Google Analytics is a keyword you may have heard a lot but do you use it to its full potential? Are you just looking to see how many page views you’ve had or are you actually looking at user behaviour and actively enhancing your website in response to points where you may be failing?
Here are a few friendly pointers to consider next time you visit your Google Analytics dashboard.
Bounce Rate
By sorting your pages content drill down by bounce rate, you can see the pages which are performing badly on your website. If you have pages with a high bounce rate, consider improving the layout or content on that page to engage your user.
Exit Rate
Pages with high exit rates are also regular offenders. This might mean that your users are engaged on that page but aren’t being encouraged to visit another page. You should think about adding a ‘You may also like…’ or a ‘Related’ section to pages which Google Analytics highlight as high exit rate.
If you’re an e-commerce company, consider adding ‘related products’ to the bottom of your products page template. ‘Recently viewed’ is another potential cure for a high exit rate.
The problem here may be that you have an external link on that page which you encourage your users to click. Consider using target=”_blank” to open that link in a new window so the user comes back to your site when they’re done.
Entrances
By sorting your content drill down by entrances, you can see which of your pages are most important to your users. These pages may be a users’ first impression of your business and should not only reflect your business accurately, but also take your users through to other parts of the site which may interest them.
Demographics on Google Analytics
Demographics is a huge word which all businesses should address. Who buys your product or service, what is their typical age and gender? You can get an overview of demographics through your Google analytics dashboard. If you sell stair lifts and you’ve got alot of 20-25yr olds visiting your site, you should reconsider your ad placements and put them somewhere more relevant to your target market.
New vs Returning
Getting a host of returning visitors to your website is not a bad thing. It means you are engaging your users who feel compelled to revisit. But of course, it’s not your existing customers who’ll win you new business, is it? If you’re website is engaging and popular among the right demographic, consider upping your monthly spend on driving traffic to your site.
Measure your success
How can you tell if a campaign is successful if you’re not measuring it’s success. You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve heard people say “my website is not performing”. I ask them where their existing business comes from and they “don’t know” 😐
Set up conversions to target checkout success pages or contact form confirmation pages to get a gauge of how successful you campaigns actually are.
I hope that’s helpful, and that you’re going to wing yourself off to your analytics page right now with an enlightened approach.
Because I’m good, here’s a link to Google Analytics