What Google Analytics Is and Why Everyone Should Be Using It
Google Analytics is a tool that tracks and measures traffic and activity on your website.
I took Google's free online courses in their Google Analytics Academy so I could better understand this tool and how it could help improve my business. When I first created an account, I immediately saw a TON of data that was being tracked on my website—how many people were visiting and on which pages, how long they were staying on them, where they were coming from, and so much more.
I regularly look at my Google Analytics dashboard to find patterns and hypothesize what my data means. I highly recommend everyone take the Google Analytics online courses to get an overview of this powerful platform, and how you can start to make meaning of your data.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the three reasons why you everyone should have Google Analytics set up on their website.
First and foremost, not only is it a powerful tool, but it’s FREE.
It’s easy to set up. See how to by clicking here.
And the most important of all, you’ll capture highly valuable insight. See a few (of the many) examples below.
How many people visit your website, and for how long.
Why is this important? Let’s say you’re getting 2,000 visitors to your website a month, but you’re not getting any sales. That’s a big red flag that something needs to be fixed on your website—either something technical or content related—or you’re attracting the wrong type of people.
You can also start to track trends over time to make sure that dips in traffic month over month are seasonal to your business and aren’t from another issue.
Which pages are visited the most.
Why is this important? Because you’ll see what content your visitors are finding the most valuable. It might be good to add that similar or related content on your website.
On the contrary, it could be that those pages aren't visited the most because people are finding that content helpful, but instead they're finding that page easily somehow. You’ll be able to see if visitors are arriving organically by navigating through your website or search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo, Bing) or if an external source is referring them, such as a link a blogger posted on their website. Understanding this will help you determine where you should focus more advertising energy such as by creating Google ads, partnering with more bloggers to gain exposure, or even trying a new source such as advertising on Facebook.
Where your visitors are coming from.
Why is this important? Like I touched on in the previous example, if you are (or thinking about) advertising online, you’ll be able to see how much traffic you get as a result. As you start to gather more data, you’ll be able to see which source of traffic gets you the most users so you can either focus your efforts there, and/or work on improving the others.
Ready to get started with Google Analytics? Start creating your free account by clicking here, then read my next blog post (coming soon!) for step by step directions for creating your account and connecting it to your Squarespace or Shopify accounts.