Is your business’s website performing at its optimal level? To gain a true sense of how your site is performing, you must monitor marketing analytics such as lead conversion rates, visitor engagement and backlinks collected.

Marketing analytics programs can in some cases, overwhelm business owners and leaders with the amount of information collected. While all information offers some inherent value, there are some crucial metrics that should be followed and acted upon to improve an organization’s website and page rank on major search engines.

Here are 3 key marketing analytics metrics your business must monitor in order to optimize its marketing efforts:

1. Lead Conversion Rates and Goal Completion– Track how many website visitors convert from a lead to customer or take desired ‘next’ steps (i.e. Like Facebook page, Follow on Twitter, opt-in for your newsletter, or subscribe for your email list).
2. Watch your Backlink Profile– Google’s recent Penguin algorithm monitors the quality of your website’s backlinks. If your site isn’t attracting quality links, it could be penalized by major search engines, including Google. As you review your backlink profile, consider the following:
   1. How many poor links are pointing at your website? i.e. gambling, pornography or generally questionable site links
   2. Of your quality links, do they utilize varied and natural anchor text language? Avoid sounding over-optimized as it can result in search engine penalties.
   3. Are your links from ‘real’ websites? Many sites have been created solely for SEO purposes. Avoid links from such platforms as the connection can be perceived as manipulative by search engines.

Remove as many of these backlinks are possible and track your efforts. In some cases, webmasters of particular sites will fail to remove their links even after your request. If you are removed or penalized by major search engines for these connections, supporting documentation can prove valuable when building your defense. Check these links at least once per month manually or consider outsourcing this task to a paid monitoring service.

1. Review Visitor Engagement– While one of the primary goals of your marketing efforts is to drive leads, or visitors, to your website, it is important to note that not all visitors are created equal. Your ultimate goal should be to drive quality leads to your site; those that fit the characteristics of your target audience. When reviewing your visitor engagement statistics, consider the average length of time they spent on your site, your site’s overall bounce rate, how many pages a visitor reviews when landing on your site’s homepage, and number and frequency of social media shares. If your site provides an engaging experience, these metrics should be strong. If you are targeting the wrong audience in addition to providing a poor website experience, these figures will likely be weak.

Collect and analyze the above mentioned metrics when designing and revamping your organization’s online marketing efforts. Failure to collect key marketing metrics can result in efforts that produce poor sales results for your organization.