Websites are immensely important to businesses, they are a vital factor when making and implementing decisions and must use the best software possible to ensure they’re effective in all respects. Google Analytics is a free tool designed to work hand-in-hand with your business, performing web analytics from all different types of traffic to your site.
The idea of ‘web analytics’ may sound mundane and insignificant to many, however it serves a big purpose, with huge implications. Your website functions as the digital hub for all your traffic, and if you want it be as good as it can and compliment your digital marketing campaigns, It is vital for your business uses analytics services. Let’s find out more about Google Analytics!
What is Google Analytics?
Besides being the most widely used web analytics tool on the globe, with millions of websites utilising it every day, simply put, Google Analytics inserts several lines of tracking code into your site.
This allows for various user activities and information to be logged, such as visits, age, gender, and interests. It sends all this information to the Google Analytics server once the user leaves your website, and then aggregates the data in many ways, mainly into four levels:
- User level (related to actions by each user, time spent on site)
- Session level (each individual unique visit)
- Pageview level (each individual page across the site visited)
- Event level (button clicks etc)
Knowing the amount of people who have visited your site can be helpful, but the bare numbers don’t tell the whole story. Being aware of your visitors’ age, geographic location and gender is far more beneficial to your business. You can learn the broad profile of consumers who are interested in your product or service and can adjust all business strategies to reflect that accordingly. Google Analytics provides another way to improve your strategies.
User Acquisition Data
Google Analytics can also tell you where your users are coming from- not just their location, but what prompted them to your site.
Information from third parties such as Google Search, Facebook, and backlinks from other sites, are all funnelled to Google Analytics, in great detail giving you a better idea of your audience.
This is called ‘user acquisition data’, and by interpreting it correctly, your business can recognise the phrases used when searching for your service, whether other forms of PR are causing more traffic, or if you’re getting the wrong sort or attention due to misinterpreted ideas of what your services are. Google Analytics can provide information on what is most successful in bringing in traffic- such as your online ad campaigns, giving you a chance to analyse your digital marketing footprint and its effectiveness in generating interest to your site.
User Behaviour
‘User behaviour data’ works in tandem with the aforementioned ‘user acquisition data’, in that it allows you to see if those acquisitions prompt positive user behaviour once they reach your site. This data shows how long users stay, their first and last pages when visiting, and their ‘pathway’ across different areas.
User behaviour data can help detect where changes to your website are needed, by seeing where users get ‘stuck’.
These statistics give you evidence to make well-informed assumptions about where audiences became disinterested, or if the means by which they got to the site (Google Ads, Facebook Ads etc.) were actually effective in bringing the right type of audience. Google Analytics gives you the information that can help smooth out the customer experience, with the final goal to seamlessly convert audiences into successful leads, by prompting them to action with minimal friction.
Why Google Analytics is So Important
Businesses require constant research, testing, adjusting, and testing again of products, processes and marketing campaigns. This is the same for your website, with this improvement only facilitated by data to back it up. Take advantage of what the tech giants know about your consumers to create the best website you can and hone your products and services to suit your clients. Google Analytics is a tool that can help you do just that, and one that is guaranteed to be exploited successfully by many of your competitors! Confused? Find out more about how a professional digital marketing agency can help you with your marketing needs, or contact a marketing agency today!
Google Marketing For Small Business
If you’re running a small business and considering the option of marketing your business on Google, we recommend you speak to a number of different providers to see what their recommendations are.
Google marketing for small businesses is a very viable option and it is something we have done for a long time now. The key to doing it effectively, especially if your budget is tight, is to ensure adequate preliminary research is conducted into keywords that will help you potentially tackle a niche or underserviced area.
If you want to keep your small business Google marketing costs down you’ll want to be picking your keywords carefully, paying close attention to things like average cost per click and search intent.
If you’d like to come have a consultation with us, we’re sure you’re clever enough to find the contact form on our site, or let’s get social on social media! 🙂