Measuring Unique Web Visits

The number of unique visitors is a fundamental metric of Web analytics. These days, it's still used to measure the overall level of traffic to a site and is particularly important for those sites that are dependent on advertising revenues as a major source of income (Mason, 2010). Kaushik defines unique visitors as “The first time someone visits your site a first party persistent cookie is set in their browser. This cookie lasts any where from several months to several years. Each time that person visits your site that cookie identifies them as the same browser” or a simpler definition is “a count of all the unique cookie_id’s during a given time period.”

A unique visitor count is always associated with a time period (most often day, week,

or month), and it is a “non-additive” metric. This means that unique visitors can not

be added together over time, over page views, or over groups of content, because

one visitor can view multiple pages or make multiple visits in the time frame studied.

Their activity will be over-represented unless they are de-duplicated (WAA, n.d.).

The deletion of cookies, whether 1st party or 3rd party, will cause unique visitors to

be inflated over the actual number of people visiting the site (WAA, n.d.). Users that block cookies may or may not be counted as unique visitors, and this metric is handled in different ways depending on the analytics tool used.

One must know how your tracking software is defining visitors, so that you can then make accurate use of the data especially when comparing with other tools or reports.  Once you know how they are defined and can test the accuracy of the actual measurement, it is a good idea to study the data to find gaps, exceptions and errors that occur using these definitions and what impact they have on your numbers, and hopefully be able correct or account for these when reporting results.

Sounds simple enough, but the fact is that most software that tracks your visitors has different definitions of what defines and how to measure a unique visitor.  There are three major components to defining and measuring unique visits (ACS, 2009).

 

1.         How do you identify a visit as unique?

2.         Over what time period do you use to begin and end uniqueness?

3.         How do you measure it?

The measurement issue comes into play when a consumer visits the website a second time and either their device doesn't accept cookies, they have deleted the cookie, or they are using a new device or browser. The reality may be that they have visited that website before, but as far as the Web analytics system is concerned, the user doesn't have a cookie on their device and so it will treat them as a new visitor. As a result, the proportion of visitors who are considered to be new is generally an overestimate (Mason, 2010).

Image courtesy of Econsultancy

Google Analytics revealed a work-in-process solution last Spring (2013) that it would have the ability to track unique visitors using multiple devices with a single client ID working off the backbone of Google Universal Analytics (Brown, 2013).  While the mapping for Android and other devices has been outlined, we will need to stay tuned to see how they plan on handling Apple iOS to stitch the devices under a single ID.

On a lighter note, view this short video on WTMD (Way Too Many Devices) to see a parody on device overload and tracking unique visitors.

Understanding Engagement through Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is a meaningful way to measure the quality of traffic coming to your website and is almost instantly accessible in any web analytics tool.

In a nutshell, bounce rate is the percentage of site visitors who leave after visiting the first page they visit. Bounce Rate was designed to tell you if you have the right audience coming to your pages and if you are meeting their expectations. 

To understand bounce rate, it is important to understand the difference between bounce rate and exit rate. Exit rate is a way to identify where people are exiting mid-stream from your conversion funnel (Kaushik, 2014) - are they leaving at shipping charges page or the billing confirmation page?

Thought about from a customer perspective rather than I came, I saw, I conquered, the action is I came, I saw, Yuck, I am out of here (Kaushik, 2013).  However, it can also mean I came to your website, quickly realized that you open at 9:00 am and I’m on my way, so be mindful of the entry and content possibilities.

To be clear on what identifies a bounce rate from your site, these four visitor actions will be identified as a bounce from your site and typically signal that the visitor’s expectations were unmet (Kelly, 2012).

1.         Clicks the back button (most common)

2.         Closes the browser (window/tab)

3.         Types a new URL

4.         Does nothing (session times out after 30min)

A high bounce rate is acceptable for pages like Contact Us, Checkout and Customer Support Pages.  In these scenarios, a marketer can embrace a high bounce rate knowing they came, found what they wanted quickly and left.

In the below scenario the bounce rate is 63%, but only 13% of visits exit on this page.  Considering that this page is not a primary entry point and is a supporting tertiary shopping funnel page, we are more concerned with people exiting at this point versus bouncing.  And approximately 1 out of 10 people exiting, is actually great on this high commitment page (Kelly, 2012)

Courtesy of Blast Analytics Marketing

In order to reduce bounce rate, it’s important to set up user expectations through the content. A few basic web design best practices to lower your bounce rate include:

• Avoid pop-up ads, animation or anything to interrupt a users clear path to find the information they need.        

• Make sure your message is clear and your site is easy to navigate, so visitors can find the information they need quickly.

• Optimize your site content and images so information loads fast. If your visitors have to wait even seconds too long they will look elsewhere for their information.

• If people are entering your site with tablets and smart phones, ensure you invest in responsive design, so the site is easy to navigate using devices.

An average bounce rate is about 40 percent to 50 percent (Google Analytics, 2014), but this percentage range is meaningless because what constitutes a good bounce rate varies by brand, industry, type of site, segment, customer lifecycle and user intent (Hartwig, 2013).

Morra Aarons-Mele, founder of the digital cause marketing agency reminds us that consumers live in their feeds, and that is a golden opportunity for brands. "Use social media content to engage people, and keep them informed and entertained. But when you really need to reach them — use email and social media. This way, you can get your content out to people without having to rely on them coming to your site of their own volition, and probably 'bouncing' off” (Hartwig, 2012).