Are Your Analytics Lying to You?
Ever feel like you’re chasing ghosts in your analytics? You see traffic going up, but your sales are flat. It’s a common headache, and it often comes from tracking the wrong things.
The ‘Vanity Metrics’ Trap
Adam Riemer recently laid out a fantastic argument that really gets to the heart of this problem. He challenges us to stop obsessing over what he essentially calls “vanity metrics.” You know the ones: bounce rate, time on page, and even raw pageviews. His point is refreshingly simple: these numbers don’t tell the whole story. A visitor who finds an answer on your page in 10 seconds and leaves is a success, not a “bounce.” A high pageview count with zero sales is just expensive noise.
Focus on Outcomes, Not Eyeballs
Instead, Riemer urges us to focus on what truly impacts the business’s bottom line. The real questions we should be asking are: Did this content lead to a sale? Did it generate a high-quality lead for the sales team? Did it help move a customer along their buying journey, even if it wasn’t the last page they visited before purchasing?
This shift from tracking “eyeballs” to tracking “outcomes” is what separates good content strategy from great content strategy. It’s about measuring revenue per visitor and tracking how content fills your sales funnel, not just your traffic reports. When you start measuring what matters, you start creating content that actually works. But how do you start applying this to your own site?
Learn More From the Source
For a deeper dive, I highly recommend you read Adam Riemer’s full breakdown on the content metrics that truly matter for yourself.