In our digital world, the importance of visit, click and interaction counts signal the advent of a new means of strengthening the impact of our storytelling: key performance indicators, also known as KPIs. The best KPIs can vary depending on the specific goals of your website and content strategy. Some common KPIs used to measure the performance of professional services websites include:

• Traffic metrics, such as pageviews, unique visitors and sessions (periods of time that users are actively engaged with the website).
• Engagement metrics, such as average session duration, pages per session and bounce rate.
• Search engine optimization (SEO) metrics, such as organic search traffic and keyword rankings.

How do you use this data to tell stories that captivate and engage your audience while also driving results to gain new business? Below are three steps to turn this data into compelling stories.

1. Understand Your Audience Through KPIs

As we all know, effective storytelling begins with an understanding of your audience. Let website KPIs be your guide and provide valuable insights into the behavior of your audience. KPIs like pageviews and average session duration answer questions such as what content resonates most with your audience, where engagement peaks and what potential pain points exist for your audience. By gaining a full understanding of what these KPIs mean, you gain a better understanding of your audience and what they need from your website.

2. Drive Measurable Results with Data

The goal of KPI-driven storytelling is to improve results and get new business. By aligning your content strategy with the data from your KPIs, you can optimize your audience’s experience and increase engagement metrics to ultimately increase conversion rates. Examples include A/B testing your article titles or headlines based on click-through rates or changing practice area descriptions based on bounce rates – both of which can lead to improvements in audience engagement and conversations.

3. Continuous Improvement

As an agency, we encourage our team and our clients alike to live in a state of continuous improvement, and web content and KPIs are no exception. Regularly monitoring your KPIs and analyzing the data they produce allow you to identify trends and change tactics as needed. For instance, take a look at your keyword performance and determine how you can adapt your SEO strategies to increase that performance. This may include updating older content to include new keywords. Or you could review KPIs such as pageviews to identify content that resonates well with your audience. Then, repurpose that successful content into different formats like infographics and videos to provide more value for your audience.

Harnessing storytelling potential based on website KPIs is not just about data – it’s about understanding, connecting and inspiring action. By leveraging this data to create narratives that resonate with your audience, you can not only captivate attention but also drive meaningful business growth.

Georgie Palm is Poston’s director of content client services. She is based in Minneapolis, MN.