Landing Page Analytics: 7 Metrics That Tell the Real Story

By Emily Redmond, Data Analyst at Emilytics · April 2026

TL;DR: Bounce rate and conversion rate tell you what happened; scroll depth, time on page, and form completion tell you why. Track all 7 to understand landing page health.

I once audited a landing page with a 2% conversion rate. On paper, terrible. But the bounce rate was 25%, scroll depth was 85%, and 95% of visitors who scrolled past the fold saw the CTA.

The real problem? The CTA was broken—people were trying to click it and getting JavaScript errors. The conversion rate was low, but the traffic quality was high.

A conversion rate alone would've missed it.

The 7 Metrics That Matter

Most teams look at conversion rate. Smart teams look at these seven metrics:

1. Bounce Rate

What it means: Percentage of visitors who land and leave without taking any action.

Why it matters: High bounce rate signals that your traffic source doesn't match your landing page, or your page doesn't match visitor expectations.

The benchmark:

Less than 30%: Excellent
30–50%: Good
50–70%: Average
Above 70%: Problem

What to do: If bounce rate is above 50%, the issue is usually one of three:

Traffic source problem (wrong keywords, wrong audience)
Page mismatch (people expect one thing, see another)
Technical problem (page slow, mobile broken, form error)

Run exit page analysis to find which one.

💡 Emily's take: A SaaS company was getting a 65% bounce rate on a "free trial" landing page. Terrible, right? Turns out, 80% of that traffic was mobile users who clicked the "Free Trial" ad while already logged in. They were bouncing because they couldn't sign up twice. Different audience segment, different expectations. Once we segmented mobile vs. desktop, each made sense.

2. Conversion Rate

What it means: Percentage of visitors who convert (take your desired action).

Why it matters: This is your bottom-line metric. Everything else helps you understand why this number is what it is.

The benchmark: Depends on your industry. What Is a Good Conversion Rate? has the full breakdown by industry and traffic source.

3. Scroll Depth

What it means: How far down the page visitors scroll before leaving.

Why it matters: If your CTA is below the fold but only 30% of visitors scroll past the fold, you have a visibility problem.

How to measure: GA4 doesn't track scroll depth natively. You need to add it via GTM:

Create a trigger for "scroll 25%," "scroll 50%," "scroll 75%," etc.
Send an event each time a user hits that threshold
Segment by page to see which pages have scroll problems

Interpretation:

0–25% average: Big problem (page is not engaging or CTA is too high)
25–50% average: Typical (people see the main content but don't dig deep)
50%+ average: Good (people are invested enough to see the full page)

What to do: If scroll depth is low, your headline or initial content isn't compelling. Move your CTA up, or improve your above-the-fold value prop.

4. Average Session Duration

What it means: How long (in seconds) the average visitor spends on the page.

Why it matters: Longer sessions usually mean higher engagement. But not always—sometimes people stay because they're confused.

The benchmark:

Less than 10 seconds: Very low engagement (likely to bounce)
10–30 seconds: Typical
30+ seconds: Good (people are reading)

What to do: If session duration is very low (under 10 seconds), people are bouncing fast. Either fix the headline or check if you have traffic quality issues.

If it's high (60+ seconds) but conversion is low, people are reading but not buying. This signals a conversion friction problem, not an engagement problem. A/B test your CTA or form.

5. Form Completion Rate

What it means: If you have a form on the page, what percentage of visitors who see the form actually complete it?

Why it matters: A form with 20% completion rate is your biggest leak. Every variable on that form (number of fields, required fields, question wording) affects this.

How to measure:

Track "form started" event (someone clicked into the first field)
Track "form submitted" event
Divide submitted by started = completion rate

The benchmark:

Below 20%: Bad (people see the form and bail)
20–40%: Typical
40%+: Good (your form isn't creating friction)

What to do: Form Analytics: How to Find Where People Stop walks through this in detail. The short version: fewer fields = higher completion rates. Test reducing form length.

