If you are considering adding Google Analytics to your website—or have heard about Google Analytics but aren’t sure if it is something you should take the time to do—let’s explore why it may be advantageous to your business, its bottom line, and your overall digital marketing efforts.
But first, what is Google Analytics? Simply put, it is a block of code that is added to your website that links back to a dashboard where you have the opportunity to see amazing analytics and insights about the users who visit your site.
And the best part? It’s free! Now, there is a bit more to Google Analytics than just popping on a block of code, sitting back, and watching your website visitor count. But for the sake of this short article, we are just going to review a few reasons why adding Google Analytics to your website is a great idea.
As business owners or marketers, we long ago realized the value of a solid website to draw customers into our business, regardless if it is a brick-and-mortar or e-commerce only. However, just having a website is not enough. You have made an investment by building your website, which is your digital presence and sometimes the first impression new customers get about your brand. But how is that investment doing for you? Is the website connecting with potential customers?
By implementing Google Analytics, you can review website analytics and performance as well as marketing analytics, with all three helping to determine what is working, what is not, and if the customers your business wants are utilizing the site the way you intended.
If you decide to add Google Analytics to your website, you will be able to see data like how many people are visiting your site, what days and times are they visiting, what pages are they viewing, and even where on the website they leave. Even further, you can find out where they are located, what type of devices they are using, where they came from (ex. social media, an e-mail campaign, or a Google search), and what actions they take, such as clicking to call you, making a purchase, or filling out a form.
Not getting the amount of website traffic you anticipated, low online sales, or people visiting and leaving quickly (this is called your bounce rate), could all be indications that either your website is not consumer-friendly or your marketing is not working.
This is just a quick overview of what Google Analytics can do for your business. At first glance, the dashboard can look overwhelming, but just like a 10th grade algebra question that made no sense at first, once you spend time understanding how it works, it all comes together.
