Google Analytics is a powerful tool; by now, you may be questioning how to understand all of these reports and pluck data that is useful and relevant to your business. To help you get started, here are five simple tips and tricks you can make the most out of Google analytics.
One report claims that 8.4 percent of all tracked websites use Google Analytics. This may seem relatively small until you realize there are nearly 350 million websites – meaning that more than 29 million websites use this web analytics service.
In most cases, users typically rely on Google Analytics to help measure traffic and effectively select keywords that will generate even more of it.
However, that barely scratches what Google Analytics can do for you as a helpful aid and strategic tool. Besides keyword identification, here are five other ways to get the most value from Google Analytics.
Which landing page works best for your website? Unfortunately, without official reporting or tracking, you may only be able to base your answer to that question on personal preferences or friendly feedback. However, Google Analytics gives you the stats and figures to accurately answer that question on your behalf.
Thanks to content experiments within this web analytics program, you can test up to 6 different variations of a landing page to see which one works best. You specify the desired goal and the number of visitors you want to participate in the experiment before uploading the scripting to your website that will be used for the test. The best part is that this premium-quality feature is free!
You may already use Google Analytics to get an overall measurement of your traffic – checking how many unique visitors you have daily, weekly or even monthly.
However, do you know exactly where they go when they reach your website? Which pages do they visit the most? Which links get the most clicks? This web analytics tool can help you determine which pages are helping your conversion rate and which are hurting.
Pay close attention to the in-page analytics and visitor flow function to see the navigational paths used within your site. Then, adjust your marketing strategy accordingly to reap the most benefit from this tool.
Another beneficial way to use Google Analytics is to identify where your website traffic originates. It is easy to become overly focused on the number of visitors on your website to the extent that you overlook how they got there in the first place. Google Analytics can help you to follow the “breadcrumbs” to identify the different sources that send traffic to your website.
You will have access to those online contacts, whether from a specific website, database, or even social media platform. Therefore, reaching out to the sources that seem to impact your website traffic most is highly recommended to establish a beneficial partnership or sponsorship arrangement that works well for all parties involved.
In addition to partnerships, you can also consider possible guest posting opportunities and even affiliate marketing options to maximize exposure and boost your conversion rates.
In addition to visitor path tracking, another effective way to take advantage of web analytics is by shifting your focus to the checkout stage of your typical customer experience. Again, a target area you should consider is the online shopping cart since that is statistically a “hot spot” for website abandonment.
If your online checkout process consists of multiple steps, you can use goal funnels within this web analytics tool to track the number of users that advance through each stage.
This will also allow you to quickly identify any areas of improvement where your prospective customers encounter technical difficulties that prevent them from proceeding or losing interest in the sale altogether.
Keep in mind that you will not reach your online marketing goals overnight. Regardless of the web analytics tool or program you use to track the growth and performance of your website, persistence and patience still play vital roles in this overall process.
The key is to make sure that you establish a solid online presence and use web analytics tools (such as Google Analytics) to educate yourself and execute an effective marketing strategy. A recommended approach is to study the performance of your website from all sides – as a consumer, business owner and analyst – to enhance your strengths and address and resolve any weaknesses that may exist.
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With over 13 years experience as a leader in digital marketing, Mansi Rana is Managing Director of EZ Rankings. Passionate about all things data; providing actionable business intelligence in digital, future tech; and venture bubbles categories for everyone, everywhere.
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