How Google Analytics can help your small business
Introduction
Most small business owners are in the same boat when it comes to how they invest in their marketing activities.
This means that far from splashing out on expensive marketing campaigns, the business must get the best return on every pound it invests.
And with certain types of marketing it can be difficult to know how effective the campaign has been.
After all tracking the success of a mail drop of 10,000 leaflets can be pretty difficult, as how do you know if someone is getting on the phone because of your leaflets or not?
Well this is where investing in SEO is a lot different. The success of the marketing strategy can be tracked, and your chosen seo company can be held to account!
That’s to say quite often your company and the seo agency will have access to the businesses Google Analytics, and Google Search Console account.
And the data that Google provides is as you would expect, reliable and very informative.
So if your business hasn’t already got an account, here’s what you need to do.
How can my business set up a Google Analytics account?
First things first, if you haven’t got an account, well your going to need to set one up. So head on over the Google Analytics website.
Now in order to set the account up, your Google Analytics account is going to need to talk to your website. This means setting up what is called a “tracking code” or a “Tracking ID”- now do not fear, if you have someone that’s switched on when it comes to designing websites, well this will be a piece of cake for them.
Yet, if you like us and think that WordPress is simply the bees knees, well you can add your Google code yourself. It is super easy to do, and there’s a guide here written by WP 101, which explains step by step how to add a analytics account to your WordPress website.
If you don’t have a WordPress website, well do not worry neither, as here’s a rather helpful guide written by Google explaining how to add your analytics account.
Okay, so what’s so good about Google Analytics?
Well, as an seo agency we have been using Google Analytics accounts for simply ages. Some digital marketing agencies prefer to use other performance tracking tools, but simply put we think that Google offers the data in a way that’s super easy to understand.
Also, we don’t think it’s a good idea for the agency to be simply telling a client how the website is doing.
We prefer if the client also has access to the Google Analytics account, so that they can cross check that all the figures we are quoting are spot on.
So, to give you an idea of the sort of things we regularly update our clients on, let’s have a look at the various sections of a Google Analytics account.
Audience data
The audience page makes things as clear as crystal. Once this page is open its easy to see how your website is performing.
Here are the areas we think you should pay particular attention to:
Number of sessions / Users
Just like a shop owner want’s to know the footfall of their shop, so does a website owner. This data therefore allows you to understand how many users have been on your website.
Pages per session
Now, as any top seo agency will tell you, its all well and good getting tons of people onto a businesses website, yet the trick is to keep them there.
After all if your website has a lot of visitors, yet a sky-high bounce rate to match, well this is not very good for seo purposes. That’s because it indicates to the search engines that the website is not retaining it visitors.
A sky-high bounce rate is kind of like running a shop, and loads of people enter the shop, yet they all turn on their heels, and then walk out quickly. Just as the shop owner would be scratching their head thinking what’s wrong with my shop? Well, a website owner, and the seo agency should be thinking the same.
Bounce rate
As we have just mentioned, the bounce rate should be kept as low as possible. Instead you want people visiting your businesses website, and for them to stay on the website for a long time.
Acquisition
How is your website acquiring it’s visitors?
It’s all well and good having tons of visitors, but your seo consultant will want to know where are they coming from. That’s to say, are they coming from the businesses social media accounts, are they coming directly to the website from a television advertisement, or are they coming to the website from organic traffic?
This information is often shown in a pie graph, so its easy to see where your websites visitors are coming from.
Partner with a respected seo company
It’s all well and good having a Google Analytics account, but if you’re a business owner that hasn’t got the time to check this account, well the data isn’t going to be used to its full effect.
This is why so many businesses partner with an company, or an seo consultant, this is so they can check the data each and every month.
For example, if your website has a sharp decrease in organic traffic, your seo company will need to know about this.
Also, if the websites bounce rate shoots up, well your seo agency should know about this also.
If your business requires help with it’s seo, why not give us a ring?