How Google Site Analytics helps in measuring website performance?
We all know the importance of online marketing. We know that social media, SEO, and advertising has a big impact on our business. But there comes a time when we need to start talking specifics. We need to know exactly how well our digital marketing efforts are performing. We need to know exactly how much return we’re getting on our investment. It’s not always easy to calculate these aspects. And we could all happily carry on working in the dark. But the truth is that you need to know what’s going on under the bonnet of your website.
Measuring performance across the board isn’t just about looking through statistics. It’s about understanding what’s working, and figuring out how to make things better. Measuring performance means you can make tweaks and amends to improve your business.In this post, we’ll show you all the ways you can monitor your website, and make crucial changes.
Ready to learn more about what’s going on behind the scenes? Let’s take a look at factors of Google Analytics.
Google Analytics
Before we jump into the main part of the article, we’re going to be talking about a lot of website metrics. Most of them are measured using Google Analytics. It’s a piece of (free) software that you can access from Google. It tells you everything you need to know about your statistics online. We’ll be talking about lots of Analytics features here. So, if you haven’t already installed it, do that now, and we’ll meet you back here!
Total page views
The main statistic you’ll see on your Google Analytics dashboard is the pageview count. That’s how many pages are loaded up on your website each and every day. This is a strong, solid metric to measure the popularity of your site. As the number rises, you can infer that your reach is growing, and your business is building. Of course this number is just an overall indication. We’ll have to dig deeper to find out whether those page views are useful.
Unique visitors
The unique visitors metric is often a little more interesting than the total pageviews. For example, one ‘unique visitor’ might visit six pages on one trip. That means you’ll get six pageviews, but it’s still just one unique visitor. Most website owners place more emphasis on unique visitor numbers rather than pageviews. After all, this is exactly how many people you are reaching credit.
Time-on-site
Now that you know how many people are visiting your website, let’s learn more about them. Most importantly, how long are they sticking around for? As you would imagine, a long time on site means they’re finding lots of useful information. They’re engaging with your blogs and content. They’re reading about you and your business. They browsing your catalogue of goods.
A high time-on-site metric means you’re engaging people. This is a good sign. The average figures for time-on-site vary according to your industry. But in general, it’s often lower than you might think. Consider anything above 30-45 seconds a great start. Just think about your own browsing habits. We flick between sites very quickly. Aim to grab people for a good 30 seconds, and lead them on from there.
Bounce rate
If you’ve never heard of ‘bounce rate’ before, here’s what it means. When you land on a website, and then leave before clicking on something else, that’s a bounce. It means you didn’t dive deeper into the site. You didn’t see something else you like or get hooked on a new link. We consider this bad news in the website business. It means you failed to entice or intrigue your visitors. It’s your job to keep them interested, and (ideally) lure them into a sale. A low bounce rate means you’re doing a great job.
Google ranking
Now we come onto some of the external factors. One of the best way to see how well your website is performing is by looking at its Google rank. Google has the best algorithm in the world for measuring relevancy and authority. If you’re performing well, Google will know about it. The key to moving up the rank is SEO, or search engine optimization. The first thing to do is a comprehensive SEO analysis to see where your site currently ranks. From there, you can make tweaks to improve the position.
Speed
Did you know that 50% of people leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load? We don’t have a lot of patience when it comes to website speed! We want fast results! The speed of your site also affects your search ranking, and user experience. If your site is too slow, then it will frustrate your visitors, and kill your bottom line.
Social media
We all know that social media is a crucial part of our digital strategy. It helps us connect with new audiences, and expand our reach. But did you know it’s also a great way to measure your overall performance? Facebook, in particular, provides fantastic analytics and statistics about your business. You can measure everything from location to demographic info about your fans and followers. You can monitor what percentage of your community is interacting with you, and find out how much traffic it drives to your site.
Conversions and sales
One of the most important ways to measure your business is by the strength of its sales. How much product are you shifting from your online store? How many new apps are you selling? How many people are signing up for your software? Even small conversions like email signups can be measured. You can do all this in Google Analytics by setting up a dedicated conversion goal monitor. The number of sales you make as a ratio of unique visitors is your conversion rate. Keep an eye on it, and keep thinking about what you can do to push that number higher.
These tricks and techniques should help you start to measure your current performance levels online. It will help you spot weak areas, and make quick changes.