We’ve been publishing content this month about Google Analytics and how to apply it (and other non-Google tools) to websites. Our amazing blog experts have taught us a thing or two.
Yesterday’s webinar included more analytics lessons. Carlin Leung, Strategic Analyst for Quietly, joined our own Josh Ades for a helpful look at Google Analytics. Don’t worry if you missed the webinar; we have your analytics needs covered. Look below for key takeaways, the webinar recording and a SlideShare presentation featuring the webinar slides.
1. Key Takeaway #1: Find Your Website’s Purpose
A few years ago, it was fine to stuff local business websites with content. You know the usual suspects: bios and About Us pages; products and recent news headlines. While that content can still be valuable, websites for brick-and-mortar businesses need to ask a visitor to do something. It’s your job to decide the “what.”
Examples of purposes are:
> Book an appointment
> Find address or contact info
> Sign up for our newsletter
2. Key Takeaway #2: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
We know you look gorgeous! It’s your hair. No, wait. It’s definitely your smile. You have a lovely smile.
See what we did there? We flattered you. We appealed to your vanity.
That’s what counting page views does for your website: it’s all vanity. Tracking overall site visitors doesn’t help if you aren’t accomplishing your goal(s) with the site. Track specifics related to your goal or goals.
3. Key Takeaway #3: Get Going
So, regarding #3, here’s what to track:
4. Don’t Fear the Bounce Rate
Often, content marketers become slaves to the dreaded “bounce rate” analytic. Carlin told us that the bounce rate might not mean what we think it means. Here’s a great blog post excerpt from Quietly that explains this concept in more depth:
“Based on GA’s definition, “bounce rate” is the percentage of single-page sessions. This implies that a visitor could land on your page, consume all of your content, exit off the same page and still count as a “bounce”—for the sole reason of not advancing to a second page. (This, of course, is a simplistic way of interpreting bounce rate—we’ll get into the specifics concerning measurement later—but it’s important to remember.)
Not all “bounced” sessions are created equal. A 5-minute session obviously signals higher visitor engagement than a 30-second session, but this time distinction may not be reflected in the data GA displays (assuming these were single-page sessions). Translation: this is bad news for content-heavy sites that are only producing content as its main attraction.” Source: Quietly
Want to hear the entire webinar for yourself? Click on the video player (above) or click through the slides (below). Did you attend the webinar? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Alex is Connectivity’s VP of Marketing.
