Did you know that 92% of searches worldwide are performed using Google?
It’s no surprise that Google Analytics is the most powerful tracking tool for visitor behavior on a website. Thankfully, any skill level can successfully use Google Analytics, and on top of that, it’s free.
Here’s a short primer on getting started with Google Analytics:
First, you’ll need to set up a Google Analytics account. When setting up your account, you’ll be asked to give your website URL. You’ll be provided with a tracking code to add to any page on your website that you wish to track.
Once your Google Analytics account is set up, you’ll see standard reports on the left-hand sidebar that give an overview of your site’s performance—Real-time, Audience, Acquisition, Behavior, and Conversions. This is where you’ll find a clear picture of how your website is performing.
Let’s take a closer look at three of these.
1. Audience
This is one of the most powerful pieces of reporting you can access from Google Analytics. The Audience reports give you detailed information about visitors to your site: demographics, interests, location, behavior, etc. This information is incredibly beneficial for creating customer personas, choosing content topics for direct emails, or tailoring your brand’s look and feel.
2. Acquisition
While Audience gives you an idea of who is visiting your website, Acquisition tells you what your audience is searching for related to your business and where your website visitors are coming from. For example, if you see a large jump in visitors coming from a Facebook ad, you’ll use this data to calculate the ROI on that campaign.
3. Behavior
With this tool, you can learn which pages of your website are the most popular, which pages have the slowest load time, and which pages your audience bounces (or leaves) from. This is where you look if you want to know what parts of your website are not meeting the needs of your audience.
Beyond these three areas, there’s a multitude to explore in Google Analytics: custom reports, dashboards, integrations, and more. Are you interested in upping your game in Google Analytics? Our ten-week course gets you ready for the next step in your digital marketing career.
Google Analytics is a must-have for any digital marketer. With it, you’ll be able to make informed decisions about your online presence, your product, and your audience. Without it, you’ll be sailing a vast ocean without a compass or map (which is to say, very lost).
