Google Analytics is free software offered through Google that allows you to set-up and track your online performance through different variables. From analyzing the traffic you are receiving to your website, to how and what users are visiting on your website. Google Analytics is a powerful tool that can help drive your online initiatives.
Here are some examples of how Google Analytics can help you improve your businesses web performance:
Determining what works and what doesn’t
Google Analytics allows for you to see what pages of your website are the most popular, this not only includes the physical landing pages of your website, like your home page or your about us page, but also if you have a blog linked to your website.
Google Analytics can show you which pages are getting the most visitors, both returning, and unique, plus how much time your visitors are spending on each page. If you have a page with a lot of content and they are only spending 2.5 seconds on that page, they clearly aren’t staying to read anything you have to offer.
By analyzing these behaviours and page visits, it allows you to see where you can begin to improve, and alter content for your audience. It is a great place to test what is working, and what is not working.
Where your audience is coming from
Google Analytics can help you narrow down exactly the type of visitor that is coming to your site. You can determine where they are located, from their country to their exact city. You can also dive down even deeper and see what type of device they are viewing your site on, and even demographics like their age.
Although most businesses have an idea of who their target market is already (or at least they should) you may find surprising factors within your analytics that you wouldn’t expect, and need to explore. Maybe you are a Toronto based company but are driving a lot of visitors from Vancouver, this may help you strategize your business moving forward, and analyze room for expansion.
Conversion rates
The neat thing about Google Analytics is you can also set up your own goals for your website and analyze those specific goals. For example, a goal for an e-commerce site may be to get your website visitors to checkout and purchase items. Although you may see within your analytics that many people are dropping off and abandoning their online shopping cart at a particular stage. This will help you analyze where your website may need altering to get your customers to reach your end goal.
Another example of this is you may be trying to get your website visitors to fill out a contact form to request more info. Google Analytics allows you to set up these goals and funnels as deep as you’d like, allowing for you to access valuable information that can help move your business forward.
Although there are many great tools Google Analytics offers businesses that can greatly benefit your website and online traffic, by paying attention and analyzing these results, you’ll begin to have a better understanding of what your website is used for, your visitors, and how you can use that to increase business and move forward as a company both online and offline.
