What's important in Google Analytics?

[Scottish Business Owner]

I have Google Analytics installed on a few different sites but i've never really understood what areas of it really provide the best information and what information I should be keeping an eye on.

For example Google Analytics says by main keyword we get found for is "business forums", now you would think that was fairly obvious BUT if you do a search for business forums on Google we're nowhere. Frankly this puzzles me

So Ideally i'd like to know how to really get the most out of Google Analytics

 

[TomB]

Hi ,

I use Google analytics every day and find it really useful.

The thing with the keywords is that the serps changes all the time so you may find that you are burried all the way down.

I find it useful to see what people are looking for me for and how they click through.

I also like to see where people are coming to my website from. If I know that i've got new link to my site i like to check that people are using it or review if they are not.

I use the goals section to monitor when people are using my contact page, i set the end of the goal to be the thank-you page and then i can see how many i get.

For the content section i've recently been reviewing what are the most popular pages on my site and the ones that aren't getting visited and refining the content or putting links to sections that people are visiting.

i'm sure other people have loads of other uses that i haven't even begun to discover yet, but i do think its a fantastic tool

T

 

[nothing does]

I've never used this before but I've just set it all up now. Should I be worried that I'm getting into SEO?

 

[alanbold]

Google analytics is extremely powerful but most people use only a tiny percentage of its power (a bit like Excel). If you think of your website as a process where visitors arrive and are then led (through good website design) to the info they are looking for, then GA is very good at showing you where you are acheiving this (or not). Google Analytics Blog is a good place to start for more info, it also has links to how-to videos. You could also post your queries on the Google Analytics user groups forum. I am finishing a drupal site for a client who wants me to track usage so I intend to invest some time into getting the best out of GA so will post what i learn on SBF.

 

[TomB]

Hi Alan,

That would be really useful. everbody will have their own wee tricks and uses for it so maybe we can start a knowledge bank of uses for it.

Could be great article for the new blog!!

T

 

[Boxby]

I use the referring sites information. I found out that someone had recommended us on a Canoing forum! And it got us loads of leads. Very easy to use, and very very informative.

 

[Tim Barlow]

The two things we find make the biggest difference:

• Have goals that you can put a financial number against so you can judge success e.g. try to work out how much an enquiry is worth to your business. For SBF you might be interested in page views as that translates approximately to income but a better metric would be member sign-ups or posts.
• Rather than worrying about whether a number is good or bad, look for improvements over time instead (e.g. a bounce rate of 70% may be bad for some people, but others it may be OK. If that bounce rate was 80% last month and has reduced to 70% then that is good!

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

Hi Tim,

Welcome to SBF You hit the nail on the head with SBF. We measure posts and members on a daily basis as well as documenting the same info from other sites that have a similar market.

You make a good point though about measurement that i'd never really thought of before. It is more important that you continue to move forward rather than just looking overall at the stats