When you mention website analytics to anyone, sometimes the first words let out in response are "Google Analytics". Google Analysis is only one analytics tool of many that are accessible to you. Google has the benefit as it is free. However , to the first time viewer it can be disconcerting to see all the available information, and most newbies haven't any idea where to begin. In reality most business that have analytics installed focus strictly on the volume of traffic which has visited their website. But just using analysis for this purpose is a mistake and means you are also missing out on some valuable selling information.
First things first though! To harvest the rewards of website analytics you first have to install it. Depending on which analysing package you choose , installing the required tracking code may 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 analysing installed straight away after your website has been built, whether or not you haven't any plans on taking a look at the data for a period of time. By doing this, the info will increase over time, and you'll be able to show a before and after comparison, when you perform particular jobs design to drive traffic back to your website.
A very important tip will be to ensure your tracking code is applied to all your website's pages. And not forget 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 enough 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 do you have to be attempting to find inside your analytics dashboard? Most S.E.O professionals agree that internet sites owners should truly target the following statistical measurements:
1. Key Performance Indicators (KPI) - This implies you need to spot what your principal goals are for your website. So as an example you will have a new selling initiative that has been set up to get more traffic to your internet site and to gain you more new customers. Using analysing to examine that your traffic and conversion rates are accelerating will tell you if your initiative is working, or if you want to rethink the way in which 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 have had, and from which websites they are clicking through from. If you're paying for organic SEO, or if you have placed a selling video on YouTube (for examples), you need to know if the search engines and/or YouTube are good sources for sending folk to your website. However , whether or not the numbers you are seeing are fairly low, you also have to know if folk are basically picking up the telephone 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 money being wisely spent or not.
3. Bounce Rate - This is generally accepted to be the quantity of folk who land on your site, and then exit right after reviewing that selling page, without initially clicking through to other pages on your website. In the eyes of Google, having a high bounce rate suggests that the specific page does not have good quality and meaning full content, and that's the reason people are clicking away from your site. Though this could not always be the reason people are clicking away, Google will still penalize your website rankings if they see a high bounce rate. Hence even though your scheme is to have a single landing-page with a form embedded for contact, you need to create a 'Thank You ' page the visitor will get to instantly after sending their details in the shape, in order not to enhance your bounce rate more than you have got to.
4. Conversion Rate - Knowing the volume of traffic your website is getting is of little value to you without knowing what your conversion rate is. Converting your traffic to customers or subscribers is what it is all about. Its better to have 10 visitor visit your internet site 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 allow you to evaluate your online promoting budget and put more cash into the places that are driving more converted traffic for you.
5. Social Media Activity - At the moment social signals are gigantic when talking about Google considering how applicable your site is. If you know what subjects and conversations are driving the most website. Traffic to your website will help you in planning and social your social media efforts to boost traffic and perception of your brand.
There are several measurement indicators that are often available, such as 'returning v new visitor' comparisons, length of stay in your internet site, number of pages visited, etc. That will also turn out to be helpful. Nevertheless as a amateur you must target the 5 measurements above until you're comfortable with reading the info and fully understand it.
First things first though! To harvest the rewards of website analytics you first have to install it. Depending on which analysing package you choose , installing the required tracking code may 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 analysing installed straight away after your website has been built, whether or not you haven't any plans on taking a look at the data for a period of time. By doing this, the info will increase over time, and you'll be able to show a before and after comparison, when you perform particular jobs design to drive traffic back to your website.
A very important tip will be to ensure your tracking code is applied to all your website's pages. And not forget 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 enough 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 do you have to be attempting to find inside your analytics dashboard? Most S.E.O professionals agree that internet sites owners should truly target the following statistical measurements:
1. Key Performance Indicators (KPI) - This implies you need to spot what your principal goals are for your website. So as an example you will have a new selling initiative that has been set up to get more traffic to your internet site and to gain you more new customers. Using analysing to examine that your traffic and conversion rates are accelerating will tell you if your initiative is working, or if you want to rethink the way in which 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 have had, and from which websites they are clicking through from. If you're paying for organic SEO, or if you have placed a selling video on YouTube (for examples), you need to know if the search engines and/or YouTube are good sources for sending folk to your website. However , whether or not the numbers you are seeing are fairly low, you also have to know if folk are basically picking up the telephone 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 money being wisely spent or not.
3. Bounce Rate - This is generally accepted to be the quantity of folk who land on your site, and then exit right after reviewing that selling page, without initially clicking through to other pages on your website. In the eyes of Google, having a high bounce rate suggests that the specific page does not have good quality and meaning full content, and that's the reason people are clicking away from your site. Though this could not always be the reason people are clicking away, Google will still penalize your website rankings if they see a high bounce rate. Hence even though your scheme is to have a single landing-page with a form embedded for contact, you need to create a 'Thank You ' page the visitor will get to instantly after sending their details in the shape, in order not to enhance your bounce rate more than you have got to.
4. Conversion Rate - Knowing the volume of traffic your website is getting is of little value to you without knowing what your conversion rate is. Converting your traffic to customers or subscribers is what it is all about. Its better to have 10 visitor visit your internet site 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 allow you to evaluate your online promoting budget and put more cash into the places that are driving more converted traffic for you.
5. Social Media Activity - At the moment social signals are gigantic when talking about Google considering how applicable your site is. If you know what subjects and conversations are driving the most website. Traffic to your website will help you in planning and social your social media efforts to boost traffic and perception of your brand.
There are several measurement indicators that are often available, such as 'returning v new visitor' comparisons, length of stay in your internet site, number of pages visited, etc. That will also turn out to be helpful. Nevertheless as a amateur you must target the 5 measurements above until you're comfortable with reading the info and fully understand 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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