You’ve probably heard about Google Analytics. When you launch a new website or re-launch an existing site, something you will need to analyze return on your investment is an analytics software program. Google Analytics is a popular choice among business owners and other website owners. Google Analytics (GA) is free. That is probably the biggest reason people use it. But GA is also one of the most advanced analytics programs and has much to offer website managers. You can track traffic, sources, search, and the list goes on. You can even track various conversions including revenue conversions, which is most important for most companies. B2B companies can setup tracking for specific contact pages to track sales leads. For these reasons, GA is one of the most popular analytics programs, which is another reason it is appealing. There are a few threats with GA. Google has shown in the past that they will shutter programs if they aren’t meeting expectations. I don’t see that happening in the near future, though, since GA appears to be one of Google’s most popular offerings. Also, Google is (likely) able to utilize all the data in GA for its own use for its advertising programs (another possible threat to your business if you are uncomfortable with this prospect). Nothing in life is truly free. My feeling is that Google Analytics is the best choice for the vast majority of business owners and website managers. If you have decided to use GA I’d like to share a few beginning tips.
Beginner’s Guide to Google Analytics
Google Analytics is the best choice, in my opinion, for your website. It will be easy to use. You can login in directly with your Google account, which is becoming necessary to have in today’s online world. You account will be the same for all Google properties (Gmail, Analytics, YouTube, etc.). When it comes to an analytics program, easy access to the program and the information it contains are key. You will get this and much more with Google Analytics.
Google Analytics Setup
The setup process is pretty easy for Google Analytics. You can try it yourself. It’s not too difficult or you could have your designer add it during the site launch. Most designers are familiar with the short piece of code required on each page of your site to implement Google Analytics. When you create your first Google Analytics site you will be given some code. Google instructs you to insert this code either in the header and footer on every page on your site. The code should be between the <body> and </body> tags. Since most sites have the same footer and header on each page it is easier to implement the code. Note: if the code is not on every page you will not be able to track all activity for those pages. If putting code on your site scares you, consult your designer. They will be able to assist.
Traffic
Once the code is on your site and the site is live you will be ready to go. It can take a day or a few days for Google to start tracking activity on the site. Now, the first metric you will be interested in tracking is traffic. An important note, you will want to add your computer’s IP Address to the traffic exclusion list within GA. This will ensure that your own traffic or the traffic of others at your organization is not included in the results. This allows you to have better data when analyzing. Traffic is pretty straight forward. You can view visits and pageviews. A unique visit is a single person that visits your site in the past 30 days. Pageviews is the number of pages viewed on your site. You can experiment with the traffic to determine the best metrics to track eventually working your way to conversions.
Conversions
Conversions are the most important aspect of any business. A business needs profit to stay active so it makes sene to use your Google Analytics as a way to measure profit. You will need to figure out the best method for tracking profit and the metrics that lead to profit for your business. For ecommerce sites there is a feature that allows you to connect your shopping cart and checkout with Google Analytics. You can then see your transaction information right in the Google Analytics program. For B2B businesses that rely on contact pages, you can setup goals to determine the number of visitors using the contact pages on your site. This will be the best way to track those conversions. Goals are great for tracking a variety of conversions. As you learn more about the path your customers use on your site you can setup goals and make changes to ensure visitors are taking your intended path.
Demographics
It’s not quite as important as conversions, but there is some demographic information available in GA. You can see everything from visitor location to browser information to device information. It’s great for learning about the people that are visiting your site. You might find a few surprises.
Beyond The Basics
The power of Google Analytics goes way beyond this beginner’s guide. You can spend much more time analyzing your business and your website using all the features within GA. There are seemingly countless ways to track conversions and other metrics that allow you to make key decisions that improve your business. For more in-depth insight into using Google Analytics you can visit these reources:
