Listen closely and you will realize that the word “analytics” has become a major buzzword for digital marketing. In a nutshell, analytics refers to the work that involves identifying relevant data patterns.
What is web analytics? For relevant purposes, analytics applies to website traffic. Without a proper way to measure and assess your website properties, anything applied to marketing becomes a guessing game, and who can afford to guess in today’s competitive environment?
Understanding web analysis and the tools used for it also allows website owners to better adopt an overall marketing strategy. When you apply analytics early on, you can eliminate or reduce hardships and increase your level of insight.
How to Use Web Analytics Tools to Improve Your Marketing Campaigns
1. Your website should be a gathering hub where visitors come to learn more about your products and services. Ultimately, you want those visitors to make a purchase. One of the first metrics to consider is the total number of visits.
2. You then look at the percentage of visitors compared to how many are new. New visitors mean your site attracts new prospects. Does your website offer enough value for people to return?
3. One of the most popular web analytics tools is Google Analytics. By default, it organizes traffic into eight distinct channels. These channels include organic search, direct, email, referral, paid search, social, display, and a category of other advertising elements. Each metric channel displays a certain behavior pattern that you can become familiar with.
4.You can also check the bounce rate of visitors using web analytics tools. How many people left your site after reviewing only one page? You want this number to be low. Of course, there are several things that can contribute to high bounce rates. Poor content could be one reason. Usability and poor presentation could be additional causes. Also, keep in mind that it does not necessarily mean that something is wrong when visitors only visit a single page. If they get the information they need, there may not be a reason to visit a second page.
5. Conversion success does not always mean that someone will buy a product or service. The end game of SEO is to increase revenue. Every website will have a different sales funnel. There are numerous steps in the engagement cycle that deserve attention and analysis. A conversion goal can be an email subscription, someone submitting a contact form, downloads, or a live-chat engagement.
6. With web analysis, you can also measure engagement and determine website visitor behavior. The overall engagement will take into consideration the number of pages visited and the time spent on each one. Valuable content is one sure thing that can improve the length of time visitors remain on a page.
Choosing the Right Web Analytics Tools or Software
We think there are a number of questions that you can ask yourself before choosing an analytics software solution. You must have a solid idea of what you want your analytics to address. Ask yourself why you need a particular tool. What are the actions that your data will drive? How might you use it to impact your activities and decisions? These are big questions and they represent a challenge for many.
Your web analytics tools can take a closer look at landing pages. High ranking landing pages rank for a reason. Closely examine the keywords, meta data, page structure, and content. You can also customize and create landing pages for specific marketing campaigns.
Quite often, exit pages are overlooked in the overall grand scheme of things. The exit page is the very last page that users visit before surfing elsewhere or closing the tab. Pages with high exit percentages deserve their own analysis. Several prominent analytics programs include the following:
- Google Analytics – Google’s Analytics serves as the benchmark for all the analytics programs. It offers a ton of metrics reporting and is great for A/B testing. It is free.
- Adobe Digital Marketing Suite – It has a drag-and-drop dashboard with embedded reports and a host of options marketers can customize. Users can also use it for A/B testing.
- IBM Coremetrics Web Analytics – This is a part of IBM’s Enterprise Marketing Management Group. It offers insights on industry leaders and data that marketers can leverage.
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