Data – one of my favourite subjects (but not loved by all)! I know many people shy away from data analysis but as I keep reiterating, there’s no point creating lots of amazing content and fantastic blogs if you don’t know if anyone is looking at them, what’s working, what’s not working and which are the popular pages on your site..
There is so much information in a Google Analytics account so I have picked five basic metrics to start which over time will provide an interesting overview of your website (and e-commerce business). When you login to your account, the first thing to do is to decide the time period you’d like to cover and adjust that accordingly (top right hand side of the screen). If you are more confident in Google Analytics, then how about creating a customised dashboard to keep all the regular data streams that are important to you in one spot? This can be shared with others so they are kept fully informed and up to date. If you just want to keep it simple then choose the metrics that are important to your business and keep a simple spreadsheet regularly updated.
Desktop, Tablet or Mobile?
How are the majority of visitors to your website viewing it? If many are looking via a mobile then what does your website look like on that platform? Is it mobile-friendly and are the images optimised so they are not slowing the site speed by taking ages to download? If you have an e-commerce business and the majority of your customers are trying to buy via mobile or tablet – what’s their user experience like?
Google Analytics Menu: Audience / Mobile / Overview
Landing & Popular Pages
Have a look to see where your visitors are arriving at your site. Which products are they really interested in and which blogs are being read. Which are your most popular pages? Equally, have a look to see what the bounce rate is for each page. It may be the most viewed page but it may have the highest bounce rate.
Google Analytics Menu: Behaviour / Site Content / Landing Pages
Exit Pages
Whilst looking at the bounce rate, it’s also really worth seeing on which pages your visitors are leaving your site. Why do you think this is? Have they found what they were looking for, say contact details, or did they get bored of not finding what they wanted and disappeared off to another site? Does your navigation menu need amending? Have you lost sight of why people are visiting your site?
Google Analytics Menu: Behaviour / Site Content / Exit Pages
Where are your Visitors coming from?
Find out how visitors are discovering your business through the source/medium option on the menu. Then, if you scroll down a little bit further under Search Console you can then see which searches are sending visitors to your site. Do these match your keywords?
Google Analytics Menu: Aquisition / All Traffic / Source/Medium
Demographics
Where are the people from who are looking at your site? If many of them live on the other side of the world and you are a very local business then something isn’t’ right. You can even see which city people looking at your site are from – fascinating!
If your business is in a particularly competitive field or you need to expand your brand awareness, then this might be the time to have a think about your SEO, trying Google or Facebook Ads and even updating your Google My Business page to try and stimulate your local, relevant customers.
Google Analytics Menu: Audience / Geo / Location
UPDATE: Universal Analytics (basically Google Analytics as we now know it) will no longer process new data from 1 July 2023. I would highly recommend setting up a Google Analytics 4 property immediately (and connect it to your website).
Would you like to find out more about what I do?
If you’d like to dicuss anything further, then why not get in touch and we can have a chat.