Whether you just created your company website, or you’re had one for years Google Analytics is a must have tool you need to implement if not already in place on your website. The overall goal of a website is to drive traffic that converts into customers. Google Analytics is a free tool that produces a plethora of information that can help your business track and meet goals that are most important to you.
Every website created has goals in mind, even if you didn’t strategically plan it. A retailer’s goal is to sell a product, while a media site wants to provide articles that entertain many people, and a non-profit wants to increase awareness. If your business does need help making a strategic plan for your website, call the Klout9 team, we are happy to guide and assist you. No matter the goal, utilizing the features of Google Analytics and learning tips and tricks will help your business evaluate where you actually stand and create a strategy to increase website traffic and meet those goals. It enables you to track what is and is not working by providing you website data to maximize your marketing efforts.
Number of People Visiting Your Website
Now that you know how useful Google Analytics can be for your website, let’s dive into one of the most essential features, figuring out who visits your website and many more details. It’s important to note that while you will start to see data within 24 hours of installing Google Analytics, it takes time for historical data to build up. Historical data is often necessary when making large shifts in your strategy.
Regardless of the other website goals you have, you cannot accomplish them if you do not have people going to your website. Google Analytics experts realize this, which is why they put it front and center when you log in. Analyzing website traffic is one of the key focuses of the platform.
Number of Visitors: You will see Users in the top right corner in the main dashboard of Google Analytics. This is the number of unique or new visitors that have come to your website in a certain amount of time.
Number of Visits: Next to Users, you’ll see Sessions, which is where you can see the number of unique visits to your website in a certain amount of time. When this number is higher than the number of visitors, take it as a positive because visitors like you are content enough to take a second, or multiple, looks.
A Google Analytics trick and tip to see the summary of how the number of first-time visitors vs. repeat visitors is to click on Behavior in the Audience menu then select New vs. Returning. To delve deeper into the analytics, you can use the Secondary Dimension dropdown menu to view how different metrics break down between the two types of visitors.
Visits by Page: This feature allows you to see how individual pages perform, which helps you know which topics to cover, what brings more attention, or the products are getting the most hits. To access it, look for the Site Content section under the Behavior menu- once there, click on All Pages.
Visits by Date: Looking at your analytics from a date perspective allows you to understand what’s happening with you your website traffic and why. You can see how trends change over time or go back to a specific date range by clicking on the bottom left corner menu. If you had a marketing campaign launch at the top of the month and run for that entire month, you can see if it helped your website traffic over time by monitoring Google Analytics trends.
Visits by hour: While analyzing a date range allows you to view your campaign traffic over a span of time, you can also zoom into an hour-by-hour basis. This is one way to see if a particular social media post, PR article posted at a specific time, or any outside source generated a spike in website traffic. To view the breakdown on an hour-by-hour basis, click Overview in the Audience menu and choosing hourly.
The list of Google Analytics features that you can use to generate website traffic is abundant. Knowing how many people visit your website is an excellent start to reaching your business goals but forming a marketing strategy with Klout9 can maximize your marketing efforts and reach your goals faster. Give them a call today to get started!