Assignment #1 Post #1: Web Metrics: Visitor Characterization
It is one thing to observe web analytics but to understand them is another. One of the first components of web analytics that is important to understand is web metrics. Within these metrics, there are different categories including foundational, visit characterization, visitor characterization, engagement, and conversion. The two metrics categories that I’ve decided to further interpret are visitor characterization and engagement. This first post will focus on visitor characterization metrics and the following will focus on engagement metrics.
Visitor Characterization
First to understand visitor characterization metrics, one must understand the category title itself. Visitor characterization is essentially the descriptive characteristics of those who visit the site. Underneath the visitor characterization category, there are the four subcategories new visitor, returning visitor, repeat visitor, and visit referrer. These subcategories are for the most part self-explanatory though it is still very important to thoroughly comprehend each subcategory to understand the overall category of visitor characterization.
New Visitor
The first subcategory which is the new visitors is essentially the count of first-ever unique visitors during a reporting period. To give a clear example of this, if a visitor views a site on Monday and again on Tuesday, the two visits would be considered daily unique visits but only the visit on Monday would be counted as a new visit. The importance of the new visitor metric is to analyze the usage habits of a visitor who is unfamiliar with the site in comparison to a returning visitor. On the other hand, the importance of the return visitor metric is to analyze the loyalty and affinity the visitors have with the website (ClickInsight, 2019).
Returning Visitor
To understand the concept of a returning visitor even further, it is in essence when the same unique visitor visits the website within different reporting periods. For instance, if you visit a website on Saturday and visit again on Monday, this would be considered a returning visit. This concept of a returning visitor is also a subcategory within the visitor characterization category.
Repeat Visitor
The following subcategory is repeat visitor; which could be easily confused with return visitor, though it is actually quite different. A repeat visitor is when a visitor returns to a website multiple times within the same reporting period. For example, if you visit the same website four times in one day, then that would be counted as four return visits.
Visit Referrer
The last subcategory is the visit referrer which is the first referrer in a visit, it can be either internal, external, or null. To further elaborate, an internal referrer is when a visitor has been directed to the URL internally from the same site. For example, if a visitor visits the “About Page” directed from the Homepage. On the contrary, an external referrer is when a visitor has been directed to the site through an external source such as an email, or even another website. There is also a search referrer which can either be internal or external. An internal search referrer is when a visitor searches for a page within the same website and is directed to that page. An external search referrer is when a visitor searches on an external search engine such as Google or Bing and is directed to the website.
Real-World Example
Now with a better understanding of all the subcategories, it is still crucial to see these metrics in real-world examples. For example, looking at the graph below, it is evident that this company has a large percentage of new visitors which is good, but a very low percentage of returning visitors which is not so good. It’s definitely important to reel visitors in but it is more important to keep them coming back for more (ClickInsight, 2019). Nonetheless, with these analytics and metrics, the company will now be able to improve on its method of keeping its visitors and customers. This would then connect back to their marketing approach of how to develop and sustain visitor loyalty and affinity.
In conclusion, visitor characterization metrics are a major category within the metrics categories. The visitor characterization metrics category contains many subcategories including new visitor, returning visitor, repeat visitor, and visitor referrer. These subcategories all give insight into how a business is performing online. It allows for real-time analytics which then allows the business to either maintain or improve their marketing approaches online.
References
Unique visits (metric). Analytics Glossary. (2014). https://growhackscale.com/glossary/unique-visits-metric.
If you can get a visitor to return, you have achieved something amazing. You have obviously provided value to them. But getting them there the first time (and not bouncing) is also a plus. That is probably the bigger challenge because most sites do need a consistent flow of first time visitors.
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