Thank you Huffington Post Writer Angela Schonberg for this guest blog.
Reporting on a website’s Google Analytics data is an investigative dig that can be viewed and tracked daily, weekly, monthly or annually. The tool tracks the behavioral flow of web traffic in and out of your site on a daily basis. Within this realm marketers, website managers and business owners can benchmark themselves against similar companies, target where in the world the majority of their traffic is coming in from and identify which themes or keywords their audience is choosing to engage with them the most with. It even tracks which type of device and browser they choose to use search with (mobile, desktop or tablet).
Here are three ways to boost your Google Analytics game:
- Set-Up Goals – It’s amazing how many people don’t have goals setup within their analytics account. If you don’t have goals, how do you expect to know that you are meeting your numbers? If you haven’t already, be sure to identify which measurable indicators are the most important to you and set-up your goals. If you have, make sure you sync in data with all your traffic stats. (Don’t forget to assign a Monetary Value too!)
- Create a Custom Dashboard – This dashboard will aggregate all of the top metrics that matter to your business and then can be set up to be emailed to you automatically on a weekly, monthly and/or annual basis.
- Explore Conversion Paths – Examine Visitor Journeys by going to the Top Conversion Paths section of the Conversion reports (Conversion -> Multi-Channel > Top Conversion Paths). These paths offer great insight on to the actual user behavior navigating your site and the route many visitors take from first action to complete conversion.
Getting comfortable with Google Analytics can take time, but once you figure it out, you’ll see it’s one of the most insightful and helpful tools you can use. By diving in and analyzing data highlighting different elements of your website and marketing campaign, you can make sophisticated strategies which will improve your efficiency as a marketer.
If you are a marketing professional or a website manager seeking detailed training in digital analytics tools and methodologies you can earn your Certificate in Digital Marketing Analytics from the University of Washington. Applications for the September 2017 course are available online here: https://www.pce.uw.edu/certificates/digital-marketing-analytics.