Is your website good or bad? Ask these numbers
- Problem: Business owners don't know whether their website performs well because they never look at the numbers.
- Solution: Seven simple metrics — traffic, bounce rate, conversion, CPL, return visitors, pages/session, session duration.
- Outcome: Read the numbers to understand the truth about your website, no complex technical knowledge required.
Is your website good or bad? Ask these numbers
A story from 3 months ago:
An SME client called me: "Chau, please audit my website. I spent $3,500, I have 10k traffic/month, but only 5 orders/month. The conversion rate is terrible."
I asked: "Are you tracking any metrics?"
The client replied: "No, I just look at Google Analytics."
I looked at their GA and saw:
- Bounce rate 75% (very high)
- Avg session duration only 12 seconds (everyone leaves immediately)
- Pages per session 1 (no one looks further)
→ It's not bad traffic, but poor-quality traffic.
I said: "You need to optimize the bounce rate first, then talk about conversion (see: Why your website gets views but no buyers)."
The client applied 3 small fixes (clear H1, prominent CTA, speed optimization), and 1 month later:
- Bounce rate 55% (down 20%)
- Session duration 2m30s (12x increase)
- Conversion 15 orders/month (3x increase)
If you know how to read these numbers from the start, you'll know exactly what to fix.
A familiar situation:
A client calls me: "Chau, I just spent $2,000 on a website. Is it any good? I don't know how to measure it."
I asked back: "I don't know what the website is for. Selling? Consulting? Or just... existing?"
The client was silent.
That's the problem — you spend money building a website but don't know if it's running well or poorly. Without metrics, you only have "feelings," not "truth."
Below are 7 simple metrics (no technical skills required) that you need to track to know if your website is "alive" or "slowly dying."
TL;DR (Executive Summary)
- Problem: Business owners don't know whether their website performs well because they never look at the numbers.
- Solution: Seven simple metrics — traffic, bounce rate, conversion, CPL, return visitors, pages/session, session duration.
- Outcome: Read the numbers to understand the truth about your website, no complex technical knowledge required.
Metric #1: Traffic — "Are people visiting?"
Definition: How many people visit your website each month?
How to measure: Install Google Analytics (free), look at the "Reports Snapshot" → "Users"
Healthy numbers:
- Startups / new sites: 100-500 users/month ✅ (acceptable)
- Normal SME: 1,000-5,000 users/month ✅ (good)
- Strong SME: 5,000-20,000 users/month 🚀 (very good)
If your traffic is:
- ❌ < 100 users/month → Nobody knows your website exists (check SEO + ads)
- ❌ Sudden 50% drop → There's a serious problem (hacked? broken links?)
Real example: A client said: "I increased ad spend to $2,000/month but traffic is still 500 users. What's wrong?"
I checked their GA: "Your ads drive people in, but your landing page doesn't have a clear topic. People enter and leave within 3 seconds."
→ The problem isn't traffic, but the quality of traffic.
Metric #2: Bounce Rate — "Do they enter and run away?"
Definition: What percentage of people enter your website and "run" away immediately without viewing anything else? (leaving within the first 5 seconds)
How to measure: Google Analytics → "Engagement" → "Bounce Rate"
Healthy numbers:
- Landing page (1 page, CTA goal): 30-50% ✅ (good)
- Blog / content: 50-70% ✅ (normal, they read one post and leave)
- Homepage: 40-60% ✅ (people see the intro and move inside)
If your bounce rate is:
- ❌ > 80% → Serious problem. People don't want to stay. Heading? Design? Slow load?
- ✅ 30-50% → Good, people are engaging
Real example: You run Google Ads, get cheap clicks ($0.05/click), but 90% bounce? → You're burning money.
A client asked: "Why is my ROI still poor even after I increased ad bids?"
I checked: Bounce rate 85%, and 75% of that was from Google Ads. → The problem isn't the ad bid, but the landing page not matching the ad copy.
