The Top Performance Indicators for Mobile Websites

With nearly half of Facebook's active users now accessing the social network through a mobile device, it's obvious that the move to the mobile web continues at a rapid pace. Leveraging the metrics of visitors to your mobile website requires an analysis of the most relevant key performance indicators (KPIs). While some KPIs are similar to those in normal web analytics, the mobile landscape differs enough to warrant a fresh look.

1. Page/Site Time: Like the traditional web, mobile sites need to provide compelling content and a reason for a visitor to stay on a page and navigate through the rest of the site. Analyzing the time spent on the site and each page, along with the click-through rate remain the best ways to track the visitor's overall engagement with your mobile web site.

2. Bounce Rate: Conversely, Bounce Rate measures a visitor's overall lack of engagement with a site -- leaving without viewing another page. This is as relevant in the mobile web as with traditional websites. Additional tracking of any links to the full website or "desktop version" is relevant in determining whether visitors' problems are with the overall site content, or its mobile implementation.

3. Device/Platform/Browser Metrics: Despite the cross-platform potential of HTML5, mobile devices still sport their own idiosyncrasies, including mobile browser differences, Flash support(or not), and a wide range of hardware horsepower. In fact, according to mobiThinking, Feature phones still outsell smartphones by a rate of four to one! Understanding your mobile site's audience and the capabilities of their devices is vital to the site's overall success.

4. Connection Type: The continued rollout of 3G and 4G wireless networks allows more customers to access the high-speed internet through their mobile device. Still, only one in five of people worldwide have access to at least a 3G connection. Wireless providers' discontinuing of unlimited data plans also hampers users with their mobile browsing. It is important to build a mobile site with content viewable by the widest range of visitors.

5. URL/Link Tracking: Finally, tracking click rates for a mobile site's external links is important, especially for m-commerce sites. US m-commerce revenues are expected to hit $31 billion by 2016, making this metric vital for those hoping to leverage this consumer trend.

The top key performance indicators in mobile analytics share similarities with their older siblings from the traditional web, mostly concerning overall visitor site engagement. Mobile site developers need to leverage this information along with the additional metrics around device and connection capabilities to truly understand their audience. These KPIs are vital when building the most compelling site for all of your potential visitors.