![screenshot--2017-03-17-18-19-59.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmU88tb8414s3v9mb6MqKAppNuMAmLTX2pLwKi6EpoKEy6/screenshot--2017-03-17-18-19-59.png)

# Preface

The goal of this article is to share some of my thoughts about what would be important to do from a front-end standpoint to increase the results of steemit.com. I'm looking for your feedback and if you enjoy this conversation, please "resteem" to get more people involved in the discussion.

This article will not be talking about fair distribution or fair curation distribution. Mostly because it is out of my field of competence and even if  it is an important topic, I try to stay clear from the politics that is involved in it. Even thou there are major improvement on the incentive level to be done, I believe that we have what it takes to at least scale to a million users by the end of the year.


# KPI - Key Performance Metrics

>Key performance indicators, also known as KPI or Key Success Indicators, help managers and employees gauge the effectiveness of various functions and processes important to achieving organizational goals. 

Now, when it comes to Steemit.com there could be an infinite amount of data that could be measured. 

The first step is to make sure that analytical tools are implemented to measure not only the KPI but also as many data set as possible to get insights on how people use the website and where users have hangups. 

Once that is done, the second part is to define our top KPI. Here are the one I believe should be focused on:

1- Traffic to the website (by source)
2- Conversion from traffic to become a user (by sources)
3- Retention of users
4- Engagement of users (posting, commenting, voting)

# KPI - Traffic

What are the ways that steemit.com can increase it's traffic? I see two:

### 1. Search Engine Optimization

 There should be someone in the team constantly working on improving the on-page SEO of the website as a whole so that we are sending the right signals to the search engine. 

### 2. Social Sharing Buttons

Seriously, I can't believe this has been overlooked. They are so small that I forget to click on them!

*What we need are big fat floating social sharing widget that follows the article as people scroll.*

**This feature alone is a small hinge that moves a big door.**

There is of course gamification but that requires a lot of work that is already on the drawing board.

# KPI - Conversions

Conversions need to be approached scientifically through A/B split test and not through a committee. I don't care if it says: "We like Soup" as a headline if it increase conversions by 5%. 

**Live example:** Last week I changed the color of a "book now" button on one of my client's website. Conversion went from 2.59% to 5.27%!!! Almost a 200% increase!!!

Every single thing on the front page and above the fold should be split tested to better our best in terms of conversions. Colors, headlines, sub-heads, position, etc. 

This header hasn't change since May!

# KPI - Retention

It's great if we get boat load of traffic and new users but what is it worth if there is a giant leak in the bucket where we lose users after 2 days?

The more confusing a website is and the more complicated the rules, the harder it is to keep people on the website over time. Steemit INC should be tracking this measurement closely and consistently try to improve upon it.

# KPI - Engagement

More articles and comments makes steemit.com more valuable over time. The more people use the platform, the more we can boast about how powerful this tech is. We can improve this, of course, through gamification. But we should focus on finding a way to entice people to write as many blogpost as possible and to engage with each other content.

# Conclusion

There are major improvement that are low-hanging fruits right now and I can't wait for Steemit INC to seriously focus on it's marketing. I believe the sky is the limit if they start having a consistent approach to improve those key performance metrics every single day.