Metric #3: Conversion Rate (CR) — "What % convert into customers?"
Definition: What percentage of visitors perform a goal (buy, call, form)?
How to measure:
- Number of conversions / Total traffic × 100
Example: 1000 visitors, 10 buyers → CR = 1%
Healthy numbers:
- Standard landing page: 2-5% ✅ (good)
- Homepage: 0.5-2% ✅ (normal)
- Blog: 0.1-0.5% ✅ (normal, they come to read, not buy)
- E-commerce: 1-3% ✅ (good)
If your CR is:
- ❌ < 0.5% → Problem in the conversion funnel (form too difficult? bad UX? low trust?)
- ✅ 1-2% → Normal, but can be optimized further
Real example: A "Buy Now" landing page had 2,000 visitors but only 3 buyers (CR = 0.15%) 😬
I audited it:
- Form was too long (5 fields) → Reduced to 2 fields
- No clear payment options → Added e-wallets, cards
- CTA button was tiny → Made it larger
After fixing: 2,000 visitors, 25 buyers (CR = 1.25%) 🎉 = 7x improvement.
Metric #4: Cost Per Lead (CPL) or Cost Per Conversion — "How much do you pay for each customer?"
Definition: How much money do you spend to get one customer (lead or conversion)?
How to calculate:
- Total ad spend / Number of conversions
Example: Spend $500 on ads, get 100 leads → CPL = $5/lead
Healthy numbers: Depends on the industry, but follows this formula:
- CPL should be < (Average customer value × 20%)
Example: You sell a product for $200 with a $80 profit margin. Your CPL should be < $16.
If CPL > $16, you're losing money.
Metric #5: Returning Visitors Rate — "Do people come back?"
Definition: What percentage of visitors come back a 2nd, 3rd time...?
How to measure: Google Analytics → "Retention"
Healthy numbers:
- First-time (new): 70-80% ✅ (normal)
- Returning: 20-30% ✅ (good, they like it)
If your returning visitors rate is:
- ❌ < 5% → People aren't interested in your content
- ✅ > 20% → Good, they like + trust you
Metric #6: Pages Per Session — "How many pages do they view?"
Definition: On average, how many pages does a visitor view per visit?
Healthy numbers:
- 1-2 pages ✅ (they reached their goal)
- 3-5 pages 🚀 (good, they're exploring)
5 pages 🔥 (very good, they're highly interested)
Metric #7: Average Session Duration — "How long do they stay?"
Definition: On average, how long do visitors stay on your website?
Healthy numbers:
- Blog / content: 2-5 minutes ✅ (reading articles)
- Landing page: 1-3 minutes ✅ (deciding to act)
- Homepage: 30-120 seconds ✅ (exploring)
Minimalist Dashboard I Recommend
| Metric | This Week | Last Week | Trend | Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traffic | 2,500 | 2,200 | ↑ | 5,000 |
| Bounce Rate | 45% | 52% | ↓ ✅ | < 40% |
| Conversion Rate | 1.2% | 0.8% | ↑ ✅ | 2% |
| CPL | $10 | $12 | ↓ ✅ | $8 |
| Returning Visitors | 18% | 15% | ↑ ✅ | > 20% |
| Pages/Session | 3.1 | 2.8 | ↑ | 4 |
| Avg Duration | 2m45s | 2m10s | ↑ | 3m |
Spend 5 minutes each week looking at this sheet, and you'll know if your website is healthy or weak.
Conclusion: Numbers are Truth, Feelings are Ghosts
Over 14 years, I've seen a rule: Clients who track these 7 metrics continuously can optimize their conversion from 0.5% to 1.5%+ within 2-3 months.
It's not because they are "lucky," but because they see the problems instead of just "feeling" them.
Nguyen Phuc Nguyen Chau
Delivery Manager
14 years of Delivery experience (Web, Systems, AI Automation) for VN/JP markets
14 years of optimizing metrics to "turn feelings into facts"