Google Analytics, Website Statistics, Conversion Analysis

Measuring the Success of Your Website

I am writing to tell you that a vein of ore full of untold riches exists which can reveal more about your clients than you have ever known. This world of mysteries, waiting to be unfolded by you, could be your most valuable source of business intelligence. And the only way this wealth of data can be unearthed is through your website.

Like me, you probably wouldn’t invest in a new or upgraded website without some expectation of a return on your investment. Instead of taking a leap of faith, you would first ask yourself what your expectations are, and secondly, who to punish when those expectations aren’t met!

Whether your site got 2 thousand visitors this month or 200, that figure is pretty meaningless unless it is an improvement over the previous month, or the same month in the previous year, and unless that improvement correlates with an increase in enquiries or sales.

Google Analytics is one very powerful way of measuring the success of your website whilst understanding the habits and behaviour of your visitors. And the welcome bonus is it’s absolutely free!

Reading visitors� minds

Once again, Google is democratising the Internet with a free new web tracking service for discerning website owners like yourself. Here are just some of the golden questions this new software will answer for you:

How do your visitors find you? If you want to attract the attention of more people, the first thing you should do is research how your current visitors find you. Who are your referring sites? Are you attracting new people? Which search engines are sending you traffic? Which search terms drew visitors to you? What proportion of your visitors type in your URL directly? Statistics like these can show you how weak or strong your brand is in a given market.

Which are your site’s ‘stickiest’ pages? Which sections of your site are working for your business, and which ones are out to lunch? What kinds of behaviour suggest that visitors are about to make an enquiry or a purchase? If you know where the best visitors go, you can encourage the others to follow suit.

What’s your visitors’ optimum browsing time? What time of day, day of the week, or month of the year are your clients most inclined to download a publication, make an enquiry, or go through with a purchase? Optimum browsing times can be leveraged with fresh content and promotional offers to increase conversion rates.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics

This all sounds marvellous, but let’s face it: statistics are pretty useless if they sit on a page staring you smugly in the face. But wait - the most exciting feature of Analytics, which is usually only available from professional services that cost big dollars, is a spunky little thing call ‘conversion analysis’. This is where you link tangible goals to your evolving site statistics, so that you can measure visitor conversion rates on those goals. Goals can be anything from enquiries and downloads to eCommerce and purchases.

For example, if you run an online shop, you may want to add the page that completes the purchase as a goal for your website. Analytics will be able to track which activities leading to that page bring you the most sales. Is it a certain keyword in Google? Is it a link from another site? Whatever the trigger — you may want to put more emphasis on developing that area of your operation.

So if you are searching for web tracking that doesn’t just give you facts and the figures, but actually sets up an online system for tracking your business goals, let us know right now, because within a matter of days we can set up smooth, fast installation and configuration of Google Analytics on your current site. 

We also do more than just plug you into the exciting new world of Analytics: we give you continual strategic support to assess your changing visitor profile and identify anomalies and bottlenecks in your site. We set up a quarterly schedule for reviewing Analytics reports, during which we conduct a cost-benefit analysis of your current and unused Internet marketing tools.

We are always excited by the prospect of helping people, formally or informally, to leverage the power of the Internet and, ultimately, increase revenue. So why not start with an informal chat with us – who knows where it might lead your business? This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it today or call us on 1300 65 25 80.