The secret to good marketing, someone wise probably once said, is knowing what your customers want. Thanks to web tools like Google Analytics, website owners can do just that – understand customer behaviour, learn how to generate more leads and increase sales. What’s more, it’s absolutely free.
For the uninitiated Google’s online reporting system can be a mass of confusing graphs, figures and strange terms. But don’t be put off, there are a few simple ways to get stuck in. Here are some key aspects of the program and how can you use it to better engage your target market.
Traffic sources
Under traffic sources you’ll find how many people have visited your site, in the last hour, day, week or month, with a graph that demonstrates fluctuations over a set period. You can also find out how people got to your website, whether as a result of a link from another site (referral traffic), through search engines (organic traffic), by specifically typing in your address (direct traffic) or from Google AdWords adverts (campaign traffic). If you’ve instigated major changes to your website, or invested in a marketing campaign, this tab will help you to determine the success of those operations.
Visitors
As well as seeing how people got to your site, you can also discover which types of potential customers are finding your business – from their language and place of domicile to which internet browser, computer operating system and screen resolution they’re using. Although this information isn’t hugely significant to a lot of smaller businesses from a marketing point of view, it’s vital practically. It ensures that your site isn’t neglecting a cross-section of customers by not working properly on a specific browser.
Organic results
One of the most effective ways to attract significant customers is through search engine optimisation (SE0), and ensuring that your site ranks well in Google, Bing and other search engines when potential customers search for a relevant keyword or phrase online. The organic search tab in traffic sources demonstrates how many people are finding you through search engines, and the terms that they’re typing that lead them to you – giving you the ideas and the opportunity to attract even more through other relevant keywords.
Behaviour
A sub-section of the Visitors section, the behaviour tab gives more detail about whether your website is engaging with its users. It shows how frequently and how recently visitors return to your site, how long they spend on a page and how many different pages people view during their session – all of which demonstrates how engaged they are with your brand. This tab is a great tool for establishing which pages on your website are more engaging and more popular than others, and hints at how struggling pages could be improved.
Bounce Rate
Located on the Content tab, the bounce rate shows how many people entered your website and then exited without clicking onto another page. It’s a great indicator of how inviting and interesting your website is. Sites without engaging copy, exciting graphics or relevant products will suffer a big bounce rate. The UK average bounce rate is 49%.
In-Page Analytics
This section shows your site as it’s seen by customers and indicates the behaviour of customers while on a page – displaying the bounce rate, average time on page and unique pageviews. It also shows a percentage of which banners, pages and links are being clicked on during the process. This is a great tool for designers and content managers, as it shows which specific graphics, stories and offers grab a user’s attention, and how potential customers react on different pages.
Once you start getting to grips with Google Analytics and realise just how much valuable information can be extracted from it, you’ll find that virtually a day doesn’t go by without logging in to check the latest activity on your website!