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There are probably thousands of articles on the web talking about Google Analytics, such as how to use the free reporting tool, how to set up Google Analytics for your website, and what Google Analytics reports you can take advantage of. This is all great information, especially for novice website designers. What I think is missing is the most critical piece of information, which is “How do I analyze these Google Analytics reports in order to actually make impactful changes to my website?” In this article we are going to answer that question, as well as, provide you with some examples of taking certain data from Google Analytics, analyzing it, and then using it to make changes to your website and/or website marketing.
Tools like Google Analytics allow you to check your website traffic data as frequently as you’d like. I definitely recommend keeping an eye on your Google Analytics reports daily or weekly. With that said, we all know that checking your reports and actually taking time to analyze them are two different tasks. This is why I recommend that every website owner take a full day each quarter to analyze their reports and implement any needed changes to their website based on what the data is showing.
It’s easy to get lost in Google Analytics. There is SO much data that you can analyze. Not only is there a ton of data, but the ways in which you can slice it up seem almost endless. Every website owner is going to have different reports to focus on, but there are a few main data points that all website owners should be aware of during their quarterly reviews:
Now that we have an understanding of some of the most important reports to analyze for your website, let’s dig into each of them to provide examples on how you can use the data to make real impactful changes to your website and website marketing.
Knowing which keywords to optimize your website with is crucial in attracting the right visitors. Here’s how you can utilize the Keyword reports in Google Analytics:
By analyzing your Traffic Sources – Keywords report and following the steps above you will significantly increase your website traffic for those specific keywords.
Once you have completed this first main Keyword optimization during your Quarterly review, go BACK through your Keyword report and sort the results by Average Time on Site. Find five keywords that might not be driving a lot of traffic to your website right now, but the traffic that is coming to your site from those keywords tends to spend a lot of time on your site. These are your “growth keywords”. Repeat the steps above using these keywords to see if with a little more use throughout your website they can produce more traffic.
Knowing which websites (or social media channels) around the web that are referring the most traffic to your website is critical. As a website owner you only have so much time in the day to market your site. It’s best to use that time wisely. Follow these steps in order to analyze your traffic sources and make impactful changes to your website marketing:
Using the Referral Sources report in Google Analytics will help you become more efficient with your marketing time and more effective at driving traffic to your website.
Analyzing your Visitor Profile through the Visitors Overview report in Google Analytics will let you know how much of your traffic is composed of ‘New Visitors’ and how much of your traffic is composed of ‘Repeat Visitors’. You want to encourage new visitors to become return visitors, as well as, continue to attract even more new visitors. Here are a few ways that you can take your data from the Visitors Overview report and actually use it to improve your website:
Understanding what content is resonating with your visitors will help you come up with new content topics for the next quarter.
Producing more of the content that your visitors are finding valuable will keep them coming back, get them to share your website with their friends, and attract new visitors.
Are the weekends a popular time for your website or do most people visit your website during the week? Knowing what days are high traffic days for your website and what days are low traffic days for your website allows you to be much more strategic in regards to publishing new updates to your website. By analyzing the Visits report in Google Analytics you can see which days seem to generate the most traffic. Make a list of your high traffic days and then start taking advantage of those high traffic days in the following ways:
Knowing when, and when not to, publish new information to your website can drastically alter the number of views your new updates receive. Be smart about when you publish new content, news, events, etc. Use the Visits report in Google Analytics as your guide.
Google Analytics is great. The website data provided by Google Analytics can help website owners learn a ton about their website. With that said, unless website owners take time to review and analyze their reports on a regular basis, and then take time to use that data to make changes to their website, they are missing out on the biggest advantage that Google Analytics provides. Google Analytics provides you with a blueprint for giving your visitors what they want, when they want it. Be sure to take advantage of that.
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Ryan Taft is a twenty-something entrepreneur with a passion for helping small businesses use online marketing tools to reach more customers and prospects, build relationships with those folks, and ultimately grow sales.
Thursday, April 12th, 2012 20:23
Good Work ! Congratulations ! It is really great article! I use Google Analytics and love it !
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012 09:39
Thanks very much for this great article of Google analytics to help us to improve our site or blog traffic.
Friday, February 17th, 2012 12:59
I have read many posts on Analytics but now i realize that i was only reading my stats on Analytics and don’t know who to use it. I think that Ryan Taft has done a wonderful job and teach the blogger like me those thing which no body will tell.
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 01:10
Thank you for this awesome detailed article about Analytics. I use it, but I’ve never tried to understand it before. Now I think I need to increase my traffic using your piece of advice.
Monday, January 9th, 2012 03:45
I have analytics installed on my site but I admit I spend very little time analyzing the data. I simply look at the traffic stats and if all looks good, I just move on and forget about it. You’re right though: every webmaster should spend more time analyzing the data that google provides. That’s another mental note to myself :)
Sunday, January 8th, 2012 22:14
Good read. I came across this by accident and its exactly what I needed. I just started using google analytics for my blog. My blog is fairly new so its nice to see how its doing. However I was a little overwhelmed with using google analytics with all the options there are. But I am also a little confused. For example if your making a pie chart, it seems as though your only able to look at one specific thing. Instead of comparing like 5 different things. Either that or I am using it wrong. For example I would like my pie chart to show new visitors, returning visitors, subscribed visitors ect. But I can only get it to show one thing. I might need a tutorial on how to set up the charts and pies to show/compare multiple stats.
