Do You Know Your New vs. Returning Visitor Ratio?

Poring over real estate website analytics isn't usually that exciting. When we talk about website analytics, it should be important to a specific benefit for your site. What can we gain from understanding our new versus returning visitor ratio?

Much of our attention is focused on getting that new visitor to click to the site. Once we get them there, we use calls-to-action around the site to try and get their contact information. It's good when we are successful, but in many cases, these visitors remain anonymous until they leave. They may return again, but they're still not in our prospects file unless we get them to tell us who they are.

You'll find the New vs. Returning data under the Active Users and Behavior navigation on the left of the Google Analytics screen.

A real estate website will have a high percentage of returning visitors, as they are using your MLS search over and over again. That's great, and if we have a lead generation tool on that page, at some point they may tell us who they are.

Many sites have search functions on multiple pages. Checking the traffic on these pages in your website analytics, you may see that one page is getting much more return traffic than others.

Digging Into Your Stats

There is value in every data point. If you're displaying searches on multiple pages, what is the featured content on the page(s) with higher return visitor numbers?

• Buyer general information page: Do you have a call to action on the page? If so, is it working well? Are you set up to know the response rate for each lead generation tool? For a general buyer page, you may want to offer a customized alert search to increase your lead generation.
• Seller information pages: If you're surprised by high return visitor numbers to a seller page with a search function, you may be missing a really good listing lead generation opportunity.
• Neighborhood pages: A search function on any neighborhood or area page that has good return visitor stats could show an opportunity for lead generation with an offer of a customized search with email alerts for new listings and price reductions in that neighborhood.

You may want to think about adding search functions around your site. Go to your analytics and check the pages with high visitor return numbers.

Use the Stats

When you see high visitor return numbers for a page, what is the content focus? If there isn't a search function there, what is attracting repeat visitors? Something in the content of that page is drawing repeat visits. If you can figure out what it is, place a call to action on that page offering more info, a special report, or some other related extra.

If you do a lot of linking inside your site, is a link on that page being clicked a lot? If so, where does it take the visitor, as it could show an opportunity for lead generation on that page.

Don't waste return visitors.

Return visitor stats are overlooked too often, while they could be holding some valuable secrets for new business. Take a deep dive into yours, as it's not going to take long, and it could lead to the closing table more often.

To view the original article, visit the WebsiteBox blog.