Small Business Owners Insight To a Google Analytic Report
How a small business owner can look at a Google Analytic Report and determine if traffic is moving in the right direction
When paying for a SEO service or even just a basic website management plan, normally you will receive a Google Analytic report. The problem is that business owners may not know what to look for or even what it means. Whoever sets it up the SEO analysis will typically use descriptive titles to help in the understanding of the information provided in reports that will be received. This blog will cover some basic understanding of the terms and reporting. Not only is it important to see what is going on in terms of traffic to your site but there is also a gauge you can see for your ROI. Our goal is for our clients to see the results of their SEO program and what actions to take for the most effective use of their investment.
What Type of Traffic
There are two major types of traffic that you will see in a basic analytics report, Organic traffic and Direct traffic. In the simplest terms, either someone will find your site organically by typing key terms or they directly typed in the website URL (www.company.com). Another metric to be considered is the posting of links on other sites (backlinks), otherwise known as referral traffic. Organic SEO is where you get the most bang out of your buck! Organic SEO will result in more qualified and relevant visitors to your website.
Bounce Rate and What That Means
When you see the bounce rate in your report, that percentage needs to be a lower number, not higher. A lower number means that visitors are staying on the pages longer and engaging with the content. A higher percentage number means visitors are coming to the website and leaving, with no engagement. The optimal solution is to enhance the content, and possibly place more actionable items above the fold. It is always important to know that this metric can look negative if they are coming from a mobile traffic heavy site like Twitter where a person may click to come to the site and leave.
Amount of time on a page
Looking at this metric is great if you are trying to see if visitors to your site are absorbing your information and if it correlates with the bounce rate. If there is a strong services page with a lot of content or options, you may want to know if visitors are just going straight to the Contact Us page or if they are just reviewing content. We tend to review and analyze this metric after updates have been made to elements on a page. Another benefit is to help determine where to place a Call To Action item.
Path through the site
Knowing how someone utilizes your site can help you, as a business owner, see the path to them becoming your customer. For example, if you notice that most people go to your homepage, skip everything else and just contact you, that means your site is potentially not compelling enough to give them what they are searching for or they just want to convert right away. For many companies, it is typical to see the common homepage, about us, service or item of interest, and then the contact us page. This would be the perfect path and an opportunity to convert them to a customer or engage the user each step of the way.
Updates to an already existing page and how to tell if it is working
In many times, just revamping an existing page with new web design or new and compelling content will garner more visitors to a page that was not previously performing well. After the changes are made, check to see if the path of the user has changed and if they are spending more time on that revamped page. Check the bounce rate and see if that has improved showing more engagement on the page. Lastly, just review the overall time they are spending on the site. For any SEO improvements, always check and see if more visitors are organically are reaching the desired page.
At CTI, we are proud of the services we offer from Web Design, Web Development, and SEO. When our clients have a better understanding of the work we are putting into the services we offer, they recognize the value and dedication. If you are looking for any of the services we offer, contact us today and let’s start the process today. If you are just enjoying the article, then stay tuned to our future blogs and be sure to check out the previous posts. Our number one goal is to provide quality to everyone that we do business with.
