Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday 2013 have come and gone, but the holiday shopping season has only just begun. Over the next several weeks, U.S. shoppers will be checking off their lists, and according to Shop.org, they'll be spending a projected $82 billion online this holiday season. If you're an e-commerce retailer, it's in your best interest to keep your website in tip-top shape this month.

Is Your Website a One-Hit Wonder?

Few businesses strive for a website that's the equivalent of a one-hit wonder.
If visitors are coming to your site and engaging — possibly even converting — and then leaving, never to return again, you're probably wondering why this happens (and if it matters, particularly if overall pageviews or conversion numbers are solid).
We're talking to marketers as a part of our Metrics That Matter series, and asking them about the importance of visitor retention as well as the extent they pay attention to recency and frequency of visits. Below are a few suggestions for analyzing this particular metric, as well as insight into why it's worth taking a look at these traffic trends.

Not All Visitors Are Created Equal

As we've touched on in earlier articles in this series, not all visitors who come to your site hold the same value for your business or your bottom line. Perhaps a one-time visitor heard about an article on your site from a friend, and wants to casually peruse (but with no intention of purchasing your product or signing up for your newsletter). On the other hand, perhaps an ad campaign is resonating particularly well with targeted Facebook users — and it's resulting in more high-value traffic and return visitors for your blog.
Jon Gibs, vice president of analytics at Huge, points out that, for some businesses, levels of return visitation may actually be more important than the number of raw visitors.

"If you assume there is a cost to acquire any given customer, having a high level of return visitation allows you to amortize your acquisition cost across multiple visits,

"If you assume there is a cost to acquire any given customer, having a high level of return visitation allows you to amortize your acquisition cost across multiple visits, or more specifically, the revenue that any given user drives," says Gibs. The amount of emphasis to place on this metric (as well as how you'll interpret it) varies from business to business. For a mobile app, for example, frequency of use is hugely important, and a good indicator of the app's overall success. As Cezary Pietrzak, former head of marketing at Appboy says: "In mobile, the equivalent [to visitor frequency and recency] is number of sessions and sessions in last X days. These are good benchmarks for engagement and retention, or the lifeblood of the app. Installs these days mean nothing. Building a successful business means you have a steady flow of users who engage with your app on a regular basis."
But a low rate of visit per visitor isn't necessarily devastating news for certain types of businesses — the metric is relative. A quarterly publication may see a spike in web traffic after publishing its latest issue; meanwhile, a daily deals site may wince at traffic that recurs only four times a year. Discounting one-time visitors isn't black and white, either; perhaps the visitor who just wanted to check out your site's content once might pass the word along to friends who actually will purchase or convert.
Navneet Virk, vice president of optimization at Roundarch Isobar, points out the differences between a banking site, which may have significantly high numbers of visits per visitor (since users are continuously checking their balances), and a retail site, where purchase may be a one-time occurrence. For a luxury retail brand, a high rate of conversion may be more indicative of effective marketing than the percentage of repeat visitors (who may simply be deciding whether or not to buy — or showing all their friends the $1,200 jacket they wish they could afford).
The trick is to tailor your metrics analysis efforts to your specific business, needs and objectives. Serena Satyasai, global marketing lead at CloudFlare, Inc. suggests that the definition of "active users" should be applied to an individual company's goals.

Frequency and Recency Help Establish Trends

Keeping track of your return visitors and noting their behavior — if and when they convert or purchase, for example — can be a helpful indicator that something you're doing on the marketing front is working (or not).
One of the initial steps in the analytical process should be breaking your website traffic into different groups or cohorts, based upon their behavior on your site.

"First time visitor, second time visitor, loyal visitor — each visitor is not the same, and determining their frequency of visits/purchases is the simplest way of segmenting your audience,"

"First time visitor, second time visitor, loyal visitor — each visitor is not the same, and determining their frequency of visits/purchases is the simplest way of segmenting your audience," says Hugo Smoter, director of marketing for Spreadshirt. Once you've completed this grouping process, you can experiment with different tactics (email marketing, mobile ads, etc.) to appeal to each segment on an individual basis. "If you’ve found that people only buy from you after two or five or 10 visits, you need to be paying attention to how you’re attracting people back," says Tyler Young, principal consultant for Conversion Insights. He adds, however, that — once again — this analysis depends upon the company and its goals. "I've worked with companies in which 90% of sales happen the first day a person visits," he says.
Blogs, online dating sites, news sites and service-based platforms may want to pay closer attention to the metric. If users are signing up and then jumping ship shortly thereafter, it may be time to address the efficacy of your site, content or marketing campaigns.
Kellee Khalil, founder and CEO of wedding-planning website Loverly, says that the company monitors visitor retention closely. "We know that once a user creates a free account and bundles images (i.e. creates and saves a digital folder like gowns or shoes), upon her second bundle, she is hooked and becomes a 'power user.' She visits many more times a day and really engages with our content to actively plan her wedding," says Khalil.

Page Views Don't Necessarily Equate Sales

While visitor traffic is important information from a marketing, targeting and messaging perspective, it's important to note that this data may not automatically correlate with increased leads or sales, says Jason Squardo, executive vice president of optimization at ZOG Digital. He suggests that attribution modeling and tools such as tagged advertisements or unique landing pages may help identify visitors who are not only engaged, but also more likely to buy.
Christopher Penn, vice president of marketing technology at SHIFT Communications, suggests that companies focus on the big picture. "As a marketer, you don't really care what the proportion of new to returning visitors is. You care that both audiences are growing. You want more new visitors, and you want more returning visitors. It's much better to measure each separately rather than the blend or mix of both," says Penn.

Content Is Key

There's a reason that content marketing — both as a buzzword and in practice — is on the rise. If your visitors are confused, unimpressed or bored, it's unlikely that you'll remain on their radar.
To encourage visitor retention — as well as entice new visitors — a solid content strategy is a must.

"Getting people to an online destination is hard enough, and getting them to return is even harder. That's where the content comes in,"

"Getting people to an online destination is hard enough, and getting them to return is even harder. That's where the content comes in," says Rob Longert, co-founder at an independent PR and strategy firm. "To get people to come back, the content has to be engaging, fresh and compelling on a regular basis." Longert says that leveraging fans and followers on social channels is another way to engage with your brand or product's pre-existing audience, as well as encourage visitor retention. In addition, a successful content strategy can build strong brand affinity and loyalty, says Stephanie Fried, VPof digital insights and marketing for Discovery Communications. "Ideally, we want to create a habit of visitation among our users so that visiting our sites is part of their regular routine," she says.
Thoughtful, high-quality content is one way to reign in visitors and keep them coming back. Alexis Anderson, director of marketing and partnerships for PureWow, stresses the importance of quality edit: "You can't fake good content. No marketing trick in the world can make up for subpar content, especially in front of a very discerning reader."
How does your business measure visitor retention? Is it an important metric for your site? Tell us in the comments.