Hello again and welcome back! Before we roll up our sleeves and take a look at this week’s topic, I just wanted to say thank you for all of the comments and emails I’ve received regarding this series.
Based on my conversations with some of you and feedback that has arrived via email, it appears the goal of helping you properly interpret website analytics is producing very positive results! It’s always been our goal here at Power Marketing to exceed the expectations of small business owners, and one of the best ways to do exactly that is to provide as much education as possible.
Once again, thank you for all of your valuable feedback! Now, let’s get into understanding the importance of landing and exit pages!
What Can Landing Pages Tell You About Your Website Traffic?
First off, let’s define what a landing page really is as it pertains to website analytics. Simply put, any page of your website can be considered a landing page. If your audience came across your site while performing a Google search and landed on a blog post, that posting would be logged as a landing page.
That being said, it’s crucial that your website is performing well in organic search—you never can tell which specific page is going to draw your audience 
in! Say they’re searching for the advantages of owning a modular home, and they land on one of your pages featuring a Top Ten List of modular home benefits. You’ve opened the door for them; you have to take advantage of this opportunity! The last thing you want is for your audience to find anemic content sprawled across a haphazard design. They’ll bounce out of their faster than a student on the last day of school!
Your analytics will detail, in order, the pages that are attracting the widest audience. Why is this information important? Working your way down the list, enables you to easily notice the landing pages that aren’t attracting enough viewers—allowing you to identify room for improvement. Are these pages properly aligning with your other marketing efforts? Perhaps there just aren’t enough keywords in the content to interest the search engines? Maybe it’s time add some fresh content to that page? There could be dozens of reasons why those pages aren’t acting as gateway to your site, but first you have to be able to understand your analytic report in order to know just what pages those are.
A detailed landing page report will provide you with even more valuable information, such as:
- Pages/Visit: A really good metric detailing the number of pages a viewer visits on your site after coming in through a landing page. A higher number is indicative of your audience engaging with your website.
- Avg. Visit Duration: The average amount of time someone who entered on the landing page stays on your website.
- % Of New Visits: We talked about New Visitors in the previous article, but to simplify, this is the percentage of visitors who have not previously visited your site.
- Bounce Rate: Again, discussed in length in Part One of the series, this number lets you know how many searchers are stopping in and then running off like their hair’s on fire. This can tell you a lot about whether your landing page is working as intended…or not!
What Can Exit Pages Tell You About Your Website Traffic?
An exit page is the last page a viewer visited before navigating away from your site. Whether we want to admit it or not, sooner or later every member of your audience is going to leave your site. It’s just like when the party’s breaking up and everyone has to leave—you want to make sure all of your friends had a good time, and sincerely hope they’ll come back soon, but they all have places to go and somewhere else to be!
Ideally, your exit page will be the confirmation page from a contact form, but a good sign would also be your “Contact Us” page! If you discover that an internal content page that is intended to point customers somewhere else on your site appears frequently at the top of your exit page list, you’re going to want to go over that particular area with a fine tooth comb and make any necessary changes.
Well, there you have it friends, my simple explanation of Landing Pages and Exit Pages.
