If you want your business to succeed online, you definitely need to know how to use various tools in order to help you achieve your goal. One of the major strategies being implemented is SEO. Ranking high in search engines means people are more likely to go to your website for what they need, and it is important to aim for the top spot as studies have shown that a vast majority of internet users only try out the first few results on any given keyword search.

Google Analytics allows you to create a plan in order to improve your online presence.

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There are a multitude of strategies you need to employ to make your SEO campaign successful, and many more tools that are able to help you along the way. One of the most well-known, however, is Google Analytics. It is the most widely used web-analytics platform on the internet and here, we lay down just what this popular service is, why it is so useful, and some tips on making full use of it, even if you’re a beginner.

What is Google Analytics?

This freemium web analytics service has been offered by Google as a part of the Google Marketing Platform brand since 2005. In a nutshell, what it does is report and track website traffic, which allows you to monitor how certain strategies are affecting your website’s performance. It is also integrated with Google AdWords, meaning users are able to keep an eye on online campaigns by keeping track of the quality of the landing page, as well as the number of conversions.

When we say goals, we don’t only mean sales either, as the term can also encompass lead generation and a number of views a certain page will reach. The platform shows the users a large amount of data laid out on a dashboard, and even more in-depth data for those who want a more detailed report. The service is able to detect pages that are performing poorly, as well as where visitors come from and how long they stayed on the website. There are a plethora of other features and benefits provided by Google Analytics, and we will discuss some of them later on.

Why is Google Analytics so useful?

 One of the biggest reasons why you should make use of Google Analytics is because of how useful it can be to your online marketing campaign. It has the ability to automatically collect data from your website, and then it will simply send in regular reports. You basically don’t have to do anything but wait for the results to come in. These reports are also customizable, wherein you can choose the dimensions and the metrics that you want to be included in each report the software generates.

You get to know the age, location, and gender of your visitors and it could also tell you the reason (if any) why your visitors are bouncing out of your website. It can even tell what kind of device the person used in order to access your website. As mentioned before, it can also tell you where your visitors come from, which is very useful in regard to choosing which social media platform to invest more ads in. Lastly, it is a free-to-use service, which is one of the biggest reasons why even start-up businesses already make use of Google Analytics in their online marketing efforts.

Some tips on making use of Google Analytics

Now that you know what you’ve been missing out on, you should definitely make use of Google Analytics as soon as possible. So, once you have it, you now question yourself on what to do next. Well, what you need to do next is to set up your account, as well as the property (which is where you send information and configure reporting views). You will need to fill up a form, wherein you are given the chance to organize your Google Analytics account under your Google account. For one Google account, you can sign up to 100 Analytics accounts, each one capable of holding 50 website properties max.

It should also be noted that you cannot transfer a website property to another account. After that, the system will guide you through several steps, which will have you end up at the dashboard. Now, most likely, you will want to know where you can find the actual data you want—traffic information. Conveniently, it is located on the homepage of Google Analytics, and this will be the first page you see after logging in. The default view of the dashboard will show you traffic for the past seven days, the time that people are most likely to visit the website, as well as how many people are on the page at that moment.

Maximize your time spent on Google Analytics by understanding the data being reported.

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The dashboard section of Google Analytics basically shows you almost everything that you want to know about your website. However, we do advise you dive deeper. For example, when you click on the Audience Overview button, it will bring you over to a larger view of your traffic. Here, you will see the numbers regarding each day, hour, week, and month. This section will also show you how many times a user has visited your domain, as well as the actual number of views per page and average duration of a visitor’s stay. It also shows you how many people return to your page after their first visit.

Arguably one of the best sections of Google Analytics, however, is the behavior feature. This is where you should focus a good piece of your time on the software, as it can tell you which content pieces are the most popular on your website. It will also tell you if your landing page is doing well and will allow you to discern whether your landing pages have been effectively converting people. Another section that you should also check out, although a lot of users dread it, is the Exit Pages portion. Here, it will show you the pages where your visitors lost interest in your website.

This is very useful, as it can tell you where your weak spots are. You can then check the page out and see what’s causing your visitors to bounce from your website. However, one of the biggest pieces of advice we can give you is to make sure to spend time on Google Analytics. Despite the fact that you can easily see all the data just by logging in, make sure you familiarize yourself with Google Analytics. The service deepens your understanding of your visitors, all in all making it easier for you to know how you can better improve your online presence.

Conclusion

Online marketing is no easy task. Despite the multitude of tools like Google Analytics that help you out, there is no true replacement for the professionals who make it their life’s work to help companies improve their standing online. This is why you should consider making use of companies who do BPO, also known as business process outsourcing. Outsourcing your work to the professionals ensure you can maximize your online marketing efforts. These processes aren’t fit for your everyday administrative assistant, which is why it is also wise to consider offshoring some work as well. Check out what we can do here at SquareFish, and you might find out we’re just what you need in order to maximize your online campaigns.

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