Google Analytics – A Marketing Tool Must Have For Businesses

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Google Analytics, most of us have heard of them but the majority of us don’t know how to use it as a valuable resource when it comes to marketing. That’s about to change.When someone first logs into Google Analytics they are often overwhelmed and give up before the discovery the wealth of information inside.Using Google Analytics we can track and identify the following about your website:

• Visitor Data - Who is coming to your website? Where are they located geographically? How often have they visited your website? What computers and browsers are visitors using to gain access to your website?
• Traffic Sources - How do people get your website? Do they use search engines? Are they being referred from other websites? What keywords are visitors finding you under?
• Content - What content attracts your readers? What pages do they enter your website on? What pages do they exit the most?
• Goals - Do you have specific objectives with your website? If so you can setup goals within Google Analytics and it will report when those objectives are achieved. Goals can represent desired actions by users, registrations, downloads and even purchase goals.
• Ecommerce - If you sell items via your website you can gather a lot of data from Google Analytics, such as average order value, revenue, and popular items purchased.

Google Analytics also lets you setup your own dashboard so that you can get the information that is important to you right when you login. Once you get past the “overwhelmed” feeling and start to understand the data that is available to you I promise you will find Google Analytics an easy way to monitor, track and analyze your web marketing.

Let’s get you started in tracking your data.

Step 1: Sign Up for an Account
If you don’t have a Google Analytics account you will need to set one up. It’s easy and free, you are just required to have a Google Account.

Step 2: Setup
Once you’ve signed up you’ll be requested to setup your account. You’ll need the following information:

• Account Name (I recommend using your site name. This will make it easier if you find yourself having more than one site to track)
• Website Address
• Time Zone

Once you’ve completed the information you will need to agree to the terms and you are set.

Step 3: Install
When you have completed the process of signing up you will be given a tracking code. This tracking code must be put on your website. If you did not design your website or are not comfortable with html I suggest getting your web developer help you. If you are familiar with HTML it’s important to either place the tracking doe in the header or the footer of every page on your website. If you use WordPress you can get a plugin called Google Analytics that will walk you through the installation process.

Once you have installed the tracking code you will begin to collect data within the next 24 hours. The first time you login to Google Analytics you will see the default dashboard that will show you the following:

• Daily Visits - This shows you the number of daily visits for the timeframe selected.
• Average Time on Site - This shows you the average time spent on your site for all users.
• Total Goal Conversion- If you have not setup goals this will be blank. As you setup goals you will be able to track the success of reaching these goals.
• Traffic Types - This will show you where your traffic is coming from. It’s divided into four segments (Search / Direct / Referrers / Campaign)
• Time on Site by Country - You can view what country your visitors are coming from.
• Conversion Rate by Source - You will need to setup conversion goals in order for anything to be tracked here.
• Mobile Visits - Review what mobile devices your visitors are using. This will help in determining if you need a mobile version of your website.

Now, that you are collecting data what should you watch for, and what does the data tell you? Let’s focus on just three reports for now to get you started.

Get Started with the 3 Must-Have Google Analytics Reports

Audience Overview - You can use the visitor data to show you how many visitors are new and how many are returning. Unique visitor data will help you in gauging your reach. Returning visitors help to gauge the loyalty you have with your visitors. Both of these numbers are important when it comes to online marketing.

Traffic Sources Overview - The traffic source report will help you to see where your visitors are coming from. Are they coming from search engines like Google, Bing! and Yahoo!? Or are you seeing more traffic from your efforts in social media? Your traffic source will help you to see what marketing efforts are working and which ones are not.

Organic Search Traffic - This serves as your keyword report . It will show you what search terms your visitors are finding you under when searching search engines. This will help you in seeing what keywords are driving the most traffic as well as enable you to optimize content and can be useful for planning future content by seeing the terms you are not being found under.

Once you become familiar with these reports it won’t seem so overwhelming. Take time and review the Google Analytics tutorials, they can be very helpful in finding your way around and creating reports that help you in not only monitoring but strategizing your marketing efforts.