Your reports are full of numbers, but only a few really matter for a small business. Here is how to read them and what to watch for.
Read your report in four steps.
- Pick a time frame — Compare the last 30 days to the 30 before it. One week is too short to mean much, so give the numbers room to settle.
- Find your traffic — Visitors and sessions show how many people reached your site. Steady or climbing is the goal; a sudden drop is worth a look.
- Check where they came from — Search, social, ads, and direct each tell a different story. This is how you see which of your efforts are actually pulling people in.
- Follow the actions — Calls, form submissions, and direction clicks are what pay the bills. Track those over raw visit counts every time.
A little context for the numbers.
- Conversions beat clicks — A page that turns 100 visitors into 10 calls is doing more than one with 1,000 visitors and no calls. Quality over volume.
- Trends beat single days — Daily numbers bounce around. Look at the line over weeks and months to see where things are really headed.
- Ask if something looks off — Big swings usually have a simple reason. If a number surprises you, send it our way and we will explain what is behind it.