing pages, you can use the Experiments within Google Analytics to drive your testing.
Final Thoughts
And there you have it, 7 more Analytics metrics you should be using for your CRO strategies and optimizations. These tools can provide new meanings to your site performance but can also work together to pick out pain points of the site and by addressing them, you’ll be able to optimize and likely increase performance and conversion rate.
