{"id":386,"date":"2014-01-31T11:12:22","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T16:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/?p=386"},"modified":"2019-05-16T14:27:59","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T18:27:59","slug":"what-can-google-analytics-tell-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sharpinnovations.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/what-can-google-analytics-tell-you\/","title":{"rendered":"What Can Google Analytics Tell You?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have been using Google Analytics with our clients for several years, and it is one of the most powerful, no cost tools available. Just about any activity or interaction from visitors on your site can be measured with Google Analytics. In this post, we\u2019ll focus on a few specific features that can help you make adjustments to your website and keep it moving forward.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n
    Do I need a mobile website?<\/div>\n

    Google tracks mobile and tablet views to your website, so if you have seen a steady increase in the percentage of traffic coming from these sources, then it would be safe to say you should explore adding a mobile website or responsive design elements. With the recent \u201cHummingbird\u201d changes to Google\u2019s rankings algorithm<\/a>, not having a mobile website will likely cause a drop in your rankings if they haven\u2019t already started doing so. Data for this is available under the \u201cStandard Reports\u201d tab on the left, then \u201cAudience,\u201d \u201cMobile,\u201d and \u201cOverview.\u201d All you need to do is sort by an appropriate time period. Typically, we advise that a recent, significant increase, or anything over 10%, indicates a site that is a good candidate for a mobile version or a responsive redesign.<\/p>\n

    \"Google <\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n
    What are my top traffic sources?<\/div>\n

    Creating a diverse Internet marketing plan for your website is important to building traffic. Tactics can include an ongoing, organic SEO effort, a pay-per-click campaign, multiple social media pages, and more. Google Analytics can show you which of these efforts is yielding the best results. This data is available under the \u201cStandard Reports\u201d tab on the left, then \u201cAcquisition,\u201d and \u201cChannels.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \"Google <\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n
    Do any pages need to be reviewed or updated to improve the user experience?<\/div>\n

    Your website is built for your customers, and making sure they like what they find on your site is important. Of course, knowing what any given customer will like isn\u2019t easily identified, but looking at site data can give you some clues. Ideally, you are looking for a low bounce rate with a high average time on page (although there are exceptions, such as a contact page, where users are normally getting your phone number and leaving relatively quickly). This bounce rate and time on page data is a fantastic way to see if your content is useful and being read. If it\u2019s not, then you can test out alternatives. This is available under the \u201cStandard Reports\u201d tab on the left, then \u201cBehavior,\u201d \u201cSite Content,\u201d and \u201cAll Pages.\u201d You can set up custom filters right above the grey menu bar below the graph by clicking the blue \u201cadvanced\u201d bar. In our example, we defined all possible problem pages as anything with 50 page views, a bounce rate over 80%, and an average time on page under 50 seconds.<\/p>\n

    \"Google <\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As we have noted in the above examples, Google Analytics can be an important resource to research and answer many performance-related questions about your website. If you have a question you\u2019d like to ask us about your website, be sure to reach out to our team via our contact page<\/a>, or send us a message on our social channels. And if you realized you probably need a mobile website (now that you examined the data), we can help with that, as well<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    We have been using Google Analytics with our clients for several years, and it is one of the most powerful, no cost tools available. Just about any activity or interaction from visitors on your site can be measured with Google Analytics. In this post, we\u2019ll focus on a few specific features that can help you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,14],"tags":[20,21,110,22],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mobile-web-design","category-seo","tag-google-analytics","tag-google-hummingbird","tag-mobile-web-design","tag-organic-seo"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Can Google Analytics Tell You? - Sharp Innovations Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We have been using Google Analytics with our clients for several years, and it is one of the most powerful, no cost tools available. Just about any activity or interaction from visitors on your site can be measured with Google Analytics. 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