Under the hood of

OverviewIntroduction

• General visitor metrics• Where your visitors come from• How they find you• How they use your site

ApplicationUsing this information to• Measure marketing efforts• Optimize performance• Make informed decisions about

content and design

• Define web analytics• Why it’s important• The lay of the land

Gathering information

Web Analytics Defined

• Google Analytics (GA) is a service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visits to a website.

• It is the most widely used website statistics service.

• The product is aimed at marketers as opposed to webmasters and technologists from which the industry of web analytics originally grew.

Web Analytics Defined

• Google Analytics (GA) is a service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visits to a website.

• It is the most widely used website statistics service.

• The product is aimed at marketers as opposed to webmasters and technologists from which the industry of web analytics originally grew.

The product is made for people like you so you can make informed marketing decisions.

marketers = you

How GA Works

Why it’s important

• Websites are one of the most trackable marketing tools available to small businesses.

• Analytics help you gauge effectiveness of marketing efforts outside your website.

• Data provided assists with optimizing content.• Results allow you to make informed decisions

about content and site design.

Lay of the land

• Login at www.google.com/analytics• Choose your site profile or search for it• Welcome to the dashboard!

Lay of the land: Dashboard

Links to all of the standard reports available about your website. An overview of these reports is emailed to you in your monthly website traffic report.

Default date range settings are for one calendar month.

The date range can be changed at any time to review more specific timeframes.

Plotted timeline of metrics measured in reports.

Report output displays below the timeline it varies from report to report.

• Visitors/VisitsThe number of visits to your site during a given time period.

• Unique VisitorsCount of unique visitors (based on cookie data) in a given period of time. Each browser gets a cookie once a visitor has gone to your site. These visitors may have been to your site before the determined timeframe. Not necessarily new visitors to the site, just unique to the requested timeframe.

• PageviewsThe number of pages these visitors viewed.

• Pages/VisitThe average visit in terms of page views.

Visitor metricsVisit Metrics

• Bounce RateThe percentage of people who only visited one page on your site before they “bounced” somewhere else.

• Avg. Visit DurationThe average amount of time a visitor spends at your site.

• % New VisitsThe percentage of new visitors to your site as compared to all visitors.

Visitor metricsVisit Metrics (Cont.)

Getting Started: GoalsWhy just measure when you can measure with purpose?

Goal Guidelines

• Set ____________ goals• Focus on building _____ for website visitors• ________ your website into the _________ of

your business

Goal Guidelines

• Set ____________ goals• Focus on building _____ for website visitors• ________ your website into the _________ of

your business

viewer-centricvalue

processesIntegrate

APPLICATION

Our site goals• Build credibility and share our qualifications

by showing off our awesome work in our portfolio

• Highlight our company culture and values in an in-your-face way to detour businesses who don’t share our values

APPLICATION

Our site goals• Provide useful resources and news for clients,

prospects and anyone interested in web design and digital marketing

• Generate and qualify leads submitted through the site to ensure they’re a fit for our business

Measuring Goals Why does Google love engagement?

APPLICATION

• _______ page views• ______ visit duration• _____ bounce rate• _______ pages per visit• _____ return visitors

= Good visitor engagement

Measuring for Engagement

APPLICATION

Increase Longer Lower IncreaseMore

• _______ page views• ______ visit duration• _____ bounce rate• _______ pages per visit• _____ return visitors

= Good visitor engagement

Measuring for Engagement

APPLICATION

Our site goals• Build credibility and share

our qualifications by showing off our awesome work in our portfolio

• Highlight our company culture and values in an in-your-face way to detour businesses who don’t share our values

Visits to the meet the team, about us, smile behind the sass and contact page

Visits and visit duration on portfolio pages, clicks through to contact page

APPLICATION

Our site goals• Provide useful resources

and news for clients, prospects and anyone interested in web design and digital marketing

• Generate and qualify leads submitted through the site to ensure they’re a fit for our business

Visits and visit duration on blog posts, return visitors, pages per visit

Form submissions converted to closed business, new visitors

APPLICATION

We can judge the progress towards our goals by doing a date comparison of metrics.

Traffic SourcesHow are visitors finding your website?

• ___________ found your site by typing in your domain name or bookmarking pages to visit your site directly

• ___________ found you by searching using a search engine such as Google

• ____________ found you by clicking on a link to your site from another site

Traffic Sources

• ___________ found your site by typing in your domain name or bookmarking pages to visit your site directly

• ___________ found you by searching using a search engine such as Google

• ____________ found you by clicking on a link to your site from another site

Traffic Sources

Direct Traffic

Search Traffic

Referral Traffic

APPLICATION

Direct Traffic

APPLICATION

Direct Traffic

APPLICATION

Organic Traffic

APPLICATION

Organic Traffic

APPLICATION

Referral Traffic

APPLICATION

Referral Traffic

-23

-72

+125

+40

APPLICATION

Traffic Observations

• Google traffic is way up, which is good, we want our clients to be early adopters, Bing and Yahoo are not typically early adopters. So even though traffic is down from those sources we’re OK with that.

• Facebook users are using mobile aps to interact with us.

• We changed how we do Facebook and it’s more effective now.

• We’ve been marketing more for Tranquility and it’s pushing traffic our way as well.

Search TermsAre visitors finding your site for what you do?

