Let me ask you a silly question…
If you were throwing a dinner party, you’d want people to show up, right?
But not just any people. Imagine if 50 strangers showed up – you don’t know them, they don’t know you or each other. Would the fact that your living room was standing room only mean the party was a success?
I’m guessing you’d prefer having the right people to show up.
It’s the same thing with your website. Yes, you want people to find you online. But you also want the right types of people to find you.
People who are potential clients.
People interested in solving a problem (or realizing a goal) that you can help them with.
People who are willing to engage in a conversation.
Judging the success of your website can be a little more difficult than judging the success of your dinner party.
People don’t show up all at once. They pop in and out over time. It’s hard to judge attendance.
And you don’t always know who is visiting your site. So you may be unclear about whether you are attracting the right people or not.
That’s where Google Analytics (GA) comes in. GA helps you know things like:
- how many people visit your site
- whether that trend is increasing or decreasing
- how they got there
- what they do on the site
- etc.
A quick note… You should also install Google Search Console ( https://search.google.com/search-console ). I’m going to keep things simple by referring to Google Analytics here. But the combined information that you get from the 2 tools is what you want.
If you don’t have GA installed on your site, I recommend you do so right away. Start here – https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/.
GA can be a little overwhelming with all the information it provides. So don’t start by trying to learn everything that GA has to offer. Start by asking questions that pertain to your business goals. Then use GA to answer those questions.
For starters, use GA to answer the questions mentioned above:
- Who comes to my site?
- How do they get there?
- What do they do once they are on the site?
- Do more people visit my site this month than last? Why?
Those questions will lead to others, like:
- What percentage of visitors download my free report?
- How much is a website visitor worth to my business?
- Are more visitors using their mobile phones or desktop computers?
- Is the time I spend on Facebook helping drive traffic to my website?
- Which content does the best job of converting visitors into leads or customers?
Some of these answers you may be able to find in the standard reports that come with GA. Others need some set up (like creating goals in GA) to get the answers you seek. The possibilities are vast, so let me repeat – don’t try to learn GA all at once. Start by defining the questions that will help you reach your business goals. Then figure out how GA can help you find the answers.
