TL;DR
Monitoring and analytics are key tools to understand how your site and business work. With the right metrics you can make better decisions, optimize conversions and grow business. Here's what to measure and how to interpret data in 2026.
Who this is for
- Business owners wanting to understand their data
- Marketers analyzing campaign results
- Developers monitoring app performance
Keyword (SEO)
website monitoring, web analytics, website metrics, google analytics, performance monitoring
Why is monitoring important?
Monitoring allows:
- Understand users – where they come from, what they do, where they leave
- Optimize conversions – find problems and fix them
- Measure ROI – check if investments pay off
- Make decisions – based on data, not guesses
Key metrics to monitor
1. Traffic
Users:
- Number of unique users
- New vs returning
- Sessions and time on site
Traffic sources:
- Organic (SEO)
- Paid (ads)
- Social media
- Direct
- Referral (from other sites)
What it means:
- More organic = better SEO
- More paid = you may need better SEO
- More direct = known brand
2. Conversions
Key conversions:
- Contact forms
- Purchases
- Subscriptions
- Downloads
Conversion metrics:
- Conversion rate = (conversions / sessions) × 100%
- Cost per conversion = campaign cost / number of conversions
- ROI = (revenue - cost) / cost × 100%
What it means:
- Low conversion rate = problem with UX or offer
- High cost per conversion = inefficient campaigns
- Positive ROI = campaign pays off
3. Performance
Core Web Vitals:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) – < 2.5s
- FID (First Input Delay) – < 100ms
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) – < 0.1
Other metrics:
- Time to First Byte (TTFB)
- First Contentful Paint (FCP)
- Total Blocking Time (TBT)
What it means:
- Poor results = slow loading = fewer conversions
- Good results = fast loading = more conversions
4. SEO
Google positions:
- Positions for key phrases
- Impressions
- CTR (Click-Through Rate)
Indexing:
- Number of indexed pages
- Indexing errors
- Canonical tags
What it means:
- Higher positions = more organic traffic
- More impressions = greater potential
- High CTR = good title and description
5. User Experience (UX)
Bounce rate:
- High (> 70%) = users leave quickly
- Low (< 40%) = users engage
Time on page:
- Long time = interesting content
- Short time = may be content problem
Pages per session:
- More pages = better engagement
- Fewer pages = may be navigation problem
Popular tools
1. Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
Advantages:
- Free
- Comprehensive data
- Integrations with other Google tools
What it measures:
- Traffic, conversions, user behavior
- E-commerce tracking
- Event tracking
2. Google Search Console
Advantages:
- Free
- Data from Google Search
- Indexing information
What it measures:
- Google positions
- Impressions, clicks, CTR
- Indexing errors
3. Hotjar / Microsoft Clarity
Advantages:
- Heatmaps
- Session recordings
- User feedback
What it measures:
- Where users click
- How they scroll
- Where they have problems
4. Lighthouse
Advantages:
- Free
- Performance audit
- SEO audit
What it measures:
- Core Web Vitals
- SEO score
- Accessibility score
5. Uptime monitoring
Tools:
- UptimeRobot
- Pingdom
- StatusCake
What it measures:
- Site availability (uptime)
- Response time
- Alerts on problems
How to interpret data?
1. Look for trends
Don't look at single days:
- Check weeks and months
- Look for patterns (e.g. more traffic on weekends)
- Compare periods (this month vs previous)
2. Combine metrics
Don't look at one metric:
- Traffic + conversions = is traffic valuable
- Performance + bounce rate = does performance affect UX
- SEO + traffic = does SEO work
3. Find causes
When something changes:
- What changed at that time? (new campaign, site changes)
- Is it seasonality? (e.g. more traffic before holidays)
- Is it technical problem? (check monitoring)
4. Set goals
Measure what matters:
- Not all metrics are important
- Focus on those that affect business
- Set KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
Best practices
1. Regular reviews
- Daily: check alerts and errors
- Weekly: review key metrics
- Monthly: analyze trends and make decisions
2. Set alerts
- Errors: immediate alerts on problems
- Drops: alerts on significant metric drops
- Goals: alerts on goal achievement
3. Document changes
- What you changed: record site changes
- When: date of changes
- Effect: how changes affected metrics
4. Test and optimize
- A/B testing: test different versions
- Measure results: check which version works better
- Iterate: improve based on data
Interpretation examples
Example 1: High bounce rate
Data:
- Bounce rate: 80%
- Time on page: 10 seconds
- Traffic: mainly from Google Ads
Interpretation:
- Users leave quickly
- May be landing page problem
- May be ads targeting problem
Actions:
- Check if landing page matches ad
- Improve CTA and offer
- Check targeting in Google Ads
Example 2: Organic traffic drop
Data:
- Organic traffic dropped 30%
- Google positions dropped
- No site changes
Interpretation:
- May be SEO problem
- May be indexing problem
- May be Google algorithm change
Actions:
- Check Google Search Console
- Check if pages are indexed
- Check for SEO errors
Example 3: Low conversion rate
Data:
- Conversion rate: 1%
- Traffic: 10,000 users/month
- Conversions: 100/month
Interpretation:
- Most users don't convert
- May be offer problem
- May be UX problem
Actions:
- Check user journey (Hotjar)
- Improve CTA and forms
- Test different versions (A/B testing)
Summary
Monitoring and analytics are key tools for business growth. Measure key metrics (traffic, conversions, performance, SEO, UX), use appropriate tools (GA4, Search Console, Hotjar) and interpret data in business context. Make decisions based on data, not guesses.
Want to implement monitoring and analytics?
- Contact – tell us about your project
- See our implementations – examples of implementations
- Check our process – how we work