When you look at your website's traffic, what numbers are most important? Google analytics is fun and interesting to peruse, but it's tough to tell if your traffic is actually doing any good for your business.

For example, you may see a smaller amount of traffic from your social media pages as from direct traffic or search results; but it may not be immediately clear that social media traffic actually generates more quality for your site. Statistics have shown that website visitors who are referred from social media pages generally spend more time and are more likely to fill out forms or become "leads."

Specifically on social media pages like Facebook, you can track impressions, clicks, and shares. Sometimes, a post will get lots of impressions without a lot of shares. According to internet statistics, there are only two days out of the week that people share content at an above average rate - Tuesday and Saturday. Check out the chart below:

Google analytics gives you the option to track specific goals. You can choose a single web page - ideally a page where a visitor can become a lead (conversion form, enewsletter signup, etc.) - and track how many visits get funneled to that particular page. Even though it's difficult with Google analytics to actually see the conversion rates, it's still good to direct people to a certain landing page - and to see how affective your website currently is at that metric.

The moral of the story: make sure your website is actually working... and I don't mean deleting your "under construction" text. Make sure the site is generating quality visitors that can become leads... not just a high number of visitors that look at and leave the site.