You remember when people used to just stop by because they were “in the neighborhood”?

This is my childhood best friend, Joy.

She’s one of those friends who’s always welcome to just come on by — whether we’ve got something on the calendar or not.

Last time we had an impromptu hangout, she said this, and I couldn’t agree more:

And she has a point.

Growing up, my incredibly Southern grandmother kept a cake at all times that wasn’t for us.

“It’s in case we have company drop by,” she’d say. And boy, did we.

Every Sunday, my grandparents had a revolving door — people from church, cousins, a neighbor, someone from their square dancing club. I never knew who was gonna knock on the door.

No phone call. No advance notice. Just people who felt welcome.

We’ve lost this in our digital lives, too.

These days, even online, most visits come with a calendar block or a CTA.

As much as I love boundaries, there’s something beautiful about the folks who can just wander in.

The folks who keep coming back. The ones getting familiar.

In real life, you know who feels at home in your space vs who’s just visiting (they know where the cups are and where you stock your spare toilet paper).

Online? This is harder to know without looking at your website metrics.

Your website is your home base on the internet.

This is where you've been directing everyone to: After scrolling your social, clicking through your emails, or hearing about you from someone else.

The way they move around your site says a lot about how well you know each other.

It reminds me of my godfamily’s house.

I spent so many nights there growing up, I knew it like my own.

I knew which stairs creaked and which drawer had extra batteries when the TV remote died. When other people came over, I played host without thinking. I'd answer the door, restock toilet paper, and help take out the trash at the end of the night.

I moved through that space like it was mine. Other guests stayed on the surface: Kind, welcome, but clearly visiting.

Your website traffic is the same.

Some folks come in, feel out of sorts, and bounce right back out.

Others linger, click, take the tour around your space.

Few others move around like they’ve been there before: Knowing exactly what they're looking for and going straight there.

Here’s how to read your visitors' digital body language (AKA YOUR WEBSITE METRICS):

• Total Traffic: The number of visitors landing on your site.
  • Think of this as the front door or the Ring doorbell. It tells you who showed up and when. Helpful, but only the beginning.​
• Bounce Rate: Percentage of people who landed on a page, then immediately left.
  • This tracks the internet equivalent of someone opening the wrong door and realizing they’re in the wrong house (awkward...) This tells you the page isn’t matching the expectation of the visitor (could be mismatched intent).
• Traffic Sources: This tells you how people got to you. Did they come from a social post? A Google search? A friend’s referral?
  • Knowing where people come from helps you understand how familiar they might already be with you, what you do, and how you can help them accomplish their goals.
• New vs Returning Visitors: This shows how many people are visiting your site for the first time versus how many have been there before. A healthy mix of both usually means your content is doing double duty: attracting new eyes and keeping the attention of people who are already familiar with you.
  • New visitors are just discovering you or this is the first time they've made it to your home base (maybe came via a recent campaign, social post, or text).
  • Returning visitors are coming back for more, or something specific. Maybe they're returning for a high quality blog you wrote a few weeks back. Maybe they're ready to fill out your inquiry form.
• Top Pages: These are the hot spots where your audience spends the most time on your site (think: kitchen, living room, game room if you've got it).
  • Your blog might be what gets people to come back for more because you give away high quality tips. Do you have a product page that's always at the top? This might be your bestseller or an opportunity waiting to be capitalized on.
• Referrers: Referrers show you which external websites are sending people to yours. This might include news articles, blog posts, partner websites, or even random Reddit threads.
  • Think of these as mutual friends introducing you to someone new. They'll say, “You’ve got to meet them, they make the best coffee,” or “You’d love what they’re working on”.
  • These visits often come with trust already baked in—and sometimes they reveal your biggest advocates.
    • 💡I’ve discovered great PR opportunities for clients just from checking top referrers. A news article started sending waves of new traffic, and we got to capitalize on the intro.

​

Tracking these metrics consistently helps you establish a baseline. It also helps you spot changes before you start spiraling. (We’ve all been there. Staring at numbers wondering what’s normal?! Knowing your own trends keeps those spirals in check.)

Your website is more than just a place to capture leads from a form fill.

It’s your kitchen full of delicious charcuterie treats. It's your hallway closet full of board games to keep people engaged and having fun.

Your visitors will tell you how they feel about your space with every click — you just have to pay attention.

You don't need everyone to plop down and stake their claim in your space (boundaries, remember?).

It’s about making your space feel familiar and welcoming to the right people. The people who belong, the people who you want to keep coming back, and the people who might just bring a friend next time. 😉

If you need some help making your website feel homey, I know a gal who does that with copy. Delaney at Dark Roast Copy Co. is a phenomenal copywriter who makes sure the vibes are elite the next time you host someone in your online space.

🔦 Throwback Project Spotlight 🔦

• 💼 Services: Public Relations x SEO
• 👤 Client: Buzzy Pain Solutions
• 📱Channels: Website
• 📦 What We Did + Why: While tracking media mentions for a client, I spotted a great piece of press that wasn’t showing up in our site traffic—odd. Turns out, the journalist had erroneously linked to a distributor’s site in Australia instead of the client's U.S. site (where most of the customers are). I reached out, they updated the link, and we started capturing the right traffic.
  • One wrong link sent traffic across the globe. One email to the journalist brought it back. Fixing it gave us cleaner data, stronger traffic, and proof that PR was working.
  • PR and SEO make a powerful duo when you need to quantify brand awareness.
  • Cross-referencing your reports is crucial to confirm you're capturing the full picture.

What I'm consuming

Book: Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

If you've ever been skeptical about Big Tech or Facebook in general — all your suspicions will be confirmed in the first 30 mins of reading this book. It's been touted as "the book Facebook doesn't want you to read"... so year, attention: grabbed.

This memoir is from a former Facebook exec who fought her way into the company. She was the first person to see how Facebook would be used to gain (and manipulate) political power. She wanted to use it for good, others wanted to use it to help their rich friends. (Wait till the chapter about how Facebook wanted to get in on organ donation...)

If you’re still unsure about diving in, it opens with the author being attacked by a literal shark and nearly dying of sepsis. So. Buckle up. Oh, and there's still tea — a gag order: color me intrigued.

Full download on all the latest in Social Media to come...

I’m flying to San Diego to attend Social Media Marketing World tomorrow morning!

I'll be fully unplugged from everything else, so I can fully plug in and consume every insight I can. There's an AI track, content for paid social, email marketing, video marketing, sales, and more.

Four full-days of all the things social media marketing. I'll be overflowing with info when I return.

Reply to this email if you have any specific questions you want me to address in the next email.

In the meantime, the digital porch light is on with snacks in the fridge.