If you’ve ever logged onto your business’ Website Analytics you’ve probably been a bit baffled by the line graphs and dates and numbers. If it doesn’t mean much to you now, that’s okay. By the end of this blog, you’ll be ready to start segmenting data and understanding your audience better.
This blog is assuming you’re all set up with Google Analytics and the tracking code is already on your website recording clicks and views. If you haven’t done this yet, this Moz.com guide will get you started. If you have done this, keep scrolling.
Why you need to keep an eye on Google Analytics
Google Analytics provides accurate statistics about who has visited your site, where on your site they’ve been, why they’ve left, and much, much more. This is obviously a massive asset for your digital marketing, particularly if you’re a small business on a budget and want to make the most of your resources.
For example, if your email campaigns are getting no clicks through to your website, you need to know why so you can fix it. It could be as simple as a broken link. If your social media accounts are driving loads of traffic, you need to know that too so you can keep doing more of it.
Basically, Google Analytics stats give you an important insight into how people are responding to your website and marketing channels, something every business owner needs to know.
The stats you should check
The most useful stats for your business will depend on your audience and what you want them to do when they arrive at your site. These are some of the stats to check regularly.
Audience
- Where they are geographically.
- What device and browser they’re using to access your site.
- Their age and gender.
- How often they visit and for how long.
Acquisition
- Where site visitors have come from to reach your site.
- Which of your marketing channels are bringing traffic to your site.
Behaviour
- Landing pages – the first page a visitor lands on.
- Content – which pages on your site receive the most traffic.
- Flow – how people navigate and click through your site.
- Exit page – the page they look at before they leave.
It’s easy to see why these are important to monitor, particularly the acquisition and behaviour analytics. Businesses spend quite a lot of money running their websites and social channels so knowing how people respond to those pages, links, and posts is an essential part of your digital marketing campaign.
How to use segments to get a better view
Segmenting your data sounds complicated but it really isn’t. When you’re checking your Analytics stats you can segment it based on one particular date or a period of time, specific categories of audience, acquisition locations, and behaviours. This is particularly helpful if you’re interested in mobile users or the results of a campaign on a specific day. The more detailed you go the more insights you’ll get.
How to set up goals to monitor your leads and conversions
Goals are exactly what they sound like – something you want site visitors to do. You can set up different types of goals on Google Analytics, including filling out forms, purchases, pages visited, and time spent on the site. This Google Analytics guide to setting up goals is a simple way to get started.
Once your goals are set up you can monitor them in the Conversions tab, including:
- What percentage of visitors convert
- Which pages do they visit before they convert (also known as Goal Path)
- Where successful conversions are coming from (social media, email, Google searches, etc.)
Your digital marketing partners
We’re one of the UK’s leading digital marketing agencies working exclusively with the property and construction industry. For helpful insights into your website traffic and data, talk to the Tall Zebra Designs team.
