Why you should be using Google Analytics
In early 2005, Google analytics was born and has since become the undisputed leader in website analytics, with over 29 million websites now using the software according to BuiltWith. Here at Dragonfly, we regularly use Google Analytics for many of our clients so we can analyse how well their website is performing and review and update their SEO strategy.
If you’re not monitoring the Google Analytics for your website at the moment, then you should be – or you should be asking us to help – here’s why:
You can uncover top content- It’s important to constantly monitor what drives your visitors to your website and which pieces of content are influencing them to visit more pages. This feature of Google Analytics can be found under the Behaviour menu and by selecting Site Content. Here, you can identify your most popular pieces of content, by analysing page views and average time spent on each page. This can help to show what content is most popular and perhaps what content should be improved.
Identify visitor search behaviour- Another great function of Google Analytics that you can use is found in Channels under Acquisition. This function highlights website traffic by breaking it down into the ways in which visitors come through to a website. An organic search is through a search engine, direct is by typing the website URL into the browser, a referral is traffic to your site from another site and social is social media traffic. This function helps with analysing how well social media outlets are performing and whether they are successful in directing potential customers to a website. It also helps in identifying whether the use of key words is effective and which external outlets are the most effective to use.
Success of keywords- The use of keywords is a major part of any SEO strategy and Google Analytics is an excellent tool for monitoring how well you’re using them. Google Analytics allows you to see which keywords searchers are using to find you. After identifying which keywords are the most popular, they can be used within online copy and website content to help boost search engine rankings.
Visitor segmentation- With Google Analytics you can segment your visitors into new and returning in order to understand how effective your SEO tactics really are. If you’ve had a surge in new visitors it may be worth identifying what you’ve done differently to achieve this. If your visitor percentage consists mainly of returning visitors, then you should identify why your SEO tactics aren’t attracting new ones.
Bounce rate- Understanding your bounce rate is also an important aspect of any SEO strategy. If one of your pages is reporting a 90% bounce rate, there’s a reason why visitors are choosing to exit this page. If a bounce rate percentage is particularly high (ie 40% and above) there are things you can do to lower it. Often it can be the layout or design of the page which can influence visitors to exit. For example, it could be that the text is too small or the layout makes it difficult to navigate. To respond to this, it’s worth making small changes to the website and monitoring bounce rates.
So, if you need help or advice with Google Analytics, or you’d like some advice for planning your SEO strategy for 2017, get in touch with our PR team on 01709 300130 or email enquiries@dragonflypr.co.uk.