The game changing power of Google Analytics
10th July 2019Does the thought of statistics and data analysing send you running for the hills or make your grin from ear to ear? Either way when it comes to business and ways to track your online presence from website performance to ad success and getting a good handle on who in fact your customer is, Google Analytics for beginners is one important and handy tool to get acquainted with. You can have the most whiz bang fancy website design but if it isn’t receiving any hits then there is something wrong. Many small business owners tend to just rely on the analytics provided by web hosting, content management systems known as CMS or the backend of websites like Squarespace and WIX. While these give you some indication of your business performance, Google Analytics for beginners is a far more informative and far reaching tool that is worth getting to know. Keep in mind when you work with us here at Tread, we take care of the analytics and statistical performance mind game allowing you to focus your attention on what you do best, sounds good right?
When first starting out and wrapping your head around Google Analytics to avoid the possible overwhelm or sheer avoidance, we recommend focusing your attention on three key points of information. The number of hits your site receives, the average time a person stays looking at your website and demographics- who in fact is being drawn to your website. You might be surprised it isn’t always whom you think. These three things are easily accessible from the dashboard and will give you a good understanding into if your online presence is actually driving traffic and making a desirable impact.
Getting an overview on how many hits your site receives month to month is important to see if your website is doing its job. Equally it can give you a great insight into what works or doesn’t work when you compare spikes in traffic to when you might have launched ads, or blog posts, new products, sales etc. Doing this can give you valuable insights into what is worth pursing and what perhaps needs reworking or rethinking.
Secondly looking at the average time an individual stays on your website is another great way to look at how your online presence is performing. You might have a decent amount of hits to the site, but if the average time each of those people are staying is less than thirty seconds something isn’t quite right. In this case it might be worth looking into functionality and ease of navigation on your website as well as design. Afterall there is a reason why people don’t want to hang around.
Last but definitely not least by any means is demographics. Looking at who is visiting your site from gender to age, location and interests, this gives a great indication of the type of person your target customer is. Sometimes the people we think is our ideal customer or client is isn’t always the person whom is being drawn to our website. By understanding your demographic, you can take advantage of where you may have gaps and where you can further take advantage of the audience you are attracting.
We highly recommend investing in the help and support of someone versed in online marketing and business performance analyses. Data collection and reporting through systems such as Google Analytics for beginners is a great way to improve and monitor your business and marketing performance and one definitely not to be overlooked. If you are keen to learn more reach out, we’d love to chat.