Why Do People Leave As Soon As They Get To My Site?, Site Review Please Options

[Andrew.Williams]

I am really puzzled by this.

They come from relevant keywords hence you'd expect them to stay at least long enough to read the title and or description, but analytic shows them as 0 seconds? It can't be the fact that it rounds up from 0-10 seconds as it shows someone being there for 6 seconds.

It is quite puzzling. This question was on the description for this section of the forum too so clearly I am not the only one and most probably it has been answered before in which case I do apologise.

Any insights though as to why this is will be VERY helpful.

Thank You

[bwelford]

Welcome to the Forums, Andrew.Williams.

The page they are landing on is complete and gives a visitor the ability to move up and down on the page and assimilate all the content. If they don't click on a link within the page but, for example, open another web page unconnected with yours in another tag, then it is impossible for anyone to know how long they spent on your web page. In this case the visit time would be shown as 0.

[Andrew.Williams]

Thanks Barry, it is nice to be here.

So if I am getting this correctly, If someone who comes to my site does not visit another page within my site then the time will be shown as zero even though they might have stayed on there for ages?

[bwelford]

That's correct, Andrew, provided they didn't hit a hyperlink out from your site to go somewhere else. That second event would be recorded and would serve to give the time they had spent on the web page. However if they just loaded up a favorite from their favorites or typed in a URL, then that action would not be an event for your web page AFAIK.

[xenswim1]

Yes quite correct. Only one visit event from a particular IP is recorded in 24 hrs. I suggest that you look at the the repeat visitors section to determine the accuracy. Repeat and bookmarked pages are more important than those net browsers who are what I call - looksee, moveon. Bookmarked visitors are likely to come back some time later and purchase.

You will also note that a visitor from say ask.com will spend more time on your site than say a Googler. We have found that some search engines have a better class of visitors than others.

It might help to use a fixed address retail outlet as an example. If one spent time watching a particular section of the store and counted that number of shoppers who would stop, look, feel and move on without buying one would understand why this occurred with your site.

On the other hand you will see those who are serious as they go from on item to the next inspecting each. After a while an experienced floor salesperson can pick up those who will need help and those who are passers by.

[Andrew.Williams]

That answers a lot of questions.

I was bemused as to how can they come to my site through relevant keywords from which I could clearly tell they were looking for what I was providing and still spend 0 seconds on my site. Well that is clear as to why now. Is there any way that you can measure the time even if they did not click on a link?

I was having a discussion with my mate about this and at one point he asked well why should you care how long they spend on your site?

I had asked that myself before seeing as all I want them to do is actually click on the ads hence the length of their visit is irrelevant, but instinctively I always wanted them to stay on it as long as possible. Maybe my ego! Just out of curiosity though I like checking how long they stayed on it.

But is it pointless tracking the time they spend on your site? Why or how and maybe in what way can this information help and be used do you think/?

[bwelford]

Although it's somewhat woolly data, I think it can serve a comparative purpose. Of course some pages are not meant to be read for a long time. If a page is a navigation step as the visitor clicks through to say the specific product page they want, then a shorter time may be better. It would indicate the web page works well in giving them a fast track through to the page where they want to be and where they may convert to a purchaser.

You've really got to decide what is the goal of any web page and decide what would be an appropriate time to stay there. Your averages may be distorted by those who just disappear, but perhaps comparing the data for what should be comparable pages may indicate that some are working better than others.

[Andrew.Williams]

Exactly

My site is pretty new so the data is fairly limited about 140 which is statistically significant. When I went through them to analyse how everything is doing the time was one of the three factors which I took into consideration.

It seems we are missing a lot of data then which might be overcome by dividing what once was a one long page into two more focused but interelated pages?

Nonetheless Thanks a lot for helping me clear out my thoughts Barry.

All the best to you on this fairly fine Sunday (here in Liverpool at least)

[bwelford]

You're welcome, Andrew. Here in British Columbia, Canada, it's slightly better than predicted as the day starts, but we'll be getting the usual showers this afternoon.

[sanity]

Am I missing something - I can't see the website address...

[bwelford]

Perhaps, Sophie, this might better have been in Website Design, since it dealt with a general issue rather than a specific website.

[Andrew.Williams]

Yes sorry.

I saw that this question was in the description of where it says Website Hospital hence thought it belongs there.

I am not looking for a review of my site though, so feel free to move it if this is not the right section.

[cre8pc]

I moved it

[sanity]

Hi Andrew,

Another way to measure the success of your website is by the number of people who meet their goals on your site. Are you getting sales, sign-ups, enquiries or other signs you can monitor?

[Andrew.Williams]

Well sanity, what I want people who are coming to my site to do is click on the ads. It is an informational site you see, for now anyway.

I am quite new to this, and so is my website, but I do study psychology in which we are taught how to carry out analysis of data for a certain variable and all of that.

The end goal is to get people to click on the ads, hence if they are not doing so then I guess you have to analyse other variables which might then eventually lead to them clicking.

In that respect it is not very clear as to how the time spend on the site would effect the chance of clicking on an ad. But certainly if someone spent the appropriate time on a certain page, then knowing that they are getting what they want and that I am providing what they want I guess must be a good thing.

[sanity]

My questions was trying to address your first question in another way. You said people were leaving as soon as they arrived (which I understand is resolved) but are they clicking on your ads? If not that's the problem, if so they're doing what you want and it doesn't matter if they stay for a long time. Make sense?

[iamlost]

We are working from very little information, yourself included.
Some questions for you to consider:
* what is the ctr for your niche?
* are there significant differences in the ads on your site and your competitors for the same terms?
* are there significant differences in the ads on your site and your competitors for the ad type/size/layout?
* are your ads integrated into the content area or are they in the traditional header/footer locations or placed off to one sidebar? Do you know the general costs and benefits of each location? Do you know which locations work best for your niche, for your page layout?
* are the ads as valuable a content as your content? Is there a reason for the visitor to click one?

My major concern from your comments is the apparent lack of traffic going elsewhere within your site from the landing page. Unless you only have the one page that may indicate that people simply do not like what they see. Given a choice between hitting the back button and clicking an ad most people hit back.

You need to engage people, give them a feeling that you have pages (at least a few) of really valuable interesting content. That in turn increases the value of your ads.

People are not coming to your site for the ads. They are coming because of the query term and an apparent link to info about that term. Unless you are a ppc landing page, in which case the content needs to be incredibly focussed and tailored for hard selling and getting that click. There are reams of info written about that.