It’s all well and good to have a great website – and I thoroughly recommend having a website to any business who is serious about getting seen in the ocean that is online marketing. But how do you know if anyone visits? And what do they do when they visit? How long do they stay?
Understanding your visitors behaviour when you finally get them to land on your website is just as critical as understanding what a new client does when they wander into your shop or comes across your flyer, Facebook page or business card.
Google Analytics is a free tool which will give you plenty of insights into what is happening on your website and if your web designer hasn’t set it up for you then you need to get onto this asap.
Google’s job is to provide high quality, relevant content to people using their search engine. That is why they exist.
By understanding how people use your site and which pages they stay on longer and where on your site they leave, you are able to tweak your website to better serve your customers. And in turn, Google is able to provide a better experience to their end users by providing them with relevant results in their searches – and that is where you want to be – in Google’s search results..
The theory goes that the longer they stay on your website, the better the quality of information. So Google is more likely to direct people back to your site again. From there it’s a numbers game.
The more visitors to your site, the more likely you are to have someone connect with you at the next level. Whether that is filling in a contact form, buying something in your online store or downloading a freebie in exchange for their email address.
Google Analytics can show you where your traffic is coming from – does it come from organic searches, social media or directly typing in your URL?
You can get statistics about which days people are visiting your site. Have a look at the graph below – these are the stats for this website. Those peaks are directly correlated to the days I post on social media so I know that strategy is working to bring people to my site. If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of those ‘peak’ people.
You can also see what times of the day and which days of the week are best for traffic to your site. Have a look at mine: not much happening on a Saturday (the lighter the colour, the less traffic), but Mondays and Tuesdays are great for traffic – again a correlation of when I generally post to social media.
The old saying “what gets measured, gets done” is so true – even for your website. So measuring and reviewing how your visitors are behaving once they find your site is just as important as understanding how to drive visitors to your site in the first place. There is no point getting people to visit your site, to only have them drop off the home page and not spend any time exploring further.
The real outcome you are looking for is for people to get in touch one way or another and choose to do business with you, so you can do more of what you love whether that is providing a great product or service to your target audience.
If you’d like some help understanding your Google Analytics, or you’re just not sure if you site is even tracking this information, then get in touch. Book a FREE Phone Hook Up for a 30 minute analysis of your site and its traffic statistics and together we can review your numbers to see where people are coming from, where they are going, and when they are leaving. Then we can discuss some strategies to engage them further.
P.S.
Found a spelling or grammatical error in this post? Then contact me as soon as possible and let me know. In return for your super proof reading, I will offer you a free 30-minute review of your digital presence and some fresh ideas you can try out for free.