Creating a stunning website is something we can do very easily for you, but there is so much more than beauty when it comes to making sure your online presence works for your business.
A great many people feel uncomfortable when it comes to crunching data but it doesn’t have to be that way. That’s thanks to really helpful tools like Google Analytics which we install on every website we touch in our agency. Google Analytics eliminate the need to play any guessing games about what is happening on your website. With a few clicks and some helpful apps you can learn the cold hard facts about what is and isn’t working for your business.
Before assessing your data it is essential to set goals for your specific website. Are you hoping to have a large readership, sell your products, have visitors listen to your music or view your photos? Depending on what success looks like for you, different metrics can be chosen and will hold different value.
Here are a few simple stats to look at when investigating how your site is running.
TRAFFIC SOURCES
Before you can even think about making your website better you have to make sure people are visiting all together. We recommend getting started by looking at your traffic sources. This will show you where your current visitors are coming from and can help you decide where to concentrate your marketing efforts to bring more people in the future.
The three main categories of traffic sources are:
Direct: visitors who typed your site’s exact URL into the address bar.
Referring: came from a link on another website or via social media.
Search Engine: those who searched for something in Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc and your site came up.
Within this section you have both organic and paid traffic you can investigate.
When analyzing this information, there are a few key stats you’ll want to pay attention to. Are your content and keywords strong. Are you getting referrals/is your site being shared elsewhere online? Is your URL memorable enough that people are typing it directly into the address bar? These are just the tip of the iceberg. If you really want to get in-depth info, you can install apps such as the SEO Analyzer to increase your traffic and spy on the competition.
VISIT
Think about your website the same as you would a bricks and mortar store. Your landing page is like your window display – is it getting many people to enter? Once inside, where are they going the most? Note: it is important to monitor the number of visits to your site in general as well as each individual page.
Bottom line – getting a high number of visits to your site is directly connected to marketing efforts and SEO. Once people are checking you out, you can go a step further to evaluate which specific pages have high traffic and which don’t. These numbers will give you valuable feedback that you can use to your site’s benefit. Edit your website to improve the pages with low views, mimic content from successful pages, change the layout to encourage clicks and more.
TIME ON SITE
You want your visitors not only to enter your site but to spend quality time there, and lots of it! This is especially true for stores, blogs, and galleries. In fact, the number of people is less important than having a solid following that really enjoys your work and is more likely to engage or even purchase. Do not dismiss looking at this critical number. The question you are asking is: how much time are viewers spending on each page and where are you losing them? With Web – Stat, you can even watch all of this in real time. It may be, for example, that many visitors arrive at the listening page of your music site but leave after less than a minute. While it’s not good news, it’s certainly good to know. Or perhaps not a lot of people are entering your blog but the average time spent there is 7+ minutes. This would be a huge success!
DEMOGRAPHICS
Who’s checking you out? Believe it or not, the internet knows everything. Shocking, we know. The craziest part is, you can learn exactly what kinds of people are visiting your site very easily. A standard report would include age, gender and interests. You can keep going more in depth to find tons of stuff like where people are from, what other sites they visit, what things they buy and so much more. This can help you both adjust your aesthetic and content to the right audience and perhaps even perfect your product.
CONVERSIONS
At the end of the day, you want to see results. If you are investing in concentrated marketing efforts, these numbers are essential to avoid the guessing game and see monitor the success of your campaigns. This way you can decide to keep an exciting marketing project going or end it early depending on how it is converting. If you have not begun to market you can try things out with the help of Marketing Automation and test how effective it is for your unique business. The key things to look at when analyzing conversion are, for example, how many visitors are subscribing to your newsletter or going to your check-out and purchasing your products? Moreover, is the coupon code you gave out in March bringing in more customers than came organically in January and February? You can track conversions by setting a goal within Google Analytics and receiving a regular report.
Remember, checking out these numbers alone will not catapult your business. Take the time to set measurable and achievable goals and bite off one piece at a time. If you really think this is something you don’t want to do get in touch with us, we can help you get comfortable with your site analytics.