Sunday, January 8th, 2012 19:34
These are absolutely great tips, but very basic. A way to really know what your traffic is doing on your site, you need to setup goals… A very powerful feature in google analytics.
Sunday, January 8th, 2012 14:18
Cheers for this Ryan. Very timely blog post as have spent most of today analysing keywords and trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Seems like a never ending task but we’ll get there :)
Sunday, January 8th, 2012 03:36
I like your suggestion of using Google Analytics to find the top ten performing keywords and then going back through my site and inserting them into my website content. Your suggestion seems like an excellent way on getting even more targeted traffic to my website. I can do this for my clients websites also, great idea. Thank you Ryan.
Saturday, January 7th, 2012 23:57
I’ve been using most of these tips for a while now for my blog.
Google Analytics is quite amazing for being free. Hopefully I can apply a few new tricks to drive even more traffic to my site.
Saturday, January 7th, 2012 21:02
Great article! I use Google Analytics and love it!
Saturday, January 7th, 2012 18:59
A good Knowledge i have gain from here.. i have visited on analytics But wasn’t know how to use that.. You have teach me.. how to use that.. Thank you very much
Saturday, January 7th, 2012 14:51
This is the reason why I subscribed on this blog. Nice Post. Bookmarked!
Saturday, January 7th, 2012 14:02
Thanks.I need to learn more on how to install analytics to my websites.
Saturday, January 7th, 2012 13:03
Certainly this is very effective and helpful article. We always expect article like this from this site.
Saturday, January 7th, 2012 19:26
I am unsure of the content published here. Especially regarding Infusing Keywords. When you see that the site is already visible with top 10 keywords, then why should be place those same keyword again. Instead an effort should be in using those keywords through which you are least listed in search results.
Hence, I suggest to work on least performing Keywords.
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Prity
Saturday, January 7th, 2012 19:26
I am unsure of the content published here. Especially regarding Infusing Keywords. When you see that the site is already visible with top 10 keywords, then why should be place those same keyword again. Instead an effort should be in using those keywords through which you are least listed in search results.
Hence, I suggest to work on least performing Keywords.
Joe Zim
Saturday, January 7th, 2012 23:57
I’ve been using most of these tips for a while now for my blog.
Google Analytics is quite amazing for being free. Hopefully I can apply a few new tricks to drive even more traffic to my site.
Larry James
Sunday, January 8th, 2012 03:36
I like your suggestion of using Google Analytics to find the top ten performing keywords and then going back through my site and inserting them into my website content. Your suggestion seems like an excellent way on getting even more targeted traffic to my website. I can do this for my clients websites also, great idea. Thank you Ryan.
Mandy Edwards
Saturday, January 7th, 2012 21:02
Great article! I use Google Analytics and love it!
Mukesh Kumar jat
Saturday, January 7th, 2012 18:59
A good Knowledge i have gain from here.. i have visited on analytics But wasn’t know how to use that.. You have teach me.. how to use that.. Thank you very much
Humayun
Saturday, January 7th, 2012 13:03
Certainly this is very effective and helpful article. We always expect article like this from this site.
Fred
Saturday, January 7th, 2012 14:02
Thanks.I need to learn more on how to install analytics to my websites.
Manuel Garcia
Saturday, January 7th, 2012 14:51
This is the reason why I subscribed on this blog. Nice Post. Bookmarked!
Damian
Sunday, January 8th, 2012 14:18
Cheers for this Ryan. Very timely blog post as have spent most of today analysing keywords and trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Seems like a never ending task but we’ll get there :)
Kyle
Sunday, January 8th, 2012 19:34
These are absolutely great tips, but very basic. A way to really know what your traffic is doing on your site, you need to setup goals… A very powerful feature in google analytics.
Souno
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012 09:39
Thanks very much for this great article of Google analytics to help us to improve our site or blog traffic.
Naja
Thursday, April 12th, 2012 20:23
Good Work ! Congratulations ! It is really great article! I use Google Analytics and love it !
Mohsin Ali waheed
Friday, February 17th, 2012 12:59
I have read many posts on Analytics but now i realize that i was only reading my stats on Analytics and don’t know who to use it. I think that Ryan Taft has done a wonderful job and teach the blogger like me those thing which no body will tell.
manda
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 04:21
Wow, nice article :D , it’s really helpfull :D
Shawn
Sunday, January 8th, 2012 22:14
Good read. I came across this by accident and its exactly what I needed. I just started using google analytics for my blog. My blog is fairly new so its nice to see how its doing. However I was a little overwhelmed with using google analytics with all the options there are. But I am also a little confused. For example if your making a pie chart, it seems as though your only able to look at one specific thing. Instead of comparing like 5 different things. Either that or I am using it wrong. For example I would like my pie chart to show new visitors, returning visitors, subscribed visitors ect. But I can only get it to show one thing. I might need a tutorial on how to set up the charts and pies to show/compare multiple stats.
Samantha
Monday, January 9th, 2012 03:45
I have analytics installed on my site but I admit I spend very little time analyzing the data. I simply look at the traffic stats and if all looks good, I just move on and forget about it. You’re right though: every webmaster should spend more time analyzing the data that google provides. That’s another mental note to myself :)
Grim Cris
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 01:10
Thank you for this awesome detailed article about Analytics. I use it, but I’ve never tried to understand it before. Now I think I need to increase my traffic using your piece of advice.