Basic and easy Tips on using your Website Statistics to powerfully increase your site's success?

“...I explained that analysing Website Statistics can have dramatic impact on your site's success. Dismissing my answer he explained, “I already having enough to do”.”

“Would you employ someone, then never check their work, never look in on them, review their progress, never monitor them or even see if they turned up for work?!...”

Hello %%First Name%%

Unfortunately the above example is quite a common response from business owners. Actually statistics show that up to a whopping 95% of businesses don't use the statistical information provided FREE from Google and/or third party services to improve their site's success!!

I heard a great analogy a while back that really hits the nail on the head about this…. A speaker asked “would you employ someone, then never check their work, never look in on them, review their progress, never monitor them or even see if they turned up for work?!” I am sure you wouldn't, so why do it with your #1 sales tool, your web site?!!

You have invested good money in your site, so checking, monitoring and analysing you web stats is a must!! Your web designer would have explained to you that the internet and web sites are in a constant state of innovation, so it is important your online business grows with these changes and keeps your site fresh, up to date and changing to suit your market and the expectations they have of your business / industry and technology. But how do you know what is working and what isn't? Or what to change or leave alone, update or remove, unless you review your statistics?!

Just a note: If anyone reading this says to themselves, “I don't know how to access my statistics” and uses that as an excuse, please read the above paragraph #2 again. (If it does seem all too much, just ask your web designer or feel free to contact me for assistance.)
As these are such valuable and important tools for all business owners, Google has tried to make it as simple as possible by offering an abundance of information online, making it very easy and helpful for anyone to understand and do.

To take advantage of these tools (if you don't have them already), all you need do is simply ensure you are Verified with Google Webmaster and also have Google Analytics code installed (and properly set-up) on your web pages. Most if not all the statistical information you need to know will be covered by these 2 tools, and being Google there is plenty of information in the help sections. If you still are unsure, Googling any topic will give you even more assistance.

If you don’t have Webmaster and Analytics associated with your website, speak to your web designer or email me to make an appointment to help get this done for you and also I can help further explain the basics to get you going and feeling confident. Just spending even 5 minutes a month to review your stats, could really surprise you on what you can learn and the impact it can have on your online business.

Below I have noted some basic features that may help you see the importance of reviewing them each month and help you to better understand your stats.

Some Basic Features To Look At.:

Google Webmaster Overview

Once Verified your Google Webmaster Dashboard will give you information such as the above when you log in to your account. Above;

- You can see the number of queries relating to your site's keywords.

- The number of time it is displayed in the Google search results lists.

- The number of clicks the listing received.

Same as the Google Analytics Overview (shown below), this graph gives you an at-a-glance report about your site traffic, the popularity of your site and its Content Keywords . And also importantly, how many clicks you are getting.

TIP: If you are getting high volume impressions but low clicks, it could be the descriptive text that displays in Google on the results page (see below example) and this may not be encouraging enough to entice people to click and visit your page.

How does Google see your website's Content Keywords

Using Webmaster you can see in density of the main keywords of your site, and this may relate to the Impressions and clock of your site, as I mentioned above.

These help tell Google who you are and what you do. Make sure you take time to write the content for your site, especially the Home page. Do a little research on writing webpage content for search engines and it could be very worthwhile.

TIP: Say for example I sold doors and windows, the main keywords should be related to variations of those terms and related terms. Put yourself in your markets shoes and think of the terms that clients may be using to search for your products/services. (This is a very simplistic explanation as there are many do's and don'ts when it comes to content.)

Links to your site

Google places great weight on links to your website and viewing this section you can see what sites may be linking to your site. Do a little research on 'in-bound links for SEO' and you will soon learn how valuable having these can be.

But the value of the links also plays a big part. Links that are from sites with a low PR (Page Rank) may offer little value and sites that are unrelated may also offer little or no link value at all.

TIP: There are a number of free tools online that will do a complete check on all the links to your website. Do a search on 'Backlink Checker' and use one of these to see in-depth reporting on all your inbound links. The same to see your website or other site's Page Rank (PR).

Google Analytics Overview

The above is what you are greeted with when you log into Analytics and simply reviewing this can be so very helpful.

Sessions are the number of times the site has been viewed and Users tells you how many people made up those sessions.

The other stats I think are quite self explanatory and of course all of these stats and more can be 'drilled down' to greater details within Analytics.

But one very important statistic above is the Bounce Rate. This is the percentage of people who do not venture past the first page. They either close the tab/window or hit the Back button.
You want people to venture further into your site, read and learn more about your business and why they should deal with you, so this figure needs to be worked on to get as low as possible.

Around the 30% mark is average, but of course the lower the better. (The scenario is different if you run a blog that is 1 long page.)

Of course some of the main reasons for high Bounce Rate are

- Old style/fashion sites that are not attractive and put modern visitors off.

- Using Flash/animated intro pages or similar that can be annoying to viewers and so they immediately click away. (Yes, if you still have a flash animation as the first page on your website it could be costing you dearly! (Especially Mobile Device viewers.)

- Poor or difficult to view/use navigation.

- Your page is a 'wall of text' and totally over-whelming or heavy graphics/video that is too slow to load.

- Your site simply doesn't look like it relates to the users search, such as the perception images or text give. (Using the Webmaster Keyword feature and Overview above can help diagnose this.)

TIP: If you have a high Bounce Rate, use the power of the digital web to change the text and/or images of the Landing Page/s to trial and find what is most successful for you to get visitors venturing further into your site.

Visitor Engagement

Following on from Bounce Rate, the above shows you how your site is engaging visitors by displaying how long they actually continue to stay on your site. Of course the goal is to keep people engaged and viewing your site, educating themselves about you and your services, so that they feel confident to make the next step, to contact you.

Monitor these stats to see how the body of your website is being received and if the content is written well enough to keep people on your website. Think of it like a Bounce Rate for each page... if they hit and go you are missing a prime opportunity to have conversations with your visitors. Like if you have a retail shop and you let people walk in and out and don't try engage them in conversations to see how you can best assist them.

TIP: A good result is a chart like the above where although the majority may be the hit-and-go visitors, a large volume is still taking the time to go through the site and so you see a second increase about half way down the graph.

The above are just a very few features and things to look for. Google Webmaster and Analytics have a lot more valuable information to offer which is really quite easy to access and understand, so do please make sure you have at least these associated with your website. Plus your web host should also offer you a comprehensive array of statistics.

I hope you found today's topics useful.

If you have any topics you would like me to address in these newsletters, or have further questions on this topic or anything else, please don't hesitate to contact me on support@redbackstudios.com.au or Reply to this mailing. Or if you would like to talk to me about setting up Google Webmaster and Analytics for your site and how to better utilise these, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Happy Stats reviewing.

Warm regards

Laurence

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