Make Better Use of Google Analytics Make Better Use of Google Analytics
Google Analytics is one of the most useful and misunderstood business tools on the planet. For many businesses, Google Analytics is “there” but has never been set up is a useful way, or is very rarely revisited to see what analytics are actually being provided.
Analytics can tell us all manner of things, but what we really need to know is the data to help us make more informed decisions on where to spend our budget and how better to understand our users. And that can be as simplistic or complex as your decision-makers need it to be.
A couple of years ago Google brought us Data Studio, a free data visualisation tool designed to present analytics data in a more user-friendly package. This is incredibly useful in order to simplify the reporting on basic website aspects such as:
- Comparative monthly website traffic from 12 months previous.
- Search terms that are being used to discover your website.
- Exit points that may be modified to convert an “exit” into an enquiry.
- Popular content and frequently visited pages.
- New users in comparison to returning users.
- Social media traffic referrals and so on.
How To Set It Up
Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Data Studio are all free. However, they are quite complex to integrate. If you have a passion for website integration and enjoy looking through hours of YouTube tutorials, go for your life. But otherwise, have a talk to your marketing people or your website manager and they will be able to set these things up for you.