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Design & Marketing Blog

19
Aug/11

Google Analytics - Understanding your Web Traffic

Tagged as: analytics, Google Analytics, statistics, Website Traffic

Google Analytics is sure to be one of the most important tools you will use as an internet marketer and website owner. With that being said, at first glance, it can appear a little confusing. All the numbers and graphs are enough to give some people a headache - but fear not, here’s some insight that will help you better understand Google Analytics, and your website traffic.

First things first, if you haven’t already, go and register your website with Google Analytics (or have your web designer do so). There are a few steps to take before getting started, such as verifying your website, but not to worry, these aren’t very difficult.

Once you’re all up and running, log in to Google Analytics, and you will see a pretty robust dashboard. The analytics dashboard is broken up into the following components:

Site Usage
Visitors Overview
Map Overlay
Traffic Sources Overview
Content Overview

Site Usage:

The Site Usage section covers the traffic/usage elements of your website’s statistics/metrics. The most important stats are visits, bounce rate and average time on site.

“Visits” are the total number of visits to your website, over the time period specified (can be adjusted using the drop down menu found at the top right of your screen. Larger time periods will provide better quality data overall).

“Bounce rate” is the percentage of visitors who visit your website, and leave after visiting only the page they entered at. An average/acceptable bounce rate varies based on your industry, but keeping it between 30-45%, is a pretty safe bet, that you’re doing okay.

“Average Time on Site” is pretty self explanatory – this is the average time each visitor spends on your site. Aiming to increase this figure over time and get visitors to “hang around”, should be an important goal for the overall success of your website. One of the preferred ways to accomplish this, is through the use of video. Video engages visitors more than simply offering text, and will keep them on your website longer.

Also, in the site usage area you will find the % of new visits. These statistics provide you with insight as to how much of your traffic is new visitors, as opposed to returning visitors.

Visitors Overview:

At first glance, this is a simple line graph, displaying how many visitors you’ve had over the specified time period. This area also provides information, as to what browsers are being used to access your website, and the internet connection speeds of your visitors (which will affect the best type of content for your site). Furthermore, insight as to what operating system they’re using, what screen resolution is being used (very important in ensuring your website displays properly to visitors), and their preferred language. Simply click the “view report” link to see more in-depth information on these visitors.

Traffic Sources Overview:

This is the most valuable information found inside Google Analytics, as it reveals where your website’s traffic is coming from. This overview shows you the percentage of traffic originating from search engines, referring sites and direct visits. In most cases, a website owner hopes to increase their percentage of visits from search engines (whether through organic SEO, or Pay-Per-Click campaigns).

Again, clicking the “view report” link offers in-depth data on the traffic sources. This area also lets you have a look at the keywords that are performing in search engines, so you can better optimize them (if you haven’t already done so).

Content Overview:

The Content Overview area shows you what your visitors are looking at (the “/” represents your home page). Often times, you’ll realize that your visitors spend most of their time on your internal pages, which means ensuring the content on these pages is accurate, relevant and informative is very important.

Those are the basics of Google Analytics. As a website owner, the metrics mentioned above are the most criticial. Although the application offers so much more, the rest you will learn more about, as you begin to poke around and gain more interest in how your website is performing.

9
Jul/09

Consumer Trust in Advertising

Tagged as: advertising, consumer, statistics

Recently, Nielson released some very interesting insight regarding what types of advertising consumers trust the most.

Before I show you the numbers.. Let’s dive into the importance one might weigh on these findings.

When deploying any type of advertising, you choose the medium that you feel best suits your audience. So although these numbers give us a solid idea of how consumers as a whole trust specific mediums, let’s not forget that your only concern will be, does your audience trust the medium(s) you choose… Following me?

For example, if you’re marketing to the 25-40 demographic using online mediums, the fact that your 87-year old neighbor doesn’t trust online ads is completely irrelevant.

Okay, enough of the fluff… Here’s some numbers.

Recommendations from people known - 90%
Consumer opinions posted online - 70%
Brand websites - 70%
Editorial content (e.g. newspaper article) - 69%
Brand sponsorships - 64%
TV - 62%
Newspaper - 61%
Magazines - 59%
Billboards/Outdoor advertising - 55%
Radio - 55%
Email marketing - 54%
Ads before movies - 52%
Search engine result ads - 41%
Online video ads - 37%
Online banner ads - 33%
Text ads on mobile phones - 24%

In conclusion, although these numbers paint an excellent picture of the overall acceptance of many different types of advertising, I wouldn’t recommend going out and dumping your online banner ads for more newspaper ads… Definitely not!

Try and get a feel for what your prospects and audience want to see. That’s when you’ll truly start to benefit from you ad spending.

21
May/09

SEO 10 Step Run-Down - Step 8 - Stats

Tagged as: analytics, statistics, website

After the initial grind work of researching keywords, tested them with PPC for conversions, analyzing your competitors, optimizing your site, building your links and using social media to promote your cool tools, it’s time to reflect.

Hopefully at this point, you’ve watched your website crawl up the rankings and finally hit the sweet spot - you’re on the first page of Google or better yet - you’re above the fold on Google! Time to kick back and watch the money pour in from whatever goods or services you’re providing.

Unfortunately, that’s not true… Now’s when the work REALLY begins. Now don’t get me wrong, you’ve gone through a lot to get here and you’ve definitely put in your hours - you do deserve to take a bit of time off from dealing with your site before you head into the final three stages . This couple weeks will give you time to collect some baseline data for what we’re going to discuss here …

Improving Site Efficiency and Overall Health

At this point, your website is probably performing for you, generating sales leads, perhaps even help increase revenue. This is where so many businesses drop the ball… They get comfortable.

Now is the perfect time to analyze visitor data, and see exactly what’s happening with your visitors. Where are they coming from? How long are they staying, and which pages are they visiting. These answers will help you further improve your website, thus making it even more profitable.

We suggest Google Analytics. It provides in-depth information and statistics regarding your website’s visitor activity.

The stats are collected and seen by Google and provided to you in a fairly simple-to-read format complete with the ability to customize a lot of the data and set targets so you can track specifically who is landing on specific pages (such as you’re “thank you” page). The data in which Google Analytics is extremely favorable.

For example: If the average visitor to your site only stays for 30 seconds and visits 1.5 pages… what do you think that means?

I would take that to mean that your website isn’t providing the visitor with the most relevant information at their fingertips. Adjusting content to make it more favorable to the visitor will not only help you keep them on your website longer, they will browse more pages… Ultimately this leads to more sales.

I could go on all day about website stats and what they should mean to you, but who’s got that kind of time.

If you’re one of those types who’s never looked at their stats, or perhaps doesn’t have access to them… It’s time to start. Seriously.

Design & Marketing Blog

Google Analytics - Understanding your Web Traffic

Consumer Trust in Advertising

SEO 10 Step Run-Down - Step 8 - Stats

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