You shouldn’t mind being wrong. What you should mind is being wrong and not having a way to find out. Your website’s performance is one of the most important factors for your veterinary practice’s ability to attract new clients. Fortunately for you, digital marketing is inherently rich in data. In this article, you will learn how to access your website’s analytics, what data to pay attention to along with how your website stacks up, and a few actionable tips to improve if your scores aren’t what you would like them to be.
Google Analytics
If you already have google analytics installed on your website, you can skip this step. If you don’t, this is immensely important to do. The first step is to register for google analytics. Then follow these steps:
- Select the “Admin” tab
- Select an account from the drop down menu in the “Account” column
- Select a property from the drop down menu in the “Property” column
- Under property, click Tracking info > Tracking Code
A code will be generated for your website. Send this code to your webmaster and have it installed. Google will begin tracking user data on your website for you to see.
The most important data
If you’ve just begun tracking user data on your website through google analytics, you will want to wait 2-3 weeks before taking a serious look at the data. Otherwise the sample size is probably too small. If you have a decent amount of data (at least a few hundred website hits), then you’ll want to look at these three important metrics. First, go to google analytics and select your website to pull up your dashboard. It should look like the image below – the three circled categories are the most important for our purposes today.
Average Session Duration
A mediocre score is 20-30 seconds. This is an incredibly important (and telling) statistic, because it reveals whether or not people are taking the time to learn about your brand. If they are, it means you have engaged them, and your website is building a budding relationship for you. Wondering how your website stacks up?
Dismal: 0-15 seconds
Poor: 16-30 seconds
Mediocre: 31-45 seconds
Good: 46-60 seconds
Excellent: 1+ minute
Bounce Rate
This score tells you the percentage of people who left your website without taking an action – such as clicking on your staff or services page. A low bounce rate tells you that your website is effective at engaging users and motivating them to learn more about what you do – it is also highly correlated with average session duration. What’s a good bounce rate?
Excellent: 0% – 30%
Good: 31% – 40%
Mediocre: 41% – 60%
Poor: 61% – 80%
Dismal: 81% – 100%
Conversion Rate
This gauges the percentage of users who complete a call to action – such as an appointment request. This is an important statistic because its data relates solely to how many users actually turn into clients. Want to see how your website compares?
Dismal: 0% – 1%
Poor: 1% – 1.5%
Mediocre: 1.5% – 2%
Good: 2% – 3%
Excellent: 3% +
*If this seems low, in part it’s because it doesn’t count phone calls – only appointment requests or other online forms. But it also does show how truly poor most websites are at actually converting users.
Actionable Tips to Improve
- Make sure your website is more image oriented than text oriented. Almost every modern website is designed similar to a magazine – the first impression will be a bold picture background, with minimal text as a title/subtitle and a prominent call to action.
- Adding video on your website will almost certainly improve your numbers – video is naturally more engaging than text or images, because it is more close to a natural world experience.
- If you are in the majority, the usual user flow goes like this: home > team > services. Make sure you prioritize your design efforts accordingly.
Want to see a website that scores well into “Excellent” for each category? AAHA’s Practice of the Year (Pembroke Animal Hospital) does exceedingly well. You can see their website here: pemah.com
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