Quick intro to website analytics and why you should care
Quick intro to website analytics and why you should care
Website analytics display data gathered by a monitoring program installed within a website. The program obtains the visitors’ actions on the site including how a visitor got to the website, the pages they visited and any clicks or interactions they have while they are visiting.
One of the most common analytics programs available (and what I would suggest) is Google Analytics. With an active Google account and a few minutes to spare, a person can install Google Analytics on most websites before a full episode of The Office hits the credits.
Now, on to why you should care…
Having analytics of website activity can provide important information beyond the monthly visits data. Website analytics provide insight to consumer behavior and can help a business learn a lot about their own branding and how the company is perceived in their market.
Find patterns in your visitor traffic and use that data to help better define your brand and give your target market what they really want. This can be done just by consistently evaluating a handful of metrics through website analytics.
If you do not have website analytics currently installed on your website, I personally feel like your company is missing out and just figure out a way to get Google Analytics active. If your website has analytics currently available, take 15 minutes to learn about your company and its market with the following 3 metrics:
- Learn the when and why through daily visits data
Not many companies can answer how many visitors they get daily to their website, so you know most companies are not aware of who is on their website and why. Use the daily visits data as a way to monitor your branding efforts, both online and in person.
If you see a spike in daily traffic, that indicates something pushed more traffic to your website. Maybe you were at a networking event, attended an exhibition or have a marketing campaign running that intrigued people to act.
If you had a social media post that gained a lot of interaction, you may see a jump in daily website traffic around the days that you posted. Now you know to post something similar next time or use that interactive success as a way to improve other channels of marketing.
Who cares how many visits you get daily, learn from the visits you do get, to further define your brand identity and monitor the visitor behavior. Later on you can make a goal out of increasing daily visits, once you can monitor the website consistently.
- Keep important information within the top 3 most viewed pages on the website
Typically the most viewed page on websites is the home page. Many companies optimized their brand and utilize search engine optimization (SEO) on the home page of the website to gain traffic. The second and third most viewed pages may not be near the home page in views, but still hold importance for visitors.
Make sure your most important company information is located on the 3 most viewed pages to maximize the exposure. If there is information or a promotion that visitors must know and it is not on the top 3 most viewed pages, then you should add that content to one or more of those pages that is getting the traffic.
Another important thing to be learned from the most viewed pages is the flow of your website. Having a flow-to-goal strategy is a must so that you are making your visitors go to the pages that you want them to see. Reviewing the top viewed pages along with the specific paths visitors take can be revealed through website analytics.
Learn more about how to build a flow-to-goal strategy here.
- Evaluate your branding and marketing efforts through referral traffic to your website
What websites, emails or other digital paths are visitors taking to find your website? Many visitors may come directly to your website, but some will get to your site through a social platform like Facebook, a chamber website or online directories through search.
Knowing where your visitors are being referred from can help you put more focus in certain areas of marketing along with helping drive more interest and traffic back to the website.
Example: If the website is getting steady visits from your Facebook page, you may want to increase your post quantity with links back to your website or boost some posts to help push people to the website for more information. Also consider using the content and messaging from those successful posts as a marketing campaign through email or print, since you know that they resonate with your market.
Sometimes referral traffic is coming from a review site or online forum. Are your visitors receiving the correct information from these sites or are they coming to your site from a bad review? Monitoring referral traffic provides insight to online branding and the effectiveness of marketing through other channels.
Now…what should you do next?
Start getting familiar with website analytics or utilize someone to monitor and provide you with your website traffic data.
If you don’t have analytics…create a Google Account and get Google Analytics installed on your website.
If you do have analytics…run a 6-12 month report and you will see patterns within your visitor traffic. Utilize the 3 metrics above to better your understanding about your company brand and the market you’re trying to target.
Interested in learning more? That’s where Red Technologies can help. We specialize in website development, but are stellar in SEO and social media along with a full range of other marketing services. You can contact us online or over the phone: www.redtechnologiesinc.com/contact-us | 612-310-7972
