Understand what you’re looking at on Google Analytics

When it comes to digital marketing, small businesses can ill afford to spend money on a marketing strategy that doesn’t work. It’s why you should use an analytics tool to monitor the performance of your marketing efforts. Although there are countless analytics tools out there that you can use to track various metrics, one of the most popular and effective is Google Analytics. As of 2022, 29.3 million websites use Google Analytics.

With that in mind, the following is a beginner’s guide that will show you how to set up a Google Analytics account and how to use it.

Why Use Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a web analytics platform that provides in-depth insights into the performance of your website, email campaigns, social media campaigns, paid advertising campaigns (such as Google Ads), as well as your user behavior. The following are a few specific reasons why you should be using Google Analytics:

1. It’s a free tool: One of the main reasons why Google Analytics is so popular is because it’s free. There are no monthly or annual fees associated with using this platform.
2. It’s easy to use: New users will have little trouble using Google Analytics. The platform has a user-friendly interface that makes it simple to navigate and find the information you’re looking for.
3. In-depth reporting: Google Analytics provides custom reports with multiple visualization options (such as graphs) that you can display on your digital signage.
4. Google is the most popular search engine: Google’s search engine has an astounding 92.7 percent market share. As such, it’s important for businesses to track their performance on this platform. Google Analytics was designed to help you do just that.

How to Use Google Analytics

The following are step-by-step instructions on how to get started with Google Analytics:

1. The first step is to create a Google Analytics account. You can do this by going to google.com/analytics and clicking on the “Create an Account” button.
2. Once you’ve created your Google account, you’ll need to set up your site in Google Analytics. If you have a WordPress site, download the Google Analytics plugin. Then add the Google Analytics tracking code to your website’s header using the tag manager. Once done, Google Analytics will begin collecting data about your website traffic, conversion rates, engagement rates, and more.
3. You can view your data by logging into your Google Analytics account and navigating to the Google Analytics Reports section. Here, you’ll find a variety of pre-built reports to track your progress (such as acquisition reports, behavior reports, and more). You can also create custom reports that are tailored to your specific needs.
4. Google Analytics allows you to set up goals. Goals are specific actions that you want your website visitors to take. For example, a goal could be to make a purchase on your e-commerce store or to sign up for your email newsletter. You can track your progress towards these goals by setting up goal tracking in Google Analytics.

What Metrics Should You Track?

There are a number of different metrics that you can track in Google Analytics. What you decide to track is up to you. The following are a few of the metrics you can track using Google Analytics:

• Website traffic: This metric measures the number of users visiting your website. Monitoring your traffic lets you see whether your site is gaining or losing visitors over time.
  
• Pageviews: Pageviews indicate the number of times a specific page was loaded. It’s different from visits in that multiple pageviews can be generated from a single visit. For example, if a visitor views three different pages on your website, this will generate three pageviews.
  
• Bounce rate: This metric measures the percentage of visitors who leave your website after only viewing one page. A high bounce rate indicates that visitors are not finding what they’re looking for or that there’s a technical issue.
  
• Conversion rate: This metric measures the percentage of visitors who make a desired action on your website, such as making a purchase, signing up for your email newsletter, or filling out a contact form.
  
• Traffic sources: Using this metric you can track what channels are driving traffic to your website. For example, if your organic search traffic is low, it may mean that you need to adjust your SEO optimization strategy.
  
• Average time on page: This metric measures how long visitors are spending on a specific page. If this number is low, it may indicate that your site content isn’t engaging or that there are technical issues.
  
• Session duration time: A session is defined as the period of time that a visitor spends on your website, whether on a single page or a number of pages. If it’s low, it could mean the user may not be engaged — or the internal linking of your site is poor.

Use Google Analytics To Improve Your Digital Marketing

Successful digital marketing campaigns require constant adjustment. What works today may not work tomorrow, which is why you should use Google Analytics to monitor your campaign’s performance. Doing so can help increase your return on investment (ROI) over time.