Reliable customer data is the foundation of a lucrative digital marketing strategy, but some business owners may find analytics tools to be intimidating. Fortunately, with the proper introduction, Google Analytics can be a very easy tool for first-timers, no matter their initial background. Once you get the basics down, you’ll have access to insights like who your customers are, how many people are visiting your site, which marketing tactics are working, and how many visitors have converted into customers. This guide will give you the information you need to get started.
Google Business Accounts
You might wonder if you need to create a separate Google business account for every Google Analytics account you have, and the answer is no. You can have up to 100 Google Analytics accounts for every one Google business account. Each one of those analytics accounts can have up to 50 website properties. That’s plenty of coverage, especially for small business owners.
Tracking IDs
Setting up tracking IDs can be daunting if you’re unfamiliar with the finer points of analytics. What you may not know is that it’s actually quite simple and you can do it yourself. There are short step-by-step guides online so don’t shy you away from jumping into the code. If your site is using HTML, just pop that tracking code in before the tag of each one of your pages within the site. Plus, if you want to incorporate tracking from other sources like Ad Words, the Google tabs manager makes it easy to do so.
Oh, and if you have a search bar on your website, you can track that too.
Setting Goals
To get started on your data collections, you’ll need to set your goals. That’s where you decide what counts as a conversion. The options are simple and the designations are essential. Once you save a goal, Google automatically begins collecting data that corresponds to your specifications. Setting goals can also be useful when automating responses to important events like triggering a "thank you” page after a customer makes a purchase.
Using the Dashboard
Here are some examples of reports you should take note of on the Google Analytics dashboard.
The home page of your account is the Audience Overview Report. Here you can learn all about who’s visiting your site including average age, gender, location and general interests. And if you’re wondering if most people visit your site from their computers or from a mobile device, you can find that here too.
If you’re curious about what’s driving all your traffic, the Acquisition Report is your best friend. Try out the Landing Pages link under the Search Console tab to find out which content on your site is the most engaging. Soon you’ll know what content works best and which landing pages you can think about eliminating.
Once you’re up and running in Google Analytics you can start tracking one of the most important metrics for your business, conversion rate. You’ll find these results in the Conversions Report.
Google makes it easy to share data and reports with clients, vendors, and teammates who do not have Google Analytics accounts. This can be accomplished in the Admin menu under User Management.
Keyword Data
It's important to note that many website operators have discovered that when using Google Analytics, up to 90% of keyword data can be hidden. This is frustrating but Google does it for a good reason, to enhance security for its users. Just know that you can uncover some of these keywords using the tools in Google Search Console.
Google Analytics is a very useful tool, and it’s free. Yes, there is a premium paid option, but the free version has everything you need to start crunching the numbers. So dust off your keyboard and dive in, and when you’re ready to take your data tracking to the next level, give the experts at Rebuild Group a call.