There’s a storm of analytics coming at you!
“Our website is performing really well.” “We have received heaps of enquiries from our Adwords campaign.” These little pats on the back may sound all too familiar and while these statements seem to give a positive light to how well a business is performing, it may not actually be the case.
This is when analytics come in – number crunching. Unless you are constantly monitoring the back end of your website where all those graphs and bunches of numbers are hiding (and obviously you understand what they all mean), your website and business could actually be slowly going down the gurgler.
If you are receiving lots of visits to your website, that’s great. But what is happening with those website visitors once they get to your website? Are they being converted into customers or serious enquiries? How did they find your website? Was it through an ad campaign or a search through Google? Which page did they first visit? There are so many variations on how potential clients can find you and how they are using your website and all this information is available to you . . . if you know where to find it.
The information that is captured through websites and searches is incredible. Every search engine and website you ever visit is being recorded and this information is what you, as a business owner, want to understand. It can however become a little bit overwhelming if you’re not overly tech savvy or didn’t realise there even was a ‘back end’ to your website. If you have no idea what Google Analytics is and why you would want to use it, this is also a concern.
This is why knowing the analytics of your website is good for business:
You can follow the path of your website visitors. This is extremely valuable information. Being able to see which pages are being clicked on the most and also which pages people are leaving your website from, it can shed some light on what people are looking for and what is turning them away. It can also give you a clue if a page is not working correctly. If people are all leaving your website through the same page, that page may need some attention or there may be a link that is not working correctly.
You can see where your website visitors are coming from demographically. If you can understand and know where your enquiries and visitors are coming from, it can give you an idea on which areas are good to target any possible campaigns.
You can monitor how many visitors are converting into customers. It’s all well and good to have 100 visitors to your website every day, but if you are only making one sale a month something needs to be looked at. Your website is more often than not, the first impression of your business. If visitors are clicking on your website, they are usually there for a purpose and wanting to use your services. If they are all leaving without so much as an email enquiry, it may be time to have a serious look at your website design and content.
You know where your visitors are coming from. This helps you know how people are finding you. It also assist with monitoring the success of marketing campaigns such as an adwords campaigns, email campaigns with links to your website or you may even be advertising on another website. You can find out exactly how your visitors found your website and even which page they first clicked on ie through your Homepage or perhaps through a blog article on your website.
You can see when people are visiting your website. You may find there is a specific time of day, week, month or year that the visits to your websites increase. This information is good to know as you can tailor campaigns, sales and promotions around these high traffic times to increase your chances of making a sale.
These examples give you a taste on how much information is on offer and how this information can benefit your business, your brand, your sales and your advertising. Being a business owner, we can also appreciate how swamped you are with running a business and things such as how your website is performing can often end up on the back-burner as it can be all-consuming if you’re not familiar in the information you should be looking for. But you need to keep in mind that in this day and age, your website is your business.
If you need any help with understanding how your website if performing and more importantly how it can be approved, give us a bell. There’s no need to ride out the storm alone!
