I have mentioned analytics before in a few blogs but thought I could reiterate the importance of knowing your analytics and how it can benefit your business. But, keep in mind, too much information is not a good thing. You will need to determine what you want to accomplish with the data and focus on the data that will be beneficial to you only. Don’t get caught up in trying to find everything about everything. Keeping that in mind, take a look at all of the tabs within Google Analytics to determine what might be important to you, then track it, consistently (monthly).
Why is it important for business owners to use some sort of analytics?
Analytics are a means to measure your success or failures of marketing campaigns. Do you typically pay money for a campaign without a means to verify the return of investment? I think not!
- Measure paid advertising on Google Adwords as well as analytics to see the keywords that are driving the campaigns and how long visitors are staying on your website due to that Adwords campaign.
- Measure your social media campaigns and see if it is driving traffic to your website
- Determine which pages are getting the traffic and from which marketing campaigns
- Most importantly, which campaigns are converting your traffic
What are the benefits of using analytics?
By the way, Google Analytics is a FREE means to measure your analytics and quite easy to set up so why not? However, most tools may offer very similar results so find one that interests you and is user friendly to you, and then stick with it.
- It determines how many page views are being seen over a given period of time
- How many visitors see your website and if they are new or returning over a given period of time
- How the visitors found you – referrals – meaning did they come from social media, from search engines, from paid campaigns, from already being on your website (direct or type in traffic)
- Have you completed various citations, or business industry listings, like Yelp, Super Pages, Lawyers.com, Angie’s List, Yellow Pages or directories? This is a great place to see how much traffic those sources are referring to your site. Thinking about increasing your budget with Yelp or whatever, see how well it is doing with your current budget to see if it is worth the added budget.
Need a Google Analytics 101 – step by step guide? Look no further, get it here!
What other information can I expect to find in Google Analytics?
- Device – Is your website mobile responsive? You would be amazed at the number of folks doing a good portion of their research on mobile. You can check out which devices are being used to browse your site. If your website isn’t responsive, this should be a good indicator.
- Technology – Similarly, you can tell which browsers folks are using, so again, if your website doesn’t look good in Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox and only on Chrome, check out your audience to determine which browsers are getting more action when it comes to your website.
- Behavior/Audience – Determine the behavior of your visitors, like how many sessions do they have over a given period – their frequency, are they new or returning and how long they are on your website.
- Geo – It is important to you and your business where folks are finding you? This could be helpful if you
are trying to target folks in a certain region, city, state or the like and it can also be helpful to determine if those folks are being reached after your target efforts. - SEO – Be sure to link your Google Analytics to your Google Webmaster Tools so you can view the search queries. This shows which searches produced your website and how many clicks, the position and even CTR (click thru rate). Further, which landing pages on your website are getting the most action? That could help to determine where you need to improve or where to focus additional attention.
- Keywords – A great way to track or review the keywords that folks are typing in when your page is shown in the search engines results. Are they new or returning users, do they stay on your page and how many pages do they view.
- Behavior– Being able to determine the behavior of those on your website can provide valuable information as well.
- Site Search – If you have an internal search function this allows for you to see which terms folks on your website are searching for.
- Events – Create events such as when someone downloads a white paper, completes a thank you page or clicks on the phone number to call. This allows you to track these events. Similar to Goals in Conversions.
Need help setting up Google Analytics, linking to Google Search Console and then even Bing Webmaster Tools? Here is an easy to follow eBook that’s super affordable and providing you all that information in order to set it up! Get it now – Google Analytics 101!
As I have said once before – if you are spending money on marketing then it must be worth your time. If it is worth your time to market, then it should be worth your time to verify those efforts are working, right? If not, then by all means, throw your money away! 😉
Should you have any questions on Google Analytics or you need some assistance with search engine optimization, paid advertising or social media marketing, I’d love to help so contact me and I will reach out to you! Keep in mind that I also offer hourly consultations to help you get on track as well.
~Kristen
Great tips, Kristen. Your social media sites/blog is my go-to for quick info on the techy side of social media that I’m just beginning to grasp. Easy to understand, and well explained. Now for that follow through on my part!!
Awww, thanks Holly! I am so glad to be a resource for you.. and that you find my information easy to understand. You can do it.. on the follow up part. Baby steps. 🙂
I get google analytics and look at the numbers. Some things I do understand. This article sheds some additional light on the info. Thanks for writing for the layman.
It’s okay not to understand everything Roslyn, but glad you understood some of it and willing to learn more. 😉
I don’t spend as much time with Google Analytics as I should. Thanks for this nice article on how to use it. I hadn’t thought about checking to see what devices access my site. Duh!
You are welcome Beth, glad to help. Yes, what devices they are using can help YOU be sure you are catering to those devices.
Ahhhhh…analytics…I, like so many others should pay more attention to the numbers but my eyes start to glaze over looking at them. Thanks for helping ease the pain with your very logical tips 🙂
Yes ma’am Beth… you should and I hear you on the glaze over, so maybe outsourcing might be a better option for you. Glad to help
This is a great reminder! Sometimes we need to hear this because often times it’s overlooked. I’m guilty and this is certainly not a good excuse. I need to check it daily. Great advice, Kristen!
Thank you so much Lumbie for saying that. There are things that we need to do as business owners to be sure the efforts we ARE spending time and money on are worth it. 🙂
Great tips, Kristen! Your website is worth the fountain of IT knowledge.
Maybe not IT Lorii, but website knowledge and social media I hope!
Every “improvement” or “upgrade” Google does to Analytics makes it more complex and cumbersome. Which is why I’d rather leave that to experts like you! Good piece.