You’ve invested time, money, and energy into building a stunning new website that accurately represents your brand. But you want it to be more than just a beautiful facade—a great-looking website is worthless if it doesn’t drive business results.
Let’s walk through how you can evaluate your website’s performance so you can keep a pulse on what’s working and what needs to change. We’ll also break down a few metric-tracking tools you can use to analyze your website’s success.
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Define your real estate website goals
In order to evaluate your website’s performance, you first need to define your most important goals. What do you want your website to accomplish? Start by asking yourself questions like:
- Do I want my website to drive seller leads?
- Do I want to establish myself as a thought leader with valuable content?
- Do I want my website to attract buyers by showcasing great properties?
You likely won’t have time to dig through every data point in your website analytics. So, getting clear on your main goal will help you stay hyper-focused on the metrics that matter most for your business.
Identify your website’s most important KPIs
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential measurements that help you evaluate your website’s success. If you (or your website provider) are using Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to monitor your website’s performance, here are some key metrics we recommend you keep a pulse on:
Pageviews
What is it
Pageviews (aka Views in GA4) are the total number of pages viewed on your website, including repeat users.
Why it’s helpful
Tracking pageviews is especially important if you publish blog content since it can help determine if your content is accessible and/or engaging to users.
How to increase pageviews
A reliable way to increase pageviews is by publishing high-quality and helpful content. Some great examples of this sort of content for real estate professionals include comprehensive neighborhood guides or “Need to Know” tips for sellers.
Case study
Check out how 8z Real Estate improved performance with a 94% leap in pageviews and over 500 fresh leads.
Sessions & engaged sessions
What is it
Sessions track every interaction a user has with your website from the moment they enter until they leave (or are inactive for 30 minutes). A session that lasts longer than 10 seconds and either has a conversion event, or at least 2 pageviews will get counted as an engaged session.
Why it’s helpful
When you track sessions, you can gauge overall interest in your website and if your marketing efforts are working.
For example, if you’re running a digital marketing campaign, an increase in sessions can indicate the campaign’s success in driving traffic to your website. Or, if your goal is lead generation, clicks on a CTA button can be an indicator of how many potential leads are visiting and are interested in more information.
A high number of engaged sessions means that visitors are not only coming to your site but are interacting with it. This is a good indicator that your website’s content is relevant and compelling, encouraging visitors to stay and explore.
How to increase sessions
You’ll want to attract visitors to your site with a strong SEO strategy and ensure your website has quality content to increase the number of engaged sessions. Consider working with experienced professionals to get other reputable sites to link back to your website for an additional boost.
Average engagement time
What is it
This is the average amount of time users spend actively interacting with your website during a session.
Why it’s helpful
Tracking this can help you understand if users are actively spending time on your site rather than passively leaving a tab open.
How to improve average engagement time
Here, you’ll want to focus on buttoning up the user experience. Consider incorporating interactive elements or features that will encourage users to spend more time engaging with your site.
Engagement rate & bounce rate
What is it
Engagement rate measures the percentage of visits to your site that involve meaningful interaction. Engagement rate is the opposite of bounce rate. This means that if your engagement rate is 80%, your bounce rate is 20%, always equaling 100%.
Before, bounce rate was defined as “the percentage of viewers who leave your website after they visit one page”. For example, if a user visited the homepage of your website, scrolled through the content, and left, that would be counted as a bounce regardless of how long they spent on the page.
Now, the bounce rate is counted as “the percentage of single-page sessions that do not meet the criteria for engagement” (see engaged session). For example, if a user visits your homepage for less than 10 seconds and then closes the browser, that would be counted as a bounce. But, if the user visits a specific blog post, spends 4 minutes reading it, and then leaves, that is not a bounce in GA4.
If you have a high bounce rate (or low engagement rate), it could mean that your website doesn’t meet visitors’ expectations, while a low bounce rate (or high engagement rate) means visitors are more engaged with your content.
Why it’s helpful
Tracking these metrics can help you understand the below.
- User experience: A high bounce rate could mean that your site doesn’t have a good user experience, like poor design or confusing navigation.
- Content relevance: Bounce rate can also indicate whether your website content is relevant and valuable to visitors. If your content isn’t engaging, visitors are more likely to click out and move on.
- Lead generation: If your website goal is lead generation, a high bounce rate could mean that potential leads are being lost. This may be because your site is missing clear CTAs or effective lead capture forms.
How to improve bounce/engagement rate
The best way to keep viewers actively engaged on your website is to improve the user experience and make sure you’re giving them valuable and relevant information. Consider the following:
- Does your content align with what visitors are searching for? Are you using relevant keywords and providing valuable information to meet user needs?
- Is your content easily digestible? Are you using short paragraphs, headings, and bullet points to make your content skimmable and easy to read?
- Are you linking to other relevant pages on your website? Internal links keep visitors engaged and give them a pathway to explore more content.
- Are you using interactive elements on your site to keep visitors engaged? For example, a chatbot to answer users’ questions in real-time or exit-intent pop-ups with compelling calls-to-action to retain visitors before they leave the site.
New users
What is it
New users are the number of unique visitors to your website within a specified date range.
Why it’s helpful
This metric is a great way to tell if your website is attracting potential clients.
How to increase new users
If you’re not getting new users, you might need to work on your online visibility. This could be through SEO, social media marketing, or working with a professional to help come up with an action plan.
Case study
Read about how agent Anne Dresser Kocur skyrocketed the number of new visits to her site by 150%.
Returning users
What is it
These are users who’ve been to your site before and have chosen to come back.
Why it’s helpful
This metric serves as a good barometer that your website’s content is useful and relevant to potential clients. Returning users are also signs of brand loyalty, engagement, and the possibility of conversion.
How to improve the number of returning users
If you don’t have many returning users, try regularly posting quality content or consider running an email marketing campaign that drives back to your website. You also might want to run ads with personalized content for a higher likelihood of conversion.
Use tools to monitor your website’s performance
In order to evaluate your KPIs, you’ll want to utilize tools to help you consistently monitor your website’s performance. Some examples of useful tools include:
Google Analytics
- What to use it for: A comprehensive tool to track website traffic and user behavior.
- Cost: Free
Hotjar
- What to use it for: Shows how your website visitors behave, what they need, and how they feel.
- Cost: From $0-$171 per month
Crazy Egg
- What to use it for: Offers heatmaps, scroll maps, and reports to help visualize users on your site.
- Cost: $29-$99 per month
SEMrush
- What to use it for: A tool to track SEO performance, competitive research, and analyze keywords.
- Cost: $129-$499 per month
Moz
- What to use it for: A tool to help you analyze your website’s SEO performance and improve rankings.
- Cost: $99-$599 per month
Work with Luxury Presence to reach your website performance goals
A stunning website is a great entry point for new business prospects. But you also want it to work as hard as you do. At Luxury Presence, we specialize in developing websites that are not only beautiful but deliver results. To explore what we can do to help you reach your website goals, book a free strategy call and check out more of our case studies.