Why is Google Analytics so important for a website?

Google Analytics (GA) can be intimidating at first glance. There is a plethora of data about your business’s web traffic. It can be overwhelming, to say the least, however, GA can also be an incredibly helpful tool for growing your business and your online presence.

What does Google Analytics do?

Simply put, Google Analytics shows you data about your website traffic. This data is broken down into several different components, some of which include: keywords, types of visitors, page views, bounce rate, and even where your visitors are coming from, along with several other pieces of data.

Keywords show you which words and phrases are performing well and drawing the most traffic to your site. While the types of visitors will give you an idea of how many new, unique, or repeat users are coming to your website and what their demographics (age, location, gender, etc.) are. Page views will show you which pages are the most and least viewed by visitors. Whereas the bounce rate will reveal how many users go to your website and then leave without exploring it further.

What are the benefits of using Google Analytics?

Using GA for your business has several benefits. It not only gives you valuable information, but this data can show you how to continuously improve the online experience for your customers and exactly where you need to focus your efforts.

Improve your bounce rate. Your website’s bounce rate will give you insight into what type of content is working well and what needs to be improved upon. Utilizing this data will help you continue to improve the online experience for your current and potential customers.

Get to know more about your current and prospective clients. GA breaks down the demographics for your website’s visitors. This information can provide valuable insight into what types of customers are visiting your website and how you can better cater to them.

Determine where to focus your marketing efforts. When you not only know who your visitors are but where they are coming from, you can tailor your marketing plan. You will know where exactly to focus your marketing efforts, whether it be social media, paid Google ads, etc.

Set goals for your business and monitor the progress. You can use the data from Google Analytics as a blueprint for improving your customer’s online presence. But you can also use GA as a way to track your progress to these improvements. For example, if you noticed your bounce rate was high and made changes to your website, you can use GA to compare the bounce rate before and after the changes took effect.

How can business owners use the data from Google Analytics?

The data from Google Analytics provides you with a blueprint for your online presence. It will help shape your web design, content creation, marketing plan and so much more. Here are just a few ways your business can use GA to grow your online presence.

Know who your traffic is and where your traffic comes from. Use GA to determine the type of visitors to your website. Look at the data to see how many visitors are new, unique, repeat, as well as their age, gender, region, etc. You can also analyze which avenues your web traffic is coming from, whether it be social media, google search, referrals, etc. Once you pinpoint who your target audience is and where most of your traffic is coming from (i.e. social media), you can focus your energy on increasing your traffic from that source.

Determine which web pages are performing well. Using the page views will help your business figure out which pages need improvement and which pages are working well. You can use some of your most visited web pages as a blueprint for improving the rest of your website.

Analyze your website’s bounce rate. If your website has a high bounce rate, then it’s time to look at why. Is your message unclear? Is your website loading slowly? Does your design need to be updated? Is the information easy to find? Look at all of these factors to determine how you can decrease your website’s bounce rate.

It’s pretty clear that Google Analytics has a lot of valuable data and is a useful tool that can help your business grow. However, all the data can be overwhelming if you aren’t quite sure what you’re looking at or how to analyze it. If you’re overwhelmed with all the information GA has to offer and aren’t sure what to do with it, reach out to us. We specialize in digital marketing that gets your company results. We implement proven strategies that help your business grow in this ever-changing digital world.