Google Analytics gives a meticulous
view of how users interact with your website. The information and analysis
offered is exhaustive. At first glance it may actually seem overly analytical –
Internet TMI in its purest form! But once you break down the scrutiny into
bite-sized nuggets, Google Analytics tells you everything you’ll ever need to
know about your users and your website. Panning for gold isn’t easy either, but
the payoff is handsome.
To think about Google Analytics,
you should first consider the 5 broad categories of information it provides.
Some of the categories may be more useful than others, in terms of how you use
the information. Some website owners will make great use of some of the
information and no use of other information. Owners of large sites would be
remiss not to use as much of the analytical information as possible. Smaller site
owners will want to pick and choose initially while digging deeper into the
analytics as they better understand what’s available.
Audience reveals who is using your website (demographical
information) and how they interact with the site (site navigation and behavior
inside the site). It also shows which computer types, networks, and operating
systems they use. Knowing your customer is indeed one of the most important
Advertising helps you understand how Google AdWords impacts your
site traffic. This particular category may be of no use whatsoever if you don’t
advertise with Google. If you do, this information and analysis is supremely
important. It’s indispensible really and will help guide your budget and
determine your ROI.
Traffic Sources gives valuable analysis of how users find your
website and where they are coming from (meaning which websites they are
referred from). When you understand why and how users find your site, it helps
you better define your marketing goals and objectives. It’s especially
good analysis for marketing managers looking to understand how campaigns are
working and for SEM managers looking to optimize SEM campaigns.
Content gives the story behind your website. It answers the
critical questions: What are your visitors reading on your website? Which web
pages do they prefer to land on, and stay on? Google Analytics can tell you
which content is essential and which content should be re-written, re-designed,
or re-directed. This information is of particular interest to content
specialists, writers, editors, and designers looking to understand what is the
most engaging material on the website.
Conversions is like Audience in that the information is only as
useful as you make it. This category has to be set-up by the user. It’s
entirely custom in that way. If you leverage this category you can draw-up
predetermined goals (sign-ups, sales, etc.) and analyze the data. It is, of
course, particularly useful if your site engaged in ecommerce.
Again, Advertising and Conversions
are beyond the initial “stepping stones” of Google Analytics. It’s probably
important to understand the other categories before investing too much time
(and money) here. So for the purposes of this survey, I’ll focus my efforts
where most analytics amateurs start: Audience, Traffic Sources, and Content.
How can Google Analytics help your
business understand its audience, the customer? Danny Iny, co-founder
and CEO of Firepole Marketing, writes in Forbes magazine that
marketing is all about “figuring out who will be the ONE
perfect customer for you, and what you need to offer them that they will
absolutely adore (Wagner, 2012).” If that’s true – and I believe it is blatantly
obvious – then the analytics offered about your audience is pure gold. Using
this analysis, you can find reports that give you demographical information
and, more importantly, new and returning visitor information. You can use this
information to mold your product and marketing.
Imagine for a moment
that you own an ice cream store. Then imagine if, by some magic, each and every
customer who walks in your door has a sticky note on his/her head telling you
who they are and where they live, their favorite flavor of ice cream, and how
often they visit your store. That would be a business owner’s dream!
Well that’s exactly
the kind of information Audience Reports give you. The report entitled New vs.
Returning is particularly useful. It breaks down your visitors between those
who visited your site for the very first time and those who’ve already visited
your site and are returning. For most businesses, the goal is to get customers
to return. So if and when you can use this report to increase returning visitors,
to that extent this is a highly useful analytical tool.
The reports available
in Traffic Sources are also very helpful. They show you how well your marketing
efforts are working. To fully understand these reports, it’s important to grasp
the 3 types of traffic sources Google monitors: Direct traffic, referring
traffic, and search engine traffic:
Direct
traffic represents those visitors who “arrive directly and immediately on your
site” bypassing other websites or referrals. If you see a lot of direct traffic
in your report, you have a strong brand and/or a strong offline marketing
program.
Referring
site traffic counts visitors that “click a link on another site and land on your
site.” Referral traffic is indicative of online marketing success and/or strong
social media.
Search
engine traffic comes from visitors clicking on links on a search results page
for any search engine – either organic or paid. If you see strong search engine
traffic in your reports, this means you either have good SEO or good SEM – or a
combination of both (Roggio, 2011).
Finally,
the reports made available under Content are a treasure trove of information. I
find the “content drilldown” reports to be particularly useful to marketers. This
report shows you the pages of your website but grouped into your sub folders,
rather than jumbled up with all your other pages. It makes it easier to review
pages in one section. It also shows you how many visits you’ve had in a total
section per time period (Mace, 2012). This information can be fabulously
useful! If you notice trends and patterns in your total visits per page, this
tells you what readers “like” the most. This may help you develop better
products or better ways to market your products online. This is probably my
favorite report in Google Analytics.
Google
Analytics can be overwhelming. But if you focus your attention on singular
reports, understand them over time, you can build an arsenal of tools that will
help you grow your site and better your marketing.
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