Google Analytics is an incredibly powerful free tool but can often seem overwhelming at first due to the sheer number of options available. But mastering a few tasks could be invaluable to your business. Here are the 3 things that we believe are essential to measure when seeking to optimise the performance of your site.
1. Click Audience > Overview
It’s helpful to keep an eye on how many people visit your site, and to check if that number raises or dips. This way you can see if the marketing measures you’ve put into place are effective, and also work out the return on investment for your website’s upkeep. The visitor number will rarely be steady, but keeping a close eye on it and comparing the movement to your marketing approach (eg. the date of sending out an email newsletter) is the best way of learning what is and isn’t working.
2. Click Acquisition > Overview
By looking at how visitors are reaching your website (eg. organic Google search, paid ads, referrals from other websites etc.) you can work out exactly where your website traffic is coming from. This can help inform important decisions such as where best to invest in your digital marketing. You can work out what has been effective in the past, or focus your attention on new avenues.
3. Click Behavior > Overview
It’s tempting to bombard visitors with loads of information about your company and industry (spread across multiple pages) but how much of it are they actually reading? Google Analytics allows you to see the pages that visitors are landing on and where they go next, allowing you to work out which parts of your site are most relevant to them. It’s a great way to tailor any updates to your website.
The bounce rate refers to people who came to your site only for a moment and didn’t click on any links to other pages. These visits are often because the content wasn’t what they were looking for, or they simply stumble across the site in error. It’s easy to get excited by a large number of website visits, but the bounce rate allows you to work out how many of those visits were meaningful.
Shaun McElvaine
With an eye for detail and a passion for modern, minimalist and functional design, Shaun McElvaine has worked for a range of clients from startups to large corporates.
Email: shaun@magnifycreative.co.uk