Google Analytics(GA) is a powerful tool with much to offer, whether you are a Digital Advertising Agency or a small to mid-size business owner. GA accumulates a tremendous amount of data about the traffic to a website. By following the steps outlined below you will get the most out of this free website.
Once your GA account is set up add tracking code to every page of your website. It must be on every page or you will not see everything that happens on your site. Many newer sites allow for code to be placed in a header template file, so it auto populates every page on the site. If you have a lot of tracking code, then consider adding the Google Tag Manager.
Google Analytics Goals
Next, set your Goals. Goals measure specific actions you want visitors to take when on your site. There are generally 4 types of goals people can take:
A Destination goal occurs when someone views a particular page of your website. A typical destination goal is when someone receives a “thank you” page after making a purchase or filling out a form.
Duration goals are recorded when a visitor spends a designated amount of time on a page of your site, or the whole site.
Pages/Screens per Session measures whether people are visiting multiple pages of your site. You set the number of pages for the goal.
Event goals are achieved when a person takes a certain action, like clicking on a social media button, plays a video or makes a purchase.
Google Search Console
With goals set, link your Google Search Console to your Google Analytics account. By linking Google Search Console to your Google Analytics account, you’ll be able to see how your website is ranked for various Google search queries as well as how many people click to your site from Google.
If you have a Google Ads account, you will want to link that to GA as well. This will give you more detailed information on how Google Ads is performing. If you don’t use Google Ads move to the next step.
Google Analytics Reports
Now that you have accumulated this data it is time to review it. A great place to start is the Source/Medium report. This page provides valuable information on the Source of the traffic (Google, Facebook, email newsletter) and the medium (Search, Social, Display Ads). Since Goals have been set up you can view how each marketing channel generated Leads and Sales. This can help you decide where to allocate marketing resources.
The next page to review is the Channels report. Think of this as an overview of the Source/Medium report. Rather than looking at specific media performance, Channels provides information on broader traffic categories such as paid search, social media, email etc. With Channels you can analyze trends by category to understand what is making the most impact at a given time.
Another report that is important to consider is the Devices report. Knowing what device your audience uses can impact your marketing decisions.
Many websites get the majority of their traffic from Organic Search or SEO. Google Analytics reports on SEO through the Search Console section. Of particular interest is the Queries report, which shows the search queries that resulted in the most impressions and clicks to your site.
Google Analytics provides much more information than highlighted above. You can see additional data on how your paid ads perform onsite, whether they are search, display or social. GA informs on conversions, session duration, bounce rate and what pages were visited after initially landing on your site.
As discussed previously in this blog Google Analytics is an outstanding platform that should be used by anyone with a website. If you need help understanding the platform or how to integrate to your marketing, click on the link below and contact us for a free consultation.
