When you mention website analytics to anyone, sometimes the 1st words said in reply are "Google Analytics". Google Analysing is only one analytics tool of many that are generally available to you. Google has the advantage because it is free. Nonetheless to the first time spectator it can be daunting to see all the available info, and most noobs haven't any idea where to begin. In truth most business that have analytics installed focus strictly on the volume of traffic that has visited their internet site. But just using analytics for this purpose is a blunder and means you are also missing out on some valuable selling data.
First things first though! To reap the rewards of website analytics you first have to install it. Dependent on which analysis package you choose , installing the mandatory tracking code could be something that you can do yourself, or you may need to pass this job over to your webmaster to perform for you. The key however , is to get analytics installed straight away after your website has been built, whether or not you haven't any plans on looking at the information for a period of time. By doing this, the data will build up over time, and you'll be able to show a before and after comparison, when you perform particular tasks design to force traffic back to your internet site.
A vital tip will be to guarantee your tracking code is applied to all of your site's pages. And remember to add them to new pages you create in days to come. If you happen to have got a dynamic website that allows you to automatically create new pages using templates, then it is easy to apply the tracking code straight into the templates, that way new pages will immediately have the code embedded on creation.
So onto the critical part - what should you be attempting to find inside your analysing dashboard? Most S.E.O experts agree that websites owners should truly target the following statistical measurements:
1. Key Performance Indicators (KPI) - This means you want to spot what your most important goals are for your internet site. So for instance you will have a new selling initiative which has been set up to get more traffic to your site and to gain you more new buyers. Using analysing to examine that your traffic and conversion rates are increasing will tell you if your initiative is working, or if you need to reconsider the way that you are doing things.
2. Referring Sources - This appears under Traffic Sources/Direct Traffic and gives us a top level view of how many pages and how many visitors we've had, and from which websites they're clicking through from. If you're paying up for organic search engine optimisation, or if you have placed a marketing video on YouTube (for examples), you want to know if the search sites and/or YouTube are good sources for sending folk to your website. Nonetheless even if the numbers you are seeing are reasonably low, you also have to know if folks are simply picking up the phone and calling you, after seeing your telephone number listed in the search sites (e.g. Google Plus Local listing) or from your YouTube video, before deciding if this is cash being wisely spent or not.
3. Bounce Rate - This is the quantity of folk who land on your site, and then exit immediately after reviewing that selling page, without clicking through to other pages on your website. In the eyes of Google, having a high bounce rate implies that the specific page doesn't have high quality and meaning full content, and that is why folks are clicking away from your internet site. Although this may not always be the reason folks are clicking away, Google will still penalise your internet site rankings if they see a high bounce rate. Therefore even though your plan is to have a single lander with a form embedded for contact, you should make a 'Thank You ' page that the visitor will get to automatically after sending their details in the form, so as not to raise your bounce rate more than you have got to.
4. Conversion Rate - Knowing the volume of traffic your website is getting is of low value to you without knowing what your conversion rate is. Changing your traffic to customers or subscribers is what it is about. It's better to have 10 visitor visit your website and have 1 subscribe to your service, than to have 1,000,000 visitors with no customers at all. By identifying where your visitors are coming from, and which of those convert for you, will permit you to guage your online marketing budget and put extra money into the places that are driving more converted traffic for you.
5. Social Media Activity - Now social signals are gigantic when talking about Google assessing how topical your site is. If you know what subjects and conversations are driving the most website. Traffic to your internet site will help you plan and social your social media efforts to boost traffic and perception of your brand.
There are many measurement indicators that are often available, for example 'returning v new visitor' comparisons, length of stay in your website, number of pages visited, for example. Which will also prove to be useful. Nevertheless as a beginner you must focus on the 5 measurements above until you are used to reading the data and understand completely it.
First things first though! To reap the rewards of website analytics you first have to install it. Dependent on which analysis package you choose , installing the mandatory tracking code could be something that you can do yourself, or you may need to pass this job over to your webmaster to perform for you. The key however , is to get analytics installed straight away after your website has been built, whether or not you haven't any plans on looking at the information for a period of time. By doing this, the data will build up over time, and you'll be able to show a before and after comparison, when you perform particular tasks design to force traffic back to your internet site.
A vital tip will be to guarantee your tracking code is applied to all of your site's pages. And remember to add them to new pages you create in days to come. If you happen to have got a dynamic website that allows you to automatically create new pages using templates, then it is easy to apply the tracking code straight into the templates, that way new pages will immediately have the code embedded on creation.
So onto the critical part - what should you be attempting to find inside your analysing dashboard? Most S.E.O experts agree that websites owners should truly target the following statistical measurements:
1. Key Performance Indicators (KPI) - This means you want to spot what your most important goals are for your internet site. So for instance you will have a new selling initiative which has been set up to get more traffic to your site and to gain you more new buyers. Using analysing to examine that your traffic and conversion rates are increasing will tell you if your initiative is working, or if you need to reconsider the way that you are doing things.
2. Referring Sources - This appears under Traffic Sources/Direct Traffic and gives us a top level view of how many pages and how many visitors we've had, and from which websites they're clicking through from. If you're paying up for organic search engine optimisation, or if you have placed a marketing video on YouTube (for examples), you want to know if the search sites and/or YouTube are good sources for sending folk to your website. Nonetheless even if the numbers you are seeing are reasonably low, you also have to know if folks are simply picking up the phone and calling you, after seeing your telephone number listed in the search sites (e.g. Google Plus Local listing) or from your YouTube video, before deciding if this is cash being wisely spent or not.
3. Bounce Rate - This is the quantity of folk who land on your site, and then exit immediately after reviewing that selling page, without clicking through to other pages on your website. In the eyes of Google, having a high bounce rate implies that the specific page doesn't have high quality and meaning full content, and that is why folks are clicking away from your internet site. Although this may not always be the reason folks are clicking away, Google will still penalise your internet site rankings if they see a high bounce rate. Therefore even though your plan is to have a single lander with a form embedded for contact, you should make a 'Thank You ' page that the visitor will get to automatically after sending their details in the form, so as not to raise your bounce rate more than you have got to.
4. Conversion Rate - Knowing the volume of traffic your website is getting is of low value to you without knowing what your conversion rate is. Changing your traffic to customers or subscribers is what it is about. It's better to have 10 visitor visit your website and have 1 subscribe to your service, than to have 1,000,000 visitors with no customers at all. By identifying where your visitors are coming from, and which of those convert for you, will permit you to guage your online marketing budget and put extra money into the places that are driving more converted traffic for you.
5. Social Media Activity - Now social signals are gigantic when talking about Google assessing how topical your site is. If you know what subjects and conversations are driving the most website. Traffic to your internet site will help you plan and social your social media efforts to boost traffic and perception of your brand.
There are many measurement indicators that are often available, for example 'returning v new visitor' comparisons, length of stay in your website, number of pages visited, for example. Which will also prove to be useful. Nevertheless as a beginner you must focus on the 5 measurements above until you are used to reading the data and understand completely it.
About the Author:
Peter Selby is a search website consultant at Alchemy Digital Media, an internet site design and SEO company in Fort Myers, FL.
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