I set up Google Analytics for each of my clients in order to track visitors to their site. It’s free to use and is a very powerful tool.
I can probably conclude from most comments regarding the analysis is that;
Most people are purely interested in the number of visitors they are getting on a daily/weekly and monthly basis.
The only real conclusion you can draw from this is that a) the site needs more visitors or b) you’re happy with the amount of visitors on the site. From that you can take action accordingly, but surely you need to know more information to take the correct actions?
Google Analytics is broken down into different areas. I am going to write a THREE part series on how you can utilise this analysis and where you should be directing your efforts to improve the reach and accessibility of your website, they are as follows:
- TRAFFIC SOURCES – Search Engines, Referring Sites, Direct Traffic, Keywords
- VISITORS OVERVIEW – Location/New, browser (mobile)
- CONTENT OVERVIEW – Top Content, Top Landing Pages, Content Drilldown
So, onto topic number one…
TRAFFIC SOURCES
It’s important to know how people found your site in the first place. This can happen a number of ways.
Search Engines – Links from search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing.
Visitors will find your site by choose keywords. For example, if somebody was to search ‘Freelance Web Developer Newcastle’ then they would most probably find this website on the first page of the search results. From further analysis we can find out what keywords were used but that I’ll cover that in Part III.
Referring Sites – Links from other websites.
If you have a strong network or useful content on your site then you’re likely to see this number being high. Links from directory websites such as Yell or from other business sites will bring the numbers up.
Direct Traffic – Visitors type your web address into the URL bar at the top and press ‘Go’
This means that somebody must already know the address to your website; either getting it from a non-computer source such as a leaflet or other offline advertising or seeing it somewhere else on the web.
Qualitative Analysis
Of course Google only tells us a part of the picture and in fact is only supplying us with data. We need to do further analysis before we jump to any conclusions.
For example… Your site could be getting 1000′s of visitors per month and through that 100 transactions (whether that is enquiries or sales). From this information you can’t tell how the successful sub section of visitors found your site. This means it’s important to use other methods such as capturing the information in your contact form. You can then see the most effective way of attracting conversions to your site.
The key to referring sites is to ensure that the sites you are getting traffic from are relevant to your website and/or business. This means that once people are on the site they are likely to look around even further and it may result in a conversion. Numbers are not everything and having links from non-relevant sites may decrease the integrity of the site.
Search Engine Optimisation is the key to getting your website high up in search engines. If you’re not getting a lot of traffic through this method then you may be required to improve the viability of your website. There are many ways in which to do this – here’s a good start.
Sometimes raw data can be used however in the instances of direct traffic. If you have recently ran some offline advertising then this number should increase. If it isn’t then you might be able to conclude that your method of advertising isn’t working and therefore can change your strategy and potentially save you money.
So there’s something to think about when looking at your traffic sources, next up we’ll be looking at the visitors themselves and then onto the content.
Oh and I also have a little test for the observant people – what do you think comes under ‘other’?
Your views…