Google Analytics for online businesses
Google Analytics is an excellent tool to track how people are using your site when they visit, and to give you a profile of who they are, so you can target audiences more efficiently. The top benefits of Google Analytics are:
You can target your online visitors
Using Google Analytics you can see which source is driving traffic to your website (direct or organic, paid, a particular campaign, etc), where they’re visiting your site from, their age, gender, and what device they’re using. You can also see the number of transactions, bounce rates, and sessions your website has. Using this information you can create campaigns that effectively target the right people.
You can evaluate traffic flow through your site
Google Analytics’ Behaviour Flow tool shows you how people are moving through your website, showing the most popular landing pages and drop off points as people click through the website or make purchases.
You can track your campaign performance
You can track certain promotions or ad campaigns and see how many conversions you’re getting from them using the Acquisition tool, and keep a running tally of cashflow.
You can set goals and monitor performance
Google Analytics lets you set goals for each campaign, like how many people performed a quick search for a particular thing, how many people added an item to their shopping cart, or how many people completed a purchase. You can monitor how well your goals are tracking and take the necessary actions to achieve your target.
You can measure your content’s compatibility with your users
Google Analytics is great at telling you how your user base is using your website, and so you can check how well your content is being received, and why. If your content is optimised for Safari but doesn’t load so well on Chrome or Firefox, Google Analytics will let you know where you need to improve so you can reach your users more effectively.
It will help you to decide which social media platforms to use
Social media can be an expensive gamble, so knowing where most of your users are engaging is useful. Google Analytics can see where your users are and you can direct your time and effort towards that platform instead of sinking money into something that isn’t working.
It will teach you about keywords and SEO
Google search engines are the main vehicle that will drive traffic to your website, so you need to be high in their rankings. Relevant keywords and search terms embedded in your URLs will help get you the attention you want, and Google Analytics shows you which keywords attract the most visitors and not only give you a breakdown of which queries are bringing users to your site, but also tell you which page they’re landing on within the site.
It will help you determine your next steps
All of the information gathered by Google Analytics will allow you to understand what your visitors want from your site, and you can use that information to build your next campaign or product, designing it specifically around what your users have shown you they want.
Best of all, it’s completely free to use
Google Analytics costs absolutely nothing to install on your website, unlike other analytics tools that can have monthly subscriptions or freemium models. Google Analytics supplies you with a wealth of information that can really boost your business and give you valuable insights into your customer base for free, so it’s accessible to small home business owners that might otherwise be disadvantaged by a lack of funds.