Use Google Analytics to Get Actionable Intel for Your Small Business
If you ask a typical already-overwhelmed small business owner if they’d like to get started using Google Analytics, the common response is wide-eyed fear, dreading tackling the buckets of data that Analytics can supply. Who’s got time to learn new stuff when there’s work to be done? The reality is, Google Analytics will help make that work proceed much more efficiently and of course profitably, if you are willing to dive in and start using it in a targeted, specific manner. Begin with asking the right questions: what are my goals, and what do I need to know to achieve them, and which of these website metrics can help me get there.
Understanding which metrics you need
While each business has somewhat different needs, the most useful common needs follow.
- Total visits – Discovering how many visitors you get is a basic measurement of success, assuming they are targeted visitors. Take a look at both “unique” (first time) visitors, and total visits, which include returnees.
- Keyword phrases – Understanding which keyword phrases are driving traffic to your page is vital. This data will let you know how to target your primary and secondary keywords.
- Popular pages – Which of your pages are getting the most notice, and which aren’t!
- Visitors geo-location – Which countries are generating the most traffic for you?
- Referring pages – Which pages are sending you the most traffic? This might be from any number of sources, including affiliates, video, images, social media and more.
- Search engine traffic – Which search engines are delivering the most visitors.
Google Analytics advanced features to help decipher the data
Three handy advanced features are very useful when it comes to processing and understanding this information.
Custom reports will give you the power to create a version of Google Analytics just for you. You will be able to pick the data that’s relevant to you, and organize it any way you like.
Advanced segmenting lets you sort traffic into segments that shed light on the data, such as segmenting out mobile or tablet traffic.
Intelligence events is comparable to Google Alerts, and sends a you an email or text to your mobile device when anything remarkable happens on your site, such as a spike in traffic, either up or down.
Yes, Google Analytics is a LOT of data. And yes, you can make it do the job for you, with simply a little effort!