On Monday, we talked about Google Analytics (GA) and how this great tool has helped our clients reach their business goals in 2016.

Moving into 2017, we want to help you reach your business goals by explaining the ways in which GA can provide you with useful insights to increase your web-traffic. Learn more about what you can do here:

1. Analyze Bounce Rates- David Shiffman from Brandamos, LLC reports on the importance of bounce rates, the percentage of viewers leaving your web-site after visiting only one page. Analyzing these numbers can indicate what website features are the most (or least) engaging to your viewers so you can adjust those features accordingly in the future. You can find this feature in either the Landing Pages or All Pages tab in Google Analytics.
2. Uncover the Source of Web-traffic: According to Durre Ross from Duree & Company.com, knowing the source of your traffic is a tremendous insight. It indicates what paid-ads, organic efforts (ie blogs), or social-media efforts are generating the most traffic to your website. On Analytics, under the All Traffic tab, you can find Source/Medium, and here you can discern where your website traffic is coming from.
3. Identify Engaging Content: Content is KING. And statistics in the field continuously prove this. According to Kapost, content marketing leaders experience 7.8X more website traffic than non-leaders. Page-views (# of page views), Page Sessions (period of time a user is actively engaged with your website) and Bounce-rates (mentioned earlier), are just some of the features that can help you identify what content is most engaging. According to Sara Davis at Foxtail Marketing, once you uncover this, use that content again & again, and in time, you will generate more & more traffic.  An overview of your dashboard (featured below) can help you discern which of these Analytics features will give the content-insight you need.
4. Study Behavior Flow: If you want to understand your viewers’ intentions, using the behavior-flow feature is an excellent tool. It provides visual diagrams to show what pages your viewers interacted with, how they traveled to different pages, and/or where they exited your website. This insight allows you to better understand your viewers’ motivations and ultimately address those needs with your website.

It can all seem overwhelming, but just understanding HOW these features can be used in your marketing strategy is crucial.  Knowing what insights can be gained can help you create a more engaging website and address the needs of your client-base, ultimately increasing your revenue.

So, don’t hesitate to sign-up! There are plenty of resources out-there to help you learn more about Google Analytics, including NetElixir’s Webinars and free e-books. But just browsing through the tool and lightly analyzing the features is a great start to familiarizing yourself with its usefulness.