#GoogleAnalyticsTips

What is Google Analytics, and how can you use it for your own website? Today, I will answer these questions and more with an article by Jennifer Lonoff Schiff of CIO. We will also put the Spotlight on Twitter, who uses this program to their advantage.

8 Tips with Schiff

Before we begin our tips, let me give an explanation for those of you out there who don't know exactly what Google Analytics is and does. Google Analytics is a program used by many websites to determine different traffic aspects of a website, such as how many people visit the site, where they're from, etc. Many successful companies use this program to their advantage when it comes to building their business website. Now that you know what this program is, let's look at these tips on how to use this program to your own advantage.

The first tip provided by Schiff after her conversations with experts on the subject is to know how people are accessing your website the most through Google Analytics, or whatever analytics program that you use. Once you figure out how, then you need to build your site around that technology that people are using to access your site. For example, if most of your site traffic is coming from laptops, then you need to make sure that your site is best represented in that fashion.

The second tip is to use your analytics program to figure out how people are getting to your website. Are they going through Google? Did they click an ad? Did they just type in the address directly? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you know how to optimize which avenue is being used the most when it comes to getting consumers to your site.

The third tip is to know where your visitors on your website are from. You can definitely use this to your advantage through Google Analytics. You can spend more time and resources on the places that people are from the most in order to increase traffic and sales.

The fourth tip for using Google Analytics to your advantage is to study the "demographics" of your visitors (Schiff). This will also help you to determine which people to spend time on the most when it comes to getting people to your site.

The fifth tip is to analyze what exactly your visitors are looking for via the "search" engine on your website (Schiff). This will help you to determine what your consumers want, need, and what they're looking for to buy. In this way, you can figure out how to fill those wants and needs of your visitors.

The sixth tip is to "learn where visitors are landing" (Schiff). Now, by "landing" (Schiff), she doesn't mean that E.T. landed on your website wanting to "phone home". What Schiff is describing here is what's called a "'Landing Page'" (Nick Mather qtd. in Schiff). This is the page that most people first encounter when entering your site. This will help you to improve upon and make sure that the first thing that people see keeps them exploring your website.

The seventh tip is making sure whichever of your "calls to action" intrigues people and makes them want to stay on your website (Schiff). Google Analytics can show you what visitors are intrigued by the most per number of "clicks" of certain "links" (Brendan Cournoyer qtd. in Schiff). You can use this to know what people like on your site and what keeps them engaged.

The eighth and final tip (Woohoo! You made it!) is to use your analytics "to see where your losing customers" via "bounce rates" (Schiff). "Bounce rates" refer to people who get on your site and then leave quickly afterward (Schiff). Through this method, you can see where and what you need to improve on your site in order to keep moving forward successfully.

Jennifer Lonoff Schiff interviewed quite a few experts to come up with these tips, as you can see, so this article is definitely top notch and worth looking at for yourself. I highly recommend it if you're currently building a website and plan on utilizing an analytics program.

Spotlight

#Success! Twitter is one of the world's leading social media websites, and, according to an article by George Gill of Gill Solutions Management, it is one of the more well-known companies in the world to use Google Analytics.

Did you know that as a Twitter user you can see these analytics applied to your own account? If you go to analytics.twitter.com and sign in to your Twitter account, you can see your analytics on a per-month basis. Some of these include your Top Tweet for the month, your Top Mention, how many followers you've gained or lost, and more! You can also see the growth of your profile visits and how many times people have seen your posts. To get a good idea of how analytics works, I truly recommend seeing a company such as Twitter do it successfully. Go check it out now! Have fun with your analytics journey!



Pictures found on Google Images. I do not own these pictures, nor the Twitter and E.T. trademarks and quotes. This is being used for educational purposes.