In my last post, I reviewed the meaning of Web site “visits” . . . and “cheap visits.” You get cheap visits from Internet users whom you don’t stand a chance of ever selling anything to: perhaps they don’t live in your marketing area or they simply wanted to sign up for your sweepstakes giveaway.
Let’s now consider another Web marketing metric: “page views.”
Simply stated, one page view is one of your Web site pages viewed by one visitor. If one visitor views five pages, that’s five page views. If ten visitors view one page, that’s ten page views. If one visitor views one page, jumps to another page, and then returns to the original page, that’s three page views.
Page views mean different things to different home improvement companies. Consider a single product company that sells one-day tub replacements. Their Web site contains 15 pages, but all 15 pages focus on one-day bathroom makeovers.
Web sites like these tend to have a significantly lower number of page views, because their focus is narrow, and first-time visitors can get a quick sense of the material, and perhaps respond.
Contrast that with a multi-product home improvement company’s Web site that markets windows, siding, roofing, bathrooms and gutter protection. The Web site has 70 pages with in-depth product info and images. Page views for these Web sites tend to be higher—simply because they have a larger scope, and offer the visitor more content to review. Visitors arrive at these Web sites looking for one product, and then often decide to check out other offerings as well.
Are there steps you can take to make page views a more valuable Web site metric? Absolutely. For starters, don’t rely on your “Contact Us” page to provide visitors with your phone number. Display it on all of your Web site’s pages. You’ll see fewer page views, but you’ll know your Web site is working more effectively. Of course, this has the added benefit of making it easier for your customers to contact you—always a good thing.
Also, think about how you deliver the content on your Web site. For instance, many media Web sites break up a single page of content into several shorter pages; this requires that visitors click a number of times to read the whole piece. Here’s an example from the Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/jobs/topworkplaces/2010/topplaces2010/
Note that this publisher broke up this article into no less than 17 pages! Of course, media Web sites have a vested interest in ‘bulking up’ their page view metric to entice new advertisers. But home improvement companies don’t share this pressure.
Also, see my previous post, “Web Site Visits—The Good, The Bad &The Ugly” on Web site visitors. If your Web site is the home page for many of your employees, you’re getting a distorted view of the number of page views your Web site is serving.
Next time we’ll discuss “pages per visit”, and how you can use that metric to help you make your Web marketing investments work harder for you.
Homeowner Connections Through Performance Online Advertising
