It’s getting harder to be noticed by consumers these days. If your accounts aren’t paying attention to their website performance metrics, they could be losing valuable business.

Contentsquare has studied such trends and gives us a look at what’s happening in the realm of consumer interactions with websites. Here are the details and the ways that you can help your accounts.

Is Website Traffic Dropping?

In its 2025 CSQ Benchmark Insights report, Contentsquare measured a 3.3% drop in website traffic last year. There are more people online but there are also more places for them to go. 

Unpaid search efforts drove 5.7% fewer visits. But paid advertising generated 0.4% more visits.

What this means for your client is that they are paying 9% more for each visit. But in return, they are seeing a 6.5% drop in consumption. For this study, consumption was measured as “page visits, time on site, and scroll rate.”

Most marketers know that it’s advantageous to hold onto existing customers. The website traffic data supports this belief. Consumers who are returning to a website, spend an average of 3.7 minutes checking out details and possibly placing orders. In contrast, new visitors spend only 2.7 minutes on the site.

Traffic sources were linked to the following percentage of visits:

• 30.9% Direct
• 25.6% Organic search
• 24.3% Paid search
• 8.4% Paid social
• 6.2% Display, ad, retargeting
• 3.9% Email
• 0.8% Organic social

How Does Paid Search and Social Impact Traffic?

Contentsquare’s analysis indicates that paid marketing drove a significant percentage of all traffic. To get this traffic, businesses are paying for Google, Meta and TikTok ads. To reduce costs, experts recommend that marketers look at shifting ad budgets to other formats. They mention media networks and app advertising networks are good alternatives.

Analysts note that the increased spending on paid social is not driving success. On average, marketers are experiencing fewer page views and conversions — not a desired outcome in terms of website performance metrics.

Good News for Mobile

One bright spot for marketers is the mobile app engagement rates. Consumers check out an average of 15 page views on apps and that usually takes 3.1 minutes. Even better, conversion rates reached 5.3% on mobile apps last year. Mobile accounted for 71.1% of site visits last year, versus 28.9% on desktop.

Have Your Clients Tried These Website Tweaks?

For accounts that rely on their websites to generate revenue, even tiny changes in website performance metrics have huge implications. Contentsquare analysts provide insight into the little issues they have labeled as frustrations.

Consumers are fickle and impatient. They’ve been trained by the latest technology to expect instant responses online. When that doesn’t happen, they move on to another provider.  Here are a few of the common aggravations encountered by consumers on websites and the incidence rates.

• Javascript errors – 18.8%
• Page loads of longer than 3 seconds — 15.2%
• Rage clicks (when users click a page item at least 3 times in 2 seconds) — 5.6%
• Low page activity (absence of clicks and taps) — 1.3%

Slow page loads

When analysts drill down into page load speeds, they consider largest contentful paint (LCP). An image-​heavy page is often the culprit for slow loading. The result is that your accounts will have 1.5% fewer page views.

Rage clicks

Your accounts will also experience a 2.5% decrease in page views if consumers have to engage in rage clicks. Put another way, when consumers are clicking too many times, they’re frustrated. They won’t wait for slow code. They’ll visit a competitor’s site to get what they want.

Conversions

Conversion is the ultimate goal and measure of success for your accounts. In the past year, the average marketer has experienced a 6.1% drop in conversion rates. For new customers, the drop was even more extreme: 7.4%.

To understand what's happening with your client's website, check out the digital audit tool on AdMall. The report will show page load speeds and top keyword trends in the industry. You'll also see how well the account's social outreach matches where the target audience hangs out. Website performance metrics matter. Learn more about them to help your client improve their outcomes.

Photo by Antoni Shkraba on Pexels.