{"id":11556,"date":"2020-10-08T16:09:07","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T20:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newpirdev.wpengine.com\/for-orgs\/learning-center\/resources\/is-your-website-a-high-performance-vehicle-get-on-the-road-toward-measuring-success\/"},"modified":"2024-06-28T01:29:12","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T05:29:12","slug":"is-your-website-a-high-performance-vehicle-get-on-the-road-toward-measuring-success","status":"publish","type":"learning-center","link":"https:\/\/pir.org\/for-orgs\/learning-center\/resources\/is-your-website-a-high-performance-vehicle-get-on-the-road-toward-measuring-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Your Website a High-Performance Vehicle? Get on the Road Toward Measuring Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Tony Connor, Director of Product Marketing, PIR<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is part 6 of an 8-part series called “Bootcamp for Mission-Driven Organizations”.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your new organizational website is a beauty, shiny and new. But how does it drive? To maximize your marketing horsepower, it\u2019s important to measure how efficiently your website meets the goals of driving donors, volunteers, sponsors, and other good traffic to your organization. To truly understand this, it\u2019s critical to rely on data and not simply anecdotal reports. <\/span>Data informs your decision-making. It can help you transform traffic into donations, event registrations, or volunteer applications, as well as understand where best to prioritize time and resources. <\/span>So, how do you get on the road toward measuring success? Here\u2019s your drivers\u2019 manual:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get Behind the Wheel <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analytics tools can help assess what your website is doing well and could be doing better. For non-profit organizations, <\/span>free analytics tools<\/a><\/strong>, like the very popular <\/span>Google Analytics<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, are a great choice. <\/span>Here<\/strong><\/span><\/a> is a quick article from www.connectingup.org on how to get started. Google Analytics also offers <\/span>free<\/span><\/i> courses at different skill levels called <\/span>Digital Analytics Fundamentals<\/a><\/strong>.  Be aware that different countries and jurisdictions have their own rules about how you use and process personal data that could impact how you use your analytics tools. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Know Where You\u2019re Headed <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google Analytics can take you to the data, but without goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you\u2019ll be driving in the dark. Your KPIs can be fundraising goals, newsletter sign-ups, or event registrations. You can learn more about the most important KPIs for non-profits to focus on in <\/span>this article<\/strong>.<\/span><\/a> Once <\/span>your team knows its destination, it\u2019s time to determine which metrics will help you get there.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep Your Eyes on the Road<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With your goals and KPIs in mind, you can now track metrics that are important to your organization. There are many kinds of data you can gather, and this <\/span>article<\/a><\/strong> offers a deep dive into some top non-profit metrics. Remember, some  local requirements and rules for analytics and personal data may impact which types of data you can gather, but non-profits can still glean helpful information from aggregate and anonymized analytics data. When starting out, consider the following basic metrics:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n