Google Analytics: The Treasure Map You Don’t Want to Ignore!

When we talk about Google Analytics, most people have one of three reactions, which one are you?

1. You have heard about Google Analytics but are not really sure what it can do for you.
2. You know about Google Analytics. You have even logged into the dashboard only to be overwhelmed by the overkill of data provided and are stymied what to do with it or where to begin.
3. You get excited about the possibilities when you think of this powerful tool, with all the incredible insights it can give you into how your website is performing and how visitors behave on your site.

If you answered 1 or 2—don’t freak out because many of the people we start helping have not been clearly shown, or explained to, why this is one tool you never—EVER—want to ignore. If you are looking for a more in-depth technical training check out our Google Analytics training & courses.

Let’s start using the treasure map

Think of Google Analytics as your personal map to buried treasure, except that many Xs mark the spot, and you can start digging in multiple areas to get to your gold.

This is a HUGE advantage that many website owners are not exploiting, or worse, are simply ignoring because they feel it’s too much effort to figure out or are working with a person or company that is not doing their job.

So, what Gold can Google Analytics give you?

Well, to scratch the surface...

1. Bounce Rate

You can see instantly upon logging into your account what your bounce rate is. This means that people are coming to, and then leaving your site before moving on to a second page of your site…. they bounce.

This is a vital piece of information, and if you have a high bounce rate, say 70% or higher, meaning 70% of your visitors leave, well now you can get to work and fix the problem(s) that may be causing it.

This is crucial. What is turning people off your site so quickly?

Think about it!

Take an honest appraisal of your site and think about why they may be leaving so quickly.

After all, you can be sitting on the first page of Google or other search engines, getting tons of traffic, but if they all leave before you can get them interested in your products or services, what good is that? 

A few of the main issues for a high bounce rate could be:

• Slow load speed
• No clear call to action
• Content that does not match what they were expecting to find when they came to your site
• Your site is not mobile-friendly
• Your content is arranged or written poorly

And while Google Analytics can’t answer or solve the above, it HAS given you the information that you have issues that need to be addressed. That’s some real gold there to your bottom line, isn’t it?

Which brings us to…

2. Conversion Rate

Google Analytics allows you to quickly and easily set up GOALS. Maybe your goal is to:

• Have people call you
• Sign up for an email and then go to a thank you page
• Buy something from you
• Engage in some way on your site perhaps by clicking on a link or image

There isn’t time to show how to set up a goal here in this article but stay tuned to this blog and we will get to it soon. Suffice to say, that within a few minutes of telling Google Analytics what your goal is, it will begin to track it for you.

So, are people doing what you want them to?

Do you know what percentage of people that come to your site are taking one or more of the actions that you want them to and then converting to a customer? You should, and Analytics will tell you by looking at the conversion rate of your goals.

For instance, if 100 people come to your site and 10 fill out your contact form, then you would have a 10% conversion rate for that form.

Google will tell you exactly what line your customers are following as they move through your site. Are they leaving before checkout?

If they are NOT doing what you would like, then tweak your site to lead them by the hand so there is NO DOUBT in their mind how they get to your product or services and then to check out.

Get them to CONVERT!

Always take away ANY roadblocks that may prevent them from taking the action YOU want them too.

This is like having someone walk into your brick and mortar store and literally have a line on the floor that they follow from the front door to the product, to the cash register (anyone picturing IKEA right now?). All they must do is follow the line. You can do the same thing on your key web pages.

We just found pure silver, pearls, and a few gems from our treasure map, didn’t we?

Let’s dig a bit deeper…

3. Customer Behavior

How many pages of your site do your customers look at? 

The average you want to see is 3 to 4 pages per visit and a few minutes per page. That tells you your customers are interested and engaged in what you have to offer and want to learn more. Google Analytics CLEARLY tells you this.

So, make those pages the best they can be!

Thanks to our treasure map, we can see what kind of content, products or services are grabbing your customer’s attention, so add more pages like that and make them OUTSTANDING—make them memorable.

Give them MORE of what they want, and they will return again and again, and…. It’s very likely they will share and tell others, which is more free traffic for you.

Let’s keep going…

4. Are your other marketing efforts working?

This is something that can BLINDSIDE many website owners because they feel that other marketing efforts are driving TONS of traffic to their site, but they DON’T REALLY KNOW, because they are not paying attention to their Analytics!

Example: You just wrote an article in a very important trade magazine that caters exclusively to your customer base. The magazine reached around 40,000 people. 

How many people actually responded to your article? 

If you have Google Analytics set up correctly, you’ll KNOW precisely how many, and won’t have to guess.

This is where business owners can get BLINDSIDED into thinking that they got a huge response and it was worth the money to get it published…. but they are GUESSING!

TRUE STORY: This happened recently, and do you know how many people actually responded to the article that reached possibly around 40,000?

ONE.

Yup, that’s right, ONE person responded.

The business owner swore these marketing efforts were his bread and butter, so we set up Analytics for him. He was shocked! It was a brutal realization, but this kind of knowledge is so important to be aware of.

To be honest, it was a very poorly written article and went on and on about how great they were instead of giving good helpful information to their customers and being a resource, but good copywriting is another topic!

Lesson: Don’t Ignore the Treasure Map!

The above points address just some of the really insightful information that can streamline and build your business and bottom line. So, don’t wait… get into Google Analytics now!

Don’t know where to start? We can help.

We offer classes that cover the above and so MUCH more in-depth and in-person. We can help get you up-to-speed in no time with our Digital Marketing Courses or Google Analytics training courses. Just contact us today and let’s get started. It’s time to unearth that buried treasure!