Regardless of how you do it, most commercial web sites have one very specific goal - increased revenue and profits. So, your metrics should reflect that goal.

Total Revenue (total intake): Revenue, sales, cash or turnover—it's the key driver to a web site's success. You can use Google Analytics to set up revenue goals. For lead generation and ad­driven sites, you'll probably need to continue to track through to your internal reporting infrastructure using something like a CRM or ad­tracking software. Revenue is expressed in dollars: 'We had $50,000 in revenue from our web site in June'.

Total Profit (revenue - expenses): Revenue is top-line’ profit is bottom line—what's left over at the end after you fully process each order. This calculation may vary depending on your cost of fulfillment (800#, credit card fees, telephone operator salary, and so on) but it's ultimately why businesses deploy web sites. With lead generation and ad­driven sites, it may take months to have all the data you need to make this calculation, but it's well worth the effort. Total profit is expressed in dollars: ‘We had $5,200 in profit from our web site in June'.