Using Google Analytics To Decide If You Need A Website Redesign
By Andrew on May 19, 2011 in Web Design
Good design performs. And by using Google Analytics, you can obtain statistics about what is, and what is not, working on your current website. Armed with data, you can more effectively determine your need for a redesign – going beyond the “it just looks dated” argument. More importantly, you can ensure any redesign is cost-effective by targeting your weak areas, preserving your strengths, and setting measurable goals.
Google Analytics will provide analytical data on your site, including:
- How many people are going to the site;
- Where they are coming to the site from;
- How they are getting to the site;
- What pages are their favorites; and even
- Which pages make them leave the site.
To decide if it is time for a Website Redesign, I would recommend looking in Google Analytics under ‘Content.’ This page gives you an overview of your top 5 pages on the site (according to the amount of page views). From here you can select ‘view full report’.
Using Analytics to Check Bounce Rate and More
The full report page will show all of your pages, ordered in descending order from most page views to least. The important statistics to pay attention to are the ‘Avg. Time on Page’ and ‘Bounce Rate.’ The page views in descending order can help determine if you need a website redesign. Typically, on a website, you are trying to guide the user to do something. So maybe you are trying to guide them from the homepage, to the products page, then to the contact page. So this should be the order of number of page views. If the site is laid out well, and easily navigable, you will find that you are able to direct the user to various parts of the site. The average time on page statistic will show you how long, on average, people are on each page. The bounce rate shows you what percentage of people are landing on this page, then leaving your site.
So how can this help us decide if we need a Web Site Redesign?
Using Bounce Rate to Decide If You Need A Web Redesign
The bounce rate is a clear indication of whether you need a redesign. If people land on your homepage and then are immediately leaving, you can assume something needs to change. There are, however, examples of good bounce rates – such as an instructional page, where after the user has read the page he doesn’t need anything else so he leaves. But the homepage is a safe bet that a high bounce rate is a bad thing.
Using Average Time On Page To Decide If You Need A Web Redesign
Another thing to consider is the Average Time on a page. If users are hitting a page and leaving immediately, it is safe to assume you may need to redesign the page. Also, if a page has an unusually high ‘Average time on page,’ then you could maybe conclude that the page is not designed in a way that is easily navigable for the user and that they are probably spending too much time trying to figure out where they want to go (or where you want them to go).
Don’t let this happen to you! Let the Design Team at PaperStreet help you to take control of your website and of your visitors. If you are thinking it may be time for a website redesign please contact PaperStreet for a free consultation.
