It amazes me how many people will say their website isn’t working for them, but when asked if they measure traffic or use a tool like Google Analytics, the answer is usually ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I think I have login’.

Now the fact is that many companies’ websites don’t work for them and don’t generate enough traffic or the right kind of traffic. However, as with any form or marketing, measurement is absolutely critical, so you can see what works, what doesn’t, and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Unfortunately, some people don’t measure their web traffic at all. This may be because they are unaware that tools like Google Analytics are actually FREE and can be installed relatively easily with a basic understanding of HTML code. If you’re lucky enough to have a good content management system, this becomes even easier without needing to understand website coding. Of course, most good web development companies should do this for you as part of the website launch process.

I think it’s fair to say that some people who have started looking into Google Analytics have often only scratched the surface of how powerful this FREE tool really is.

The most common use is probably to check how much traffic a website gets, along with the source of the traffic and what keyword someone typed in, if it came through a search engine.

However, Google Analytics can provide much more relevant and useful information, for example “bounce rate” can be a very important piece of data, this means the percentage of single page views where the visitor left your site from the landing page. destination without continuing. view any other page of the site. So you might have a lot of traffic, but if your bounce rate is high, this would suggest that the page is not relevant to visitors and your site probably isn’t working for you. Rather, this may be the same page that your specific campaign is targeting. In this case, the ‘bounce rate’ shouldn’t be daunting.

You can also look at the average time people spend on your website, again if this number is low and you don’t get any queries, just like the ‘bounce rate’ this could suggest that your website visitors don’t perceive that your site is relevant. It could also be an indication that the navigation to other relevant pages, for example the “Contact Us” function, is not clear.

Top Exit Pages can be another great piece of information, if visitors are browsing multiple pages on your site, but you’re losing them without getting any queries, you may need to review your Top Exit Pages and try to adjust/improve them.

Google Analytics is an amazing, rarely used tool with features that could fill a manual. The purpose of this article is simply to highlight its availability so that your business can begin to benefit from your app.