How Do you Know If Your Website Is Performing?

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a great online analytics tool that tracks and reports website traffic. Smart marketers use Google Analytics to provide feedback on their online marketing, and use the data as a tool to guide improvements and make informed marketing decisions.

Time On Site and Behaviour Flow

How long do you want your visitors to stay on your website and what do you want them to do? This question really depends on the objectives of your website, but also the user experience you are trying to achieve. Do you provide content and want them to leisurely read through blogs on a Sunday morning? Or are you a professional services firm wanting to give visitors a sense of your brand and then contact you as quickly as possible so that you can meet in-person?

Website time on site and navigation trends tell you whether your site is working to keep visitors engaged, and whether they are following the path you want them to take. If they’re reading your blogs, but dropping off immediately, maybe your call-to-actions aren’t clear enough and you need to consider reviewing your website design to encourage visitors to take the next step.

Acquisition – Where Is Your Traffic Coming From?

Knowing where your traffic comes from is vital in understanding your online marketing and how it’s performing. Traffic sources will help inform you about how well all of the following are working, and where you need to put your efforts.

SEO: Organic and Paid Search

When was the last time you reviewed your search engine optimization? Are you spending too much on paid search, or on the wrong keywords?

Social Media

Which platforms are you on, which are delivering the most traffic to your website, and why? Are you sharing all blogs equally on LinkedIn and Facebook, yet a majority of your traffic is coming from LinkedIn? This can provide a good signal that you need to customize your content strategy to each platform, or reallocate your resources and marketing spend accordingly.

Audience Demographics

Is your website attracting visitors in your target market? Perhaps there is another market interested in your services that you can expand to. Are you heading up an international expansion, but not reaching your new locations? Your audience demographics can be considered one of the most influential sets of statistics to look at. At the end of the day, marketing decisions often come down to the audience you want to communicate with. Monitoring who your online audience is will help to keep you on top of whether you are reaching them and how effectively you are doing so.

Is Google Analytics making you rethink your online marketing strategy? Learn more