6. Click-Through Rate to Next Step

What it means: If you have a CTA button, what percentage of people click it?

Why it matters: This tells you if your CTA is visible, compelling, and not broken.

How to measure:

Track "CTA_clicked" event
Divide by total page visitors
Multiply by 100 for percentage

Interpretation:

Below 5%: Very low (CTA is not visible or not compelling)
5–15%: Typical
15%+: Strong (your CTA is working)

What to do: If CTR is below 5%, your CTA might be:

Below the fold (people don't see it)
Not visually distinct (doesn't look clickable)
Weak copy ("Submit" vs. "Get Free Trial")
Broken (click doesn't work)

Check all four before you redesign the page.

7. Page Load Time (Speed)

What it means: How many seconds until the page is usable.

Why it matters: Pages that load slowly have higher bounce rates. For every 1-second delay, conversion rate drops ~7%.

How to measure:

GA4 doesn't report page speed by default
Use PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or WebPageTest
For GA4, add a custom event to measure Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

The benchmark (mobile):

0–2.5 seconds: Good
2.5–4 seconds: Acceptable
4+ seconds: Problem

What to do: How Page Speed Affects Conversions covers this in detail. TL;DR: compress images, minify CSS/JS, use a CDN, lazy-load below-fold content.

How to Track All 7 in GA4

Set up a custom report with these metrics:

Go to GA4 → Reports → Explore
Click Blank Exploration
Add these dimensions: Page Path, Device Category
Add these metrics:
- Users
- Sessions
- Bounce Rate
- Conversion Rate
- Average Session Duration
- (Scroll depth: requires custom event setup)
- (Form completion: requires custom event setup)

Filter by your landing pages, and you have your landing page analytics dashboard.

The Hierarchy: Which Metrics Matter Most?

Not all metrics are equal. If you can only track three:

Conversion Rate (what matters most)
Bounce Rate (signals traffic quality)
Form Completion Rate (signals friction on your most important page element)

If you add three more: 4. Scroll Depth (signals engagement) 5. Click-Through Rate to CTA (signals CTA effectiveness) 6. Session Duration (signals content quality)

Common Metrics to Ignore

Metric: Page Views Ignore it. It doesn't tell you anything useful. A page with 100 views and 1 conversion is not better than a page with 20 views and 1 conversion. Conversion rate is what matters.

Metric: Bounce Rate Alone Don't optimize bounce rate. It's a lagging indicator. Optimize what causes bounces (traffic match, page speed, mobile UX).

Metric: Engagement Rate GA4's "engagement rate" is a black box. Ignore it. Build your own engagement metrics (scroll depth, time on page, video play).

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What's a good landing page conversion rate? A: Depends on your industry and goal. See What Is a Good Conversion Rate?. As a rule: aim for your industry benchmark first, then aim for top quartile (75th percentile).

Q: Should I optimize for bounce rate or conversion rate? A: Conversion rate. Bounce rate is a symptom; conversion rate is the disease. A 40% bounce rate with 5% conversion is better than a 30% bounce rate with 2% conversion.

Q: How do I improve scroll depth? A: Make your headline more compelling, reduce whitespace, add images/videos, or move your CTA higher. Test one change at a time.

Q: Why is my session duration high but conversion is low? A: People are reading but not convinced. Test copy improvements, add trust signals, or simplify your CTA. Don't change the page structure (they're engaged).

Q: How do I track form completion without custom code? A: Use Google Tag Manager to detect form submission events. See How to Set Up Conversion Goals in GA4.

The Bottom Line

Conversion rate tells you what. The other six metrics tell you why. Use all seven to build a complete picture.

Start with conversion rate and bounce rate. Once those are solid, add form completion. Once you're optimizing forms, add scroll depth. Build your metrics stack over time.

Data literacy is a skill. These seven metrics are your starting point.

Emily Redmond is a data analyst at Emilytics — AI analytics agent watching your GA4, Search Console, and Bing data around the clock. 8 years experience. Say hi →