Google Analytics – An Essential Marketing Tool
Introduced in 2005, Google Analytics is a free statistical analysis program used to measure visitor activity on websites. Collecting data on everything from how a visitor got to your website to how many visitors ended up buying something, it has become the number one choice for marketers wishing to improve business through their websites. Whilst having someone to learn SEO techniques is a must for every business, you also need the means to analyse your customers behaviour once you have got them to visit your site.
Its all well and good knowing how many people have visited your site, but what are they doing on there? Which pages are they looking at and for how long? Google Analytics is more than just a visitor counter. It lets you delve into every aspect of your website’s usage, so you can get a clear picture of what is working for you and what is not. It can be used to gauge the type of visitor your website is bringing in so that you can tailor your website to their needs, or change it to bring in a different kind of audience. So, what are the benefits of using Google Analytics for your website?
1. Knowing your audience
It can be tricky to get your target audience to notice you, but to do it you first have to find out who your current audience is. You can use Analytics to find out what browser your visitors are using, which will tell you a little something about how techo-savvy they might be, hence how user-friendly your website will need to be. This is also useful in making sure your website is compatible with various browsers, or even compatible with smartphones. You can find out what keywords brought them to your site, which may help you to find advertising opportunities on websites with similar searches, and to tailor your website to be more in line with those keywords. The former will get you more visits and the latter will keep them interested. You may also want to know if they are a new or returning visitor, depending on which is more important to your business.
2. How and when are they leaving?
Now that you know who is visiting your site, you need to know what they do on the site, for how long, and when they leave. You can access statistics on how long a visitor spends on the landing page (i.e. the first one they got to) and whether or not they went on to visit another page of your website from there. This can tell you how effective this page is in keeping the visitors interested and making them want to know more. Another great feature is the ability to see which page visitors leave your website from. Visitors have to leave sometime, but is there one specific page which is losing your audience? If so, now you know that it needs work!
3. How clicks turn into coins!
If your website can generate money from sales, you can monitor all ecommerce through your website using Google Analytics. You may want to know which landing page leads to a sale most often, or if sales are coming from new customers or returning ones. You know your business best, so once you find out where you’re sales are coming from, you can work out how to increase them.
4. Customising your analysis
So now that you’ve got all your data analysed, what does it mean for your website? It is important that you can compare the amount of attention and business you are getting with the amount that you need. This is why Google Analytics lets you set yourself goals and benchmarks, to see if your website is doing all that it needs to. You can set targets, compare yourself to other websites’ traffic income and also personalise your own dashboard so that you ensure that you are looking at the data that is most important for your business.
5. Its free and accessible to anyone!
Best of all, Google Analytics is made to be used by anyone. It is free to download and use, and even the smallest businesses can be taught to master it. It is being constantly updated to meet the needs of customers, and can be integrated with other website tools such as AdWords and AdSense, which you may already being using for Search Optimisation. Furthermore, it is now even easier to find a Google Analytics course to get you on the road to becoming a pro, or just to keep you on top of new services and updates.
Google Analytics has come on leaps and bounds since its first incarnation, and with its ability to make comprehensible such a wide range of statistics, it is no surprise that it has become so popular. As soon as your business starts using it as part of your Search Engine Optimisation, you too will find it indispensable!
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