Search Terms

• When you are found by you _____________ it means the rest of your marketing is working

• If you are not found by ___________ it means your ___________ needs improvement

• If you are frequently found for things ___________ your ___________ needs improvement

Search Terms

• When you are found by you _____________ it means the rest of your marketing is working

• If you are not found by ___________ it means your ___________ needs improvement

• If you are frequently found for things ___________ your ___________ needs improvement

business name

what you do page content

page content you don’t do

APPLICATION

Search TermsAre they engaging in your website when arriving via search?

APPLICATION

APPLICATION

APPLICATION

Search Term Observations

• Our blogging activities do bring in more traffic• Most blog traffic is to articles answering

specific questions, need to make sure answers are up-to-date

• People are finding us for what we do: web design BUT it’s declining from 143 in 2012 to 86 in 2013

• Traffic increase to the site is due to referrals and direct traffic

New vs ReturningFrequencyEngagement

Are your visitors engaged?

• New visitors are _____• Return visitors are ______• Strive for ______ visitors visiting __________

with _________ visit duration

New vs ReturningFrequencyEngagement

• New visitors are _____• Return visitors are ______• Strive for ______ visitors visiting __________

with _________ visit duration

New vs ReturningFrequencyEngagement

good

bettermore more often

increased

APPLICATION

New vs Returning

APPLICATION

Frequency

APPLICATION

Engagement

APPLICATION

Engagement Observations

• Those that are engaged are very engaged• Need to keep providing quality content to

increase return visitors, possibly through automation

• We may need to make the next step clearer for website visitors to ensure they can easily continue browsing

Page ViewsWhat information interests your visitors?

• Average time on page tells us if the content was ________

• Pages with _____________ are optimizing well or linked to often

• A high bounce rate usually means the content ______ what they thought it would be or _______________ is unclear

• Exit rates should be highest on ____________ then generally the __________

Page Views

• Average time on page tells us if the content was ________

• Pages with _____________ are optimizing well or linked to often

• A high bounce rate usually means the content ______ what they thought it would be or _______________ is unclear

• Exit rates should be highest on ____________ then generally the __________

Page Views

engaginghigh entrances

wasn’tconversion path

contact page home page

APPLICATION

Page Views

APPLICATION

APPLICATION

APPLICATION

APPLICATION

APPLICATION

Page View Observations

• Our blog posts generate traffic• Answers to commonly asked questions are the

most popular• Adding drop down menus helped increase

traffic to sub level pages• People like to read about other people• Pages with clear conversion paths have lower

bounce and exit rates

Visitors FlowHow do visitors travel through your site?

Visitors Flow

• The most common third stop is your _____ page due to back clickers

• Illustrates how visitors ____ through your site• The red indicator gives a good visual of

________ • Pay attention to how visitors arrive at your

_______ page

Visitors Flow

• The most common third stop is your _____ page due to back clickers

• Illustrates how visitors ____ through your site• The red indicator gives a good visual of

________ • Pay attention to how visitors arrive at your

_______ page

home

flow

exit rate

contact

APPLICATION

APPLICATION

Visitors Flow Observations

• Need to write more blog posts about newsletters

• Need a clearer conversion path to help visitors stay on the website and gather their information

• People use our website to get our contact information if they’re a client or are ready to buy

LocationWhere are your visitors located?

Location

• Visitors from _________________ may visit different information on your website

• This data can be used to _________________ of ________ marketing campaigns

• The data can also be used to locate _________________ areas

Location

• Visitors from _________________ may visit different information on your website

• This data can be used to _________________ of ________ marketing campaigns

• The data can also be used to locate _________________ areas

different locations

gage effectiveness regional

possible expansion

APPLICATION

Location

APPLICATION

Missouri Traffic

APPLICATION

Columbia Traffic

APPLICATION

Los Angeles Traffic

APPLICATION

Location Observations

• Columbia and Jefferson City visitors are interested in the same information

• We need to do more to reach out to Jefferson City viewers to make sure we don’t loose the opportunity to grow within the community

• Visitors from other states are more interested in blog posts, is there a way we can provide a service to them?

TechnologyHow are visitors viewing your website?

Technology

• Early adopters tend to use ________ and _______ browsers, many local college students use ______

• If mobile viewers make up ________ of your audience _____________________ and consider creating a mobile site

• In comparison to your ________ data: ______ bounce rate, _____ page views and _____ time on site from mobile users are good indicators you need a mobile optimized site

Technology

• Early adopters tend to use ________ and _______ browsers, many local college students use ______

• If mobile viewers make up ________ of your audience _____________________ and consider creating a mobile site

• In comparison to your ________ data: ______ bounce rate, _____ page views and _____ time on site from mobile users are good indicators you need a mobile optimized site

ChromeFirefox

Safariover 25%

watch their data closely

average highlow low

APPLICATION

BrowserWhat program do viewers use to see your website?

APPLICATION

APPLICATION

MobileWhat device to viewers use to see your website?

APPLICATION

APPLICATION

APPLICATION

Technology Observations

• Our viewers are early adopters• We don’t have enough mobile traffic to need

to have a mobile site yet• Mobile visitors exhibit relatively similar data as

PC visitors a bit worse on a phone but the same if not better on a tablet

OverviewIntroduction

• General visitor metrics• Where your visitors come from• How they find you• How they use your site

ApplicationUsing this information to• Measure marketing efforts• Optimize performance• Make informed decisions about

content and design

• Define web analytics• Why it’s important• The lay of the land

Gathering information