Repeat Visitors

There are many elements of web metrics and while each is unique and important all on their own there are some web metrics that may prove to be more useful or more important than others.  Repeat visitors is one metric that promises results and can measure success by the amount of visitors, knowing that visitors are returning is a good indication that something is working and is proving successful on the website.   

Repeat visitors are defined as the number of unique visitors with activity consisting of two or more visits to a site during a reporting period.  Repeat visitors is one way to determine how a business is successfully engaging with visitors.  (WVU. 2016)

For example, say that a business wants to drive more traffic to their website/ blog and the business runs ads to generate that traffic.  New visitors are great but it is even better once a business has repeat visitors because you have a return reader/ visitor that you don’t have to spend extra time or money on, attracting them, they are there for the content and it is sufficient enough for them to return to the website or blog.  Which means that the data is saying the more repeat visitors you get the better your website must be at engaging the visitor as they are coming back for more.  Another example is when looking at an information-based website a business depends on repeat visitors.  “Even if your ultimate goal is to sell a product or service, you're much more likely to sell to visitors who come back time after time. The old cliché, "A person has to see an ad seven times before they'll buy," is actually based on data.” (Haden, J. n.d.)

A business can ultimately get more visitors by investing in more advertising but if they are looking at ways to increase repeat visitors marketing becomes more efficient because a business is getting more out of the advertising revenue.  However, there is also the option to explore lowering the advertising budget, because if a business has been able to convert more repeat visitors, they do not have to spend time on bringing in as many new visitors.

A business can also improve on their repeat visitors by having a better understanding of their target market, making sure the content is efficient, ensure that the website is seamless and visitors can navigate, stream and search effectively.  By keeping content that is new and creative, fresh, relevant and accurate can almost always ensure the success of repeat visitors as it is important to make sure that the information they are receiving is as important as their first visit. 

By analyzing and investing in the knowledge of what drew the visitor in to the website the first time and what brought the visitor back will be a good indication of what a business needs to do to keep up with the return visitors' needs and wants, so that their return visitor ratio continues to increase and the business continues to excel in this metric.  

Reference

Haden, J. (n.d.). Web Metrics: Average Session Length vs Repeat Visitor ... Retrieved October 24, 2016, from http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/web-metrics-average-session-length-vs-repeat-visitor-ratio.html

WVU:Reed College of Media. (2016).  Lesson 1: Intro to Web Analytics and the Basics of Web Analytics Retrieved October 24, 2016 from https://ecampus.wvu.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_id=_69901_1&content_id=_3398289_1&framesetWrapped=true