MH1 Web Design Blog

There are many ways to enter your website… whether through search engines, typing in the URL, or links from other sites. No matter the size of the business, management often does not have a clue how many people visit their website. Far too frequently, web design customers are very involved during development, but turn into no-shows after launch. Shopping sites that sell online can gauge effectiveness loosely based on sales. Other B2B and B2C firms that depend on their websites to generate qualified prospects might receive leads through web forms. But in either case, these businesses are missing out on the big picture if they neglect to analyze rich traffic data.

Start with your web host

Most commercial hosting providers include some web traffic application that uses web logs to measure monthly, weekly, daily and even hourly visits to your website. These metrics include hits, page views or impressions, unique visitors, and other vital information. MH1 Hosting  includes this service on all of our Linux with cPanel host packages. Even when customers know where to locate their traffic reports, they find the terms and metrics confusing. It’s important to your Internet marketing effort to understand your traffic statistics. It lets you measure who is visiting your web site, where they came from, and what they do when they get there. To make better use of this data, we refer some clients to Google Analytics.

What is Google Analytics (GA)

In short, GA is a traffic measurement application that emails results to you every Monday. It is free, convenient, and easy to manage through Google’s web interface. GA requires registration for a free Google account and some copying and pasting of html code on the pages of your website that you wish to track. The simple presentation of key information is a pleasure to use compared to most hosting web traffic applications. The layout is easier to follow and links to help, definitions and related Google content makes GA superior to many competitors. As an alternative, also consider some of the leading paid, commercial metric services, such as Haveamint.com that offer still more advanced features and customization.

Advantages of Google Analytics:

• View visitors by month, day or hour
• View where visitors are coming from geographically
• See if they found you using a search engine and which keywords were used
• See which other websites they were referred from (used a link)
• Analyze which pages receive the most visits, how long they stay, other pages of entry and exit
• Analyze your bounce rate, the % of visitors who click away from your site without visiting any other pages

How can you use this information?

GA emails you a detailed report in PDF form every Monday or you can login anytime to your account to study your website metrics. Use this newly generated information to:

• Determine which search engines and allied websites with reciprocal links send you traffic and which ones fail
• Discover how effective an advertising campaign is in sending you new traffic
• Save marketing dollars by stopping non-performing advertising efforts
• Rethink the effectiveness of your website pages and features-which pages are most popular and which are ignored
• Modify your page content and offer to increase site stickiness and reduce bounce rate
• Fine tune your overall site to convert initial visits into sales or qualified sales leads

Whether a small one-person venture or a large business enterprise, you must know how your company website performs as part of your overall marketing strategy. Accurate, informative web traffic statistics give you the hard evidence you need to be successful. Google Analytics offers one budget-friendly solution that can help many marketers reach their goals. Let us know if MH1 Web Design can help you implement Google Analytics today.

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