Sometimes the way to measure the success of a website is simple: The visitor takes the desired action, such as clicking through to another page, signing up for a mailing list, or buying a particular product or service.

But for other web pages, success can be more esoteric. So how can you tell whether your website has achieved its objective when there is no obvious desired action? The answer is threefold: Time spent, visitor engagement, and sharing.

Time Spent

The amount of time the average visitor spends on your pages is a more critical engagement measurement than the number of visitors. That’s because many people are going to find your web pages by mistake, will click off immediately after landing there or will be disappointed by your content.

But when the average time visitors spend on your pages is higher, it shows they have found something of value, whether it’s your content, your images, or simply your brand.

Visitor Engagement

Another critical measurement is visitor engagement. Once people find your web pages, what do they do there? Do they spend time reading your text, looking at your images, scrolling through your products, or some other desired action?

Successful websites offer easy, inviting visitor engagement opportunities so people spend more time on the page, develop positive feelings about the brand, and come away with a desire for further engagement.

Sharing

The ultimate measurement tool is the number of shares you get from your web pages. Companies spend a lot of time and energy encouraging people to share their pages with their family, friends, and most importantly their social media contacts.

The reason for this is obvious: When people share your pages, they can go exponentially viral. Making it easy for people to share links to your page to their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media accounts is essential for your business’s success.