The Importance of Web Analytics and Tracking Visitors
Web Analytics helps you get insights about what is working on your website, what needs improvement or what successful areas can be expanded upon.
If done properly, web analytics can give you data, which you can use to make smart business decisions. Otherwise, it will be a bad headache.
So, Web Analytics can help you discover:
- How people find your website.
- How they engage on your website.
- How they convert as customers.
Web Analytics can also help you discover whether your search marketing is effective, if your website engage visitors or make them leave after seconds of arriving to the website.
In a nutshell, Web Analytics helps you constantly check and monitor your website health, just like your personal doctor does it with you.
But let’s dig into what you can do with Web Analytics and what you should do before getting started with Web Analytics, thus with Google Analytics.
Before starting with Web Analytics
The first step towards your success with web analytics is to outline a comprehensive methodology of what your looking to get from your data. So let’s see how we can do that.
Define your Business Objectives
For start you need to know exactly what are your business objectives and what you are expecting to get with your website.
So, ask yourself this question:
Why do I have a website?
The answer or answers to this question will help you set clears goals and later targets, that will help you easier measure your website success and improve your business.
This is maybe the most important step towards your success, because without clear goals you will not reach the end of the tunnel. Not only with Web Analytics, but with your business, too.
For example, if you have a blog, on which you would like to sell eBooks, then your main business objective would be:
- Sell eBooks
So, go ahead, answer the question and set your business objectives for your website.
Define your Goals
Now that you have your Business Objectives clear, you can easily translate them into goals for your website.
If the Business Objectives are set at a strategic level, Goals can help you narrow things down a little bit.
So, if your Business Objective is to “Sell eBooks”, then you can translate this into:
- Increase list sign-ups (once you have visitors signing on your list, is more likely that they will buy from you)
- Increase sales
- Increase Visitors Loyalty (this represents an increase of the visits one person makes to your website)
Once you’ve got your goals, you can easily migrate some of them into Google Analytics. But we will see more of this in one of the next lessons.
These steps will help you set realistic goals for your business and website, which can be later translated into what you are going to measure in Google Analytics.
Along with this lesson I would like you to have 2 extra resources on hand, that will help you better understand Web Analytics and get started using it:
First, the “Glossary of Terms” will help you better understand not only the terms I will be using in this course, but also other articles around the web.
On the other hand “Getting Started with Web Analytics Worksheet” will help you define your business objectives and set the goals and expectations from your website.
Make sure you go through them as I don’t want to see any excuses. 🙂 If you feel stuck along the way, just drop me an email.
Now, that you’ve finished the first lesson of the “Google Analytics – From 0 to Analysis Ninja” course, I want not only to congratulate you for this, but give you an award. Kudos to you!
This being said, here is your first Shuriken:
Along the journey, you will receive one for each lesson you complete and at the end you will become a truly Analysis Ninja.
Aren’t you excited about this?
In the next lessons I will show you how to get your Google Analytics account, if you don’t have already one, how to add the goals you just set up in this lesson into Google Analytics and what are the 10% features of Google Analytics that will give you 90% results.
I am really excited to have you with me and I hope that you will get the most out of this course. If you do, don’t forget to spread the word. It’s free!
PS:
If you’ve got here from a friend or Twitter without being subscribed, this is the Lesson #1 from a multi part course about Google Analytics. Click here to learn more about it and sign up to the “Google Analytics – From 0 to Analysis Ninja” course. This way, you can’t miss any lesson.