The Importance of Website Analytics

What exactly are website analytics? In short, it’s any of the data that shows how visitors are finding your website, how many people are visiting your website, or how long the average user is spending on your website. Website analytics are extremely important for companies to monitor, but nowadays there is so much data that it can be hard to figure out which groups of data, or which analytics, are most important.

There are several key aspects of website analytics that will provide companies with the most useful data, and when monitored correctly, can both maximize user experience and ensure that company goals are met.

Tracking Your Website Traffic

Your website’s traffic analytics can reveal how users are navigating to your site and the platforms that are more effective in attracting visitors. Are your website visits from a paid campaign or are they organic results? If most visitors are accessing your site on a mobile device, is your website mobile-friendly? Looking into your website’s traffic analytics can provide insight into what your site is doing well and how it can improve.

Organic Traffic vs. Paid Traffic: Organic traffic comes from search engines and is unpaid for, such as a website that is at the top of the search results because it contains the most relevant keywords. Paid traffic results from a PPC campaign or a paid ad placement. While both can be useful, the goal for all companies should be to attract mostly organic traffic.

Methods of Viewing: Looking into how visitors are viewing your site is another important aspect of traffic analysis. These analytics can show if a lot of visitors are accessing your site through mobile devices or on laptops. If this data shows changes need to be made to make a website more mobile-friendly, it can be done before customer experience is impacted.

Website Activity: Traffic analytics don’t just show how visitors are accessing your website. You can also see how many visitors are on your site and how long they’re staying. If a website has a lot of traffic but high bounce rates this could indicate that the site is missing something customers are looking for.

Choosing Website Analytics Platforms

There are countless analytics tools. These can be used to acquire the real-time data that enables you to better understand your website’s performance. Here are a few in our tool kit:

1. Google Analytics: Google Analytics, which is probably the most popular option, allows you to see a customized report of your website analytics. You’ll be able to see bounce rates, viewer demographics, and even the number of times your content is shared.
2. SEMRush: Another platform for analytics is Semrush. Semrush allows you to segment your analytics based on region, monitor SEO, and compare data to competitors.
3. Clicky: Clicky provides real-time data in a way that is clear and easy to interpret. Reports on who visited your website, how they got there, and how long they stayed on the page are listed, so companies can readily analyze the data.

Assessing Your Website Analytics

After looking over your analytics, you should have a better idea of what is working and what needs improvement. Here are some examples.

User Experience: If your data is showing that not many visitors are staying on your website for long enough, this could be because of the design and landing page. If the landing page is too confusing, lacks a call to action, or is not mobile-friendly, this could cause users to leave the site. User experience is essential for a successful website, so improving these aspects is key to keeping customers.

Maximizing SEO: If the data is showing the majority of your website’s traffic is not organic, this could indicate that you are not using the right keywords in your content. When users search using keywords, articles with that keyword are going to be placed higher on the results page. Maximizing your SEO will improve your position in the search results.

Geotargeting: If the data shows a lot of people viewing your website from the same area, you could use this as an opportunity to target your advertisements to what would appeal to that area. Geotargeting allows companies to take advantage of having a lot of visitors in one area by giving them the chance to understand their audience and what they’re looking for.

Looking at your website analytics is essential to the success of your site. Organic traffic rates, bounce rates, and visit times all provide insight into how your website is being perceived by your audience. By assessing your analytics and what they mean, you’ll be able to maximize the success of your website and ensure customer satisfaction.

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