You know who you are, and you know that you do it. At some time in the past when your website was being updated, someone installed Google Analytics on your website, and you thought, “hey, that’s great!, I’ll be able to see who’s coming to my website!”.
And did you? Be honest! No… like everyone else, you didn’t. Oh, maybe you logged in once or twice to see what people were looking at, or maybe you looked at what sites or keywords were bringing people to you, and then (like everyone else) you just never got around to it again. Some really dedicated people might log in every month or two to see “if the little blue line is going up”, but on the whole, you’re probably not making or saving more money just because Google Analytics is installed on your website.
And why?
Put simply – because data is meaningless. Traffic data sitting on a server is growing your business exactly as much as that dusty old gym machine in the garage is improving your physique. It’s not enough to gather and own the data – you need to do something with it!
And that’s really where it all falls apart, right? After all, if you’re not sure what any of this stuff means, then you might make the wrong decision, and that’s no good… right?
Wrong! As former HP CEO John Young summed up, “Companies fail when they continue doing for too long that which made them successful in the past”. And not doing anything at all with your website is doing exactly that.
There are a couple of key performance indicators that every small business should be looking at every month if you want your website to help grow your business instead of just sitting there “being available” online. These indicators can help you know where your visitors are coming from, what people are looking at, and how your site is doing in the search engines. What you can do with this information is then decide if and where to re-invest your marketing budget.
The reports you should be looking at every month are:
Where your traffic is coming from
To find this out, click on Traffic Sources -> All Traffic Sources
What it is: This report will tell you where your visitors are coming from. Are you getting traffic from Google? For most businesses, Google should be sending the most traffic to you. Have you bought advertising from another website (like a listing in a business directory)? If so, you should be able to see how many visitors came to your site from your advertising in this report.
The Bottom Line: If you have bought advertising from another website, this report can help you find out if it was worth the investment by looking at the number of visitors you received from that website.
What people are looking at
To find this out, click on Content -> Top Content
What it is: This report will tell you what pages are the most popular on your website. Usually, but not always, the most popular page will be the homepage. If you have a “contact us” page on the site, this report can help you see how many people likely were considering contacting you for your business.
The Bottom Line: If lots of people are looking at your “contact us” page on your website, it likely means that these are potential customers looking to find your phone number or address.
By looking at this page, you can decide if your website is doing a good job selling your business to potential customers, or if it’s time for a website tune-up to optimize your online conversion rate. Remember – your website can be a salesperson instead of a brochure.
Keeping an eye on these 2 key metrics can help you get the information you need to make decisions about what to do next. But no matter what you find out about your website, always remember that it’s not enough to log in and look at the reports – you have to do something about it!
Bio:
Helen M. Overland has been successfully growing businesses online through Online Marketing for over a decade. As Vice President of Client Services with
Search Engine People, she is responsible for assisting a team of account directors and managers help businesses grow their market share using the online channel.
