Website Analysis of a Paint Store

Preface 

In any consumer product industry, driving sales is one of the primary ways in which to stimulate growth and increase profits. Driving sales is accomplished through an array of strategies, one of which being increasing traffic to a website. Heightened website traffic can be acquired through monetary means or can be attained organically. A spike in organic website traffic denotes an effective digital strategy.

Starting Point

In 2015, Today’s Business was asked to address the issue of organic website traffic for a paint store with multiple locations. Organic website traffic can be obtained from many different sources and has the ability to be measured in a myriad of ways. It is of paramount importance to be driving website traffic organically by employing effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Optimization (SMO) campaigns. Further, there are invaluable metrics to evaluate once these campaigns are implemented in order to assign meaning to the campaigns. Today’s Business employed both types of campaigns for a paint store, and the results quickly followed.

Results

The first set of metrics to be analyzed are various measures of organic website traffic, year to date compared with 2015. Organic website traffic has steadily increased, across the board regardless of category. See below:

• Organic Traffic increased 9 out 10 months in comparison to the 2015 month.
• Organic Traffic increased 28% in October 2016 vs. October 2015
• Organic Traffic is up 16% throughout 2016 (36,955 vs. 31,737)
• New Users via Organic Search are up 19% throughout 2016 (27,360 vs. 22,837)
• Organic Search has brought 1,444 Free Pint Samples (53.4% of all form completions)

• Mobile Organic Search increased 16.4% in comparison to 2015 (14,344 vs. 12,324)
• New Users via Mobile Organic Search increased 32% (10,079 vs. 7,580)
• Mobile Organic Forms accounted for 16% of all Free Pint Samples (458)

• Desktop Organic Traffic increased 19.4% in comparison to 2015 (19,441 vs. 16,273) 
• Desktop Organic Forms accounted for 31% of all Free Pint Samples (841)
• Desktop Organic Average Sessions Duration increased 20% throughout 2016 (2:11 vs. 1:49)

• Organic Traffic via Pennsylvania increased 23% in comparison to 2015 (1,639 vs. 1,330)
• Organic Traffic via Pennsylvania accounted for 5% of all Free Pint Samples (122)
• New Users via Organic Traffic from Pennsylvania increased 28% in comparison to 2015 (1,312 vs. 1,021)
• Organic Traffic via Doylestown, PA has increased 62% throughout 2016 (405 vs. 250)
• Organic Traffic via West Chester, PA has increased 54% throughout 2016 (295 vs. 191)
• Organic Traffic via Wayne, PA has increased 61% throughout 2016 (211 vs. 131)
• Organic Traffic via Upper Providence Township increased 129% (149 vs. 65)
• Organic Traffic via New Jersey increased 29% in comparison to 2015 (23,730 vs. 18,392)

• Organic Traffic via NJ accounted for 36% of all Free Pint Samples (979)
• New Users via Organic Traffic from NJ increased 31% in comparison to 2015 (17,508 vs. 13,357)
• Organic Traffic via Parsippany, NJ has increased 172% throughout 2016 (2,813 vs. 1,033)
• Organic Traffic via Jersey City, NJ has increased 592% throughout 2016 (1,564 vs. 226)
• Organic Traffic via Summit, NJ has increased 187% throughout 2016 (1,260 vs. 438)
• Organic Traffic via Brick, NJ increased 25% (908 vs. 726)

Now, what is there to make about the above numbers? Firstly, 9 out of 10 months from this year compared to last year have seen an increase in organic website traffic. This is a large enough set of data to be meaningful and shows a positive overall trend. Next, organic search has brought in 1,444 free pint-sized samples of paint, which comprises 53.4% of all form completions. This is particularly important because providing free pints of paint to more customers dramatically increases brand exposure and greatly increases the chances of a sale in the future.

Further, organic website traffic improved regardless of medium or area: desktop traffic, mobile traffic, and specific to location (i.e. various locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania). This all-encompassing improvement illustrates that the stats are not buoyed by one or two particular locations or one medium. Finally, the last table displays the improvements on a month over month basis as well as a year over year basis, providing a complete picture of the data.

The second set of metrics deal with organic website traffic derived from social media, separate from campaign results. Relevant metrics are below:

• Traffic via Social Media has increased 300% in comparison to 2015 (1,770 vs 442) 
• Social Media has accounted for 41 free paint samples.
• New Users from Social media has increased 230.93% (1,102 vs 333)
• Average Time On Site via Social Media has increased 136% (2:38 vs 1:07)
• Social Media Traffic has a 12% Goal Conversion Rate (233 of the 1,770 sessions converted)
• Mobile Traffic via Facebook increased 218.7% in comparison to 2015 (545 vs 171)
• New Users via Mobile Facebook Traffic increased 157% (389  vs 151)
• Mobile Users from Facebook accounted for 43% of all Social Free Pint Samples (18)
• Desktop Traffic via Facebook increased 754% in comparison to 2015 (948 vs 111) 
• Desktop Traffic via Facebook accounted for 41% of all Free Pint Samples (17)
• Desktop Organic Average Sessions Duration increased 96% throughout 2016 (4:13 vs 2:09)
• New User via Desktop Facebook Traffic increased 917% throughout 2016 (529 vs 52)

There are a few items of note in this set of data. Firstly, there is a clear overall increase in organic traffic from social media, which encompasses various different social media platforms. Moreover, there is a clear breakdown of mobile and desktop traffic from Facebook, with the most stark increase occurring for desktop traffic, but perhaps the most important being the increase in mobile. In a world that has become astonishingly mobile-centric, an increase in traffic from mobile is a true harbinger of successfully driving sales in the future. Finally, the last table shows the increase on a year over year basis, as well as a month over month basis. This provides a cohesive, complete picture of the success.

Conclusion

In summation, Today’s Business was able to deliver above and beyond the desired results for this paint store in terms of organic website traffic. By all accounts, the improvement has been dramatic and diversified across different measurements. When SEO, digital, and social all work as critical parts of an effective campaign, the result is the optimization and excellent performance seen in the traffic of this particular website.