Websites are not only that first handshake to a potential customer, but they are also a vital tool for your business to track and collect information. After months of planning, design has been completed, development is done, and your website is live, it’s important to make sure that your website is equipped with the proper tools to help you maximize your results.
In this three part series, I will explore some of my favorite website tools that provide some of that vital information.
1. Google Analytics
In a nutshell, Google Analytics is a website traffic analysis resource that breaks down visitor traffic to your site and displays the findings for you to view and create reports. Basically, it provides a detailed insiders look on who is visiting your website! First off, Google Analytics offers many beneficial elements to further gain insight about of who is visiting your site.
The reporting further continues to impress by providing information on the amount of pages visited, average visit time (how long is someone staying on your website), percentage of new visits, and the bounce rate (how many viewers are leaving your site vs. looking at other pages). Other analysis options include reporting on viewer’s language, browsers (are they viewing your site in Chrome?), operating systems, service provider, and mobile information.
Google Analytics even provides real-time tracking so that you can receive stats on who is looking at your website at this very moment!. However, the main (and I think probably the most relevant) category that Google Analytics tracks information by, is location.
Location
The location report is by far one of my favorites. It’s always so interesting to me to see where in the world people are viewing my website.
The location option can tailor results by:
– Continent
– Sub Continent Region
– Country
– City
When selecting the city option, the results display the traffic from a period of days (you can choose the date range) from all cities that have visited your website, and goes even a step further and provides detailed city-specific information. Reports track daily visits and even show what time the viewer visited your site, along with the amount of pages they visited, average stay on your website, percentage of new visits, and the bounce rate. Using Google Analytics for the location reporting is a great option to use for providing and tracking results if your website is tailored to market to a specific city or if you are doing a marketing campaign that is geared towards a location.
To receive tracking by Google Analytics, first create an account, insert the custom UA code into the header of each web page you want to track and watch the reports start to generate. Please note… when using Google Analytics don’t forget to block your IP Address to ensure that your traffic reporting is accurate and is not taking into consideration how many times you visit your own site.
Enjoy!
> Read Part 2 of Essential Website Tools – Google Webmaster Tools
> Read Part 3 of Essential Website Tools – Backups
R2F Creative LLC provides graphic design + branding and web design solutions for clients nationwide and locally in Ankeny and Des Moines, Iowa.
