When you have a website you must make sure it is being effective and doing what you want it to. In order to do this, all websites should be using a form of web analytics as they can help answer the questions you are asking. Whilst many of us know that web analytics are smart and can show a range of information, what really matters is what we can do with that information to help grow a business. Here we share how web analytics can help your business grow.
What are Web Analytics?
Web Analytics are a collective term for online data used to understand and optimise your website. They involve measuring and collecting data and then using this data and reporting to change and optimise your website. This will hopefully lead to more conversions.
The most common form of web analytics is Google Analytics. Not only is it free, but it is also powerful and for many websites, it is comprehensive enough to get the information you require. It measures your website and allows you to view reports to look at your traffic sources, keyword ranking and much more.
Google Analytics can be used to see how Digital Marketing Services are improving your sales and traffic. For example; SEO services will increase organic traffic to your website which will be visible in the data when compared to before SEO.
How can web analytics help grow my business
Understand traffic sources
Analytics can provide extensive insight into the value of your marketing and help you understand how people are discovering your website. For example, you will be able to see if people have come to your site after clicking on a PPC ad, finding your listing organically, seeing your social media profile etc. Understanding this is not only interesting it can help show which of your marketing efforts are working most effectively.
Improve usability
You need to make your website as user-friendly as possible. If you don’t, the user will be confused and frustrated meaning they are likely to abandon the page and go elsewhere. Web analytics can help you understand the bounce rate (number of visitors only using one page and then leaving), the exit rate (the percentage of people who leave a particular page), how much time they spend on the page etc. Using all this information combined and continually making changes to try and improve these metrics will help create a website that is easy to use and effective.
Get to learn your customers
Web analytics can also provide you with reports about your customers. You may have an idea of who your target market is but this may not be accurate. Analytics can show you the age, gender, location, what device they are using, and much more about your visitors which may reveal new segments that you have never considered before. Alternatively, it may show you that you have been focussing on the wrong target market entirely. Either way, this knowledge is invaluable and can help guide your future marketing activity.
Understand what your top pages are
Web analytics can easily show you which are your best performing pages. Once you know this information, you can ensure your marketing is pointing to this page where relevant. Analyse your top pages and start to understand why it is this page that’s working so well for you. Is it the content itself, or is it the layout, clear use of Call to Actions (CTAs) or the imagery? Use these pages to see if there is anything you can take and use on other pages to help their performance as well.
Boost your Website’s SEO
Search Engine Optimisation, also known as SEO is a crucial element to helping your website grow. Organic traffic is what all businesses are seeking as it’s free! The more organic traffic you get, the more leads and conversions it gains. Web analytics can help boost your SEO in several ways. Firstly, as it can show you information about the demographic of your users, you can create targeted content that will appeal to them. Create a content marketing strategy that aims to answer key questions your potential customer wants to know. Creating strong content can also help you receive backlinks (links on another website that links back to your site and can drive traffic). DBS Digital provides SEO Services to help you boost your SEO rank and increase your organic traffic.
Google Analytics allows you to set up site search tracking which shows what your visitors are looking at on your site. You can compare your current content with what users are looking for, allowing you to plan future content that should be effective.
Easily track sales to understand buyer trends and best sellers
The sales report is one of the most important reports web analytics can supply. Total revenue, conversion rates, top products and more can be provided in a single report. This information is invaluable. From this, you can adapt your business strategies.
Helps set realistic goals
Setting business goals tends to involve a lot of guesswork however web analytics can help remove a lot of this guessing. Analytics can help provide data from historic trends and previous activity of web visitors. This can help provide you a clear idea of what your goals should be straight away. Not only can analytics help create goals, it can help identify which goals are simply not possible, at least not at the moment.
It helps you find your ideal demographic
There is a myriad of ways to identify your ideal demographic through analytics. You can also study the audience of your competitors as well. Analytics can be added to your website but also your social media channels to include the about of data you receive. From this, you can grow a detailed picture of your demographic and how they interact with your content.
You can effectively segment your audience
With analytics, you can divide your audience into distinct groups. From this information, you’ll be able to create better products and make your communication more personalised. You can use Google Analytics to analyse search queries that lead to your site. This can help uncover your users’ intent. Now that you know what the different segments are looking you, you can meet those needs by creating the relevant content.
Once you have segmented your audience you can help create group personalisation for each segment. For example, you can personalise ad content that targets large groups of people whilst making it feel personalised at the same time. Doing this can help boost your business’ reach and drive conversions.
It can help reduce costs and boost revenue
Analytics can play a major role in driving down your overall costs. By understanding which channels are working best for you, you will be in the position to stop spending money on channels that are not working and focus on marketing strategies that are driven solely by data. By analysing your ads and the effectiveness of other paid marketing efforts, you can easily see which aspects are working and which are not. You can stop campaigns that are not providing high enough Return on Investment and place resources on channels that you think are worth growing.
This article just scratches the service of what web analytics can do for you and your business. The best news is it doesn’t take long to install either, especially if you hire a professional to ensure all the reports and metrics you want to measure are set up correctly. Once this is done, a wealth of knowledge is at your fingertips and can be used to make business decisions that are data-driven.
Web analytics is one of the most powerful tools at a business’s disposal. There is a wealth of information available to businesses, as long as they are ready to fully embrace it. Data is one of the most important resources available for a business and key for supporting business growth when used correctly. It is important to check analytics regularly and become familiar with the data.
Does this sound like something you may need help with? DBS Digital can provide you with Digital Marketing Services including Professional SEO that will put your mind at ease and drive quality leads and traffic. For further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.
