Signing up for Google Analytics is free and incredibly user-friendly. But actually knowing what to do with that data can be stressful, as Google spits out an overwhelming amount of data! How should we handle these metrics, and can we gain any value from them? Here are 5 must know Google Analytics stats that will give you a huge hand in evaluating your sales and marketing efforts.
Acquisition
Counting your number of new session may be the most obvious number on Google Analytics. It’s important to know how many visitors came to your site, but even more important to know how these numbers compare. You can compare the traffic to the goals you made at the beginning of the year or even compare traffic to direct competitors using an app like SEMRUSH. Have you boosted web traffic in the past quarter by 20%, or maybe even 50%? This information will give you incredible insight to how your marketing is performing overall.
Average Session Duration
Rather than reporting on Bounce rate, which can be confusing metric to fully understand, take a closer look at how long the average user is spending on the site. Put in time format rather than percentages, it’s a number we can certainly relate to. If you average session duration is low, this could indicate that a landing page is not user-friendly or the traffic source is not sending the right type of person who would be interested in your content.
Conversions
A conversion takes place when a visitor to your site takes an action you care about and “converts” to a customer. This could be through filling out a form, completing a purchase, or by simply showing a high level of engagement with your site. Your conversion rate is essentially what separates website visitors into leads. If you’re not sure how to set-up conversion tracking on your website, click here.
Audience Demographics
Understanding your audience is a key to creating great website content. Using audience demographics in Google Analytics, we can find out a lot about the people who are visiting a site. What age is your average visitor? Are they male or female? What are their interests? These fundamental demographics will help inform what content you create, when you post it, and where.
Top Pages Viewed
Your top pages will help give insight as to what aspects of your site visitors find most important. If your website is hosting a blog, you can easily see which posts gained the most traction. Now that you know which pages your visitors are going to the most, it’s a good idea to take a second look at how your site functions around those pages. Is there an incentive for a user to stay on your site after they are done viewing that specific content?
Google Analytics is a back door to understanding what your company is excelling at or areas that need more attention. Have questions? We’re here to help, just ask On-Target!.
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