Do you have Google Analytics set up on your website? If not then add it to your to do list and make it a priority for this week. Not using Google Analytics is like being offered a free report that could gauge the current health of your business and simply dumping it in the waste paper bin.
Google Analytics is free and is an insightful tool which, if used correctly, will help you with the strategic direction of your website and possibly even your business. If you’ve never used Google Analytics before you will be amazed at the information you can glean from it.
Do you know which pages on your site are the most and least popular? How long on average visitors are spending on your website and which path are they taking? Where are they coming from?Google Analytics can tell you where in the world your visitors are coming from and which sites are sending traffic your way. This can be a great indication that your efforts on social media are working or that the online advertising you did last month did or didn’t work. Are visitors accessing your pages from a mobile or a desktop PC? This is particularly important to know and if your site is not yet mobile friendly, then now is the time to change.
Google Analytics is undoubtedly a great tool for marketers, web designers and developers and can help highlight when changes are needed, what is working and what isn’t. Which content needs more attention, which pages are driving customers away?
This is brilliant but the information it generates has value well beyond the marketing department. Used regularly and effectively it can spot trends, for example which of your products or services is generating most interest. It could be the first indication that a product or service is falling out of fashion. With this information you can consider what to do. Is it something which requires more promotion or is it simply something there is no longer a demand for? Perhaps your HR department doesn’t bother to post vacancies on the website but do they know how many hits the generic careers page get each month? Or maybe you are receiving lots of visits from a part of the world you don’t operate in. Your analytics results could be the first indication that there is gap in the market somewhere just waiting for you to tap in to it.
What are you waiting for? Get analysing!