Did you know that 80 percent of retailers use Google Analytics incorrectly? So says analytics expert and entrepreneur Neil Patel on his Quick Sprout blog. (Tip: Quick Sprout is a powerful resource for small business owners looking to navigate the complex world of SEO and online marketing.) Understanding how to correctly interpret your site’s analytics has the power to increase your site traffic, improve conversion rates, and strengthen your business.

Of all site analytics, you’ll most likely hear about traffic most frequently. At first glance, traffic concerns how many people come to your website. Complexity (and valuable insight) arises when you look at the many ways people arrive and move through your site. Use that knowledge to help you increase traffic to your site:

• Was this direct traffic to your website? If so, are these returning visitors? Do they have your website bookmarked?
• If not a direct visit, was it a referral that brought people to the front door? Niche forums, sub- Reddits, and blogs can be huge for your brand, but you’ll have to work for it. In online communities look for topics that you can contribute to and reply to relevant threads without crossing the line of spamming or over-selling yourself. The end game is to provide value to get seen. As for top referring blogs, nurture that relationship with a reciprocal set-up and tap into cross-promotional opportunities like customized incentive offers.
• Did people come to you via one of your social media outlets, such as Facebook or Twitter? Once you know your most effective vehicle, take a peek in the magnifying glass. Why exactly was this particular post so effective and engaging? Did this same type of post yield similar results in recent history? Once you know what works, focus your future energies in that sweet spot.

With a firm grasp on traffic, you’ll also have a pretty reliable window to know when (day of the week, time of day) your posts will get the most bang for your buck.

How connected is your audience to your website? If you want your audience engaged, you’ll need to hold up your end of the bargain and put out great content. If you aren’t sure where you stand, look at your site analytics to answer these questions:

• How much time are people spending on your website?
• How many pages do they visit when they are there? Similarly, do you have pages that everyone visits (or everyone misses)?
• What is your bounce rate of people that leave right away? Is there a page that is causing them to flee?

As the puzzle comes together, you’ll see what content is keeping people with you and what is falling short. Above all, solid content is the backbone of your website’s success.

This metric is especially critical to any business that sells products/services on a website. The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who make a purchase. The path to purchase should be clear and concise. With enhanced accessibility and usability, the process should make it effortless for your customers to complete a transaction.

For example, is the shopping cart prominently visible? Is it easy to update quantities? Can customers provide basic information (contact details, credit card) for a quick checkout, or are they too bogged down with unnecessary required form fields? And, most importantly, is there a drop off point where people give up before pressing submit? Fix it immediately and make sure the path to conversion is seamless!

You most likely already live and breathe the world of keywords in your constant quest to uncover the magical phrases that will boost your online visibility. With site analytics, you can better understand if you’ve chosen keywords wisely.

For example, what keywords have the most impressions and drive the most traffic? Use these keywords in page titles, descriptions, image titles, alt tags, and anchor text for internal links (with proper rotation) to improve your Click Through Rate (CTR) of the keywords that are working. And, for your most popular keywords that drive traffic, create more of this content that people are demanding and complement it with other similar topics.

Compared to your website, how are you faring with your mobile version? Do you have a higher bounce off rate on your mobile app? Are you finding more conversion rate dead ends? Make sure your mobile user experience is just as good (if not better) as your website experience, especially as more users are relying on their smart phones and tablets as their primary online device.

There is no magic formula for how often you should look at your site analytic reports, but some SBOs log in a few times a day. With this constant focus and data-driven information, it’s simple to make small adjustments and tweaks here and there to improve the website with minimal effort. However you go about it, remember that site analytics are the only way that you can build, maintain, and grow your online connection to your customers in the most effective way.

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References:
http://www.quicksprout.com/2015/03/06/how-to-improve-your-marketing-with-google-analytics-data