Google Analytics: Still Massively Underused

One of Google’s most prestigious tools is their Analytics platform. A tool that provides so much insight into how a website is performing (or how it isn’t) and there are still so many businesses that aren’t utilising this tool to make the most of their website / online marketing efforts.

There are so many different information resources available within Analytics, ranging from a simple overview of the quantity and quality of traffic including metrics such as average session duration, bounce rate etc all the way to segments that allow you to specify and make your own metrics such as page-scroll depth, conversion rates and much more.

This article will cover off just a few metrics that you should consider measuring or adding to your Analytics account and how they will directly impact the way you look at your website and the next steps you should take in marketing your business online:

Device Analysis:

Audience > Mobile > Overview

By visiting this part of Analytics, you are able to view a device split of the traffic that visits your website as well as some general metrics that show how each traffic channel is performing.

Bounce Rate indicates how many users visit your website / one of your pages and then leave again in a very short amount of time. This metric can help identify some critical problems very quickly, including things such as:

• Wrongfully titled content (misleading information)
• Badly optimised pages
• Loading errors
• Uninteresting Content

Webpage Analysis:

Behaviour > Site Content > All Pages

This page shows you how each and every single one of your pages on your website is performing. Just like the above device analysis, this page shows individual metrics for each and every single page and allows you to sort these by smallest > largest (and vice versa) by clicking on the tables.

Again, these metrics will help you quickly identify which pages aren’t performing well and which pages are.

Traffic Analysis:

Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels

This page shows you an accurate representation of where all your website traffic is coming from. This is broken up into different categories, and can be clicked on to view further information for some of the channels:

• Direct – people visiting the website by typing in the URL or visiting a bookmarked page.
• Organic – Traffic that has come from a search engine (Google, Bing) that isn’t advertised.
• Paid Search – Traffic that has come through an advertised search engine channel (Google AdWords, Bing Ads etc)
• Referral – Users that have clicked on a link on another website that leads to yours
• Email Marketing – Users who have clicked on your website link from within an email.
• Social – Visitors that have found your website through social media and have clicked a link to visit the website.

This again shows the same metrics as the previous two analysis pages stated in this article and helps you measure the quality of different channels against each-other.

Custom Reports:

Another massively underused area of Google Analytics is the custom reports. With the custom reports, you are able to set up completely custom metrics and track very in-depth information such as traffic quality on an hourly basis.

There is a great guide by Online Metrics on how to set up one of these hours of the day reports and can be done in a very short amount of time if you follow the instructions correctly.

If you are running Google AdWords, this report is perfect for identifying when your money is being wasted (due to low-quality clicks and no conversions) and re-allocating this budget to times of the day when there are conversions and relevant traffic coming through.

Want to learn more?

Get in touch with us and we’d be happy to discuss with you further how to use Google Analytics to it’s fullest extent and what else it can bring to your business.

Square Media is Northamptonshire’s premiere Web Design & Marketing Agency experienced in developing effective content and marketing strategies for forward-thinking companies in the local area. Our team of specialists consistently deliver outstanding results working in a variety of areas such as Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media Marketing Consultancy, Pay Per Click (PPC) and AdWords Management amongst a wide range of other services.