If you manage your own website, you’ve probably figured out by now that SEO isn’t just a one-time task – it’s a process. Successful SEO involves a lot of tracking and testing to determine what is and what isn’t working for your site. If you aren’t using Google Analytics with your site yet, you could be missing out on one of the most valuable (and free) tools that will help track the performance of your site so you can improve it.
If you’re new to analytics, it can be somewhat overwhelming to decipher all of the data it provides and find out how to use it to improve your site. If you find yourself in that position, don’t think you have to be an SEO expert to make use of the data. Here is a basic guide to how you can use Google Analytics to track your site’s data and use it to improve your SEO and overall site performance.
1. Make sure your Google Analytics tracking code is installed properly
When you create a Google Analytics account for your site, Google will provide you with a specific tracking code that should be embedded in the code of each page on your site. This allows your analytics account to track the visitor behavior on each page of your site. Some people make the mistake of only installing the code on their home page, which results in a lot of missed valuable data.
2. Know how to interpret dashboard data
When you log in to your Google Analytics account, you will have the option to view data with the “New Version” or “Old Version” of the program. The new version does provide a few more features for advanced data tracking, but each version will provide you with the same basic information you need to get started.
No matter which version appears when you first log in, you have the option to switch by clicking on the alternate version at the top of the page, as seen here:
For consistency’s sake, the following information will describe the process in the “Old Version,” but if you want more in-depth tutorials about the “New Version,” you can view the Google Analytics IQ Lessons here.
The home page of your Google Analytics account is also known as the “dashboard.” Knowing how to interpret the basic data on this page is important. Here is a breakdown:
The Dashboard Graph provides a great visual for tracking site metrics over a certain period of time. Using the metrics drop down list, you can choose to track metrics like visits, page views, bounce rate, etc and can even compare these metrics against each other in the graph. The graph is one of the best tools for tracking spikes and dips in certain site data over a period of time.
Visits refers to the total number of times someone reached your site during the time frame you have selected near the top of the page. This number is usually quite higher than the total number of unique visitors, as it counts the repeat visits from those who have viewed your site before.
Pageviews refers to how many total pages were visited on your site during the time frame selected.
Pages/Visits refers to the average number of pages a visitor viewed during their time on your site. A higher Pages/Visit number is desirable because it usually is related to higher conversion rates.
Bounce Rate shows the percentage of people that leave your site completely before clicking off of the initial page they landed on. A low bounce rate is desirable because shows that most people who reach your site stay to click through more than one page. On the other hand, a high bounce rate shows that more people are leaving, or “bouncing” from your site before viewing more content. If you have a high bounce rate, you might want to look into improving factors like site design, usability, quality of content, etc.
Avg. Time on Site is generally self-explanatory – it shows the average amount of time a visitor stays on your site before leaving completely. Similar to the pages/visits metric, having a higher avg. time one site number is more desirable because it typically leads to higher conversion rates.
% New Visits shows how many people reached your site for the first time out of all of your site’s visitors in a given time frame (ie: not returning visitors).
3. Check keyword reports regularly
Monitoring the keyword data in Google Analytics is a great way to determine how successful your SEO efforts are in attracting organic traffic from search engines.
The “Keywords” screen will show you how many visits your site received from keyword traffic. You are also able to separate these visits into “non-paid” (organic) and “paid” (PPC) if you happen to have any paid ad campaigns running.
Using the keyword report, you can see the data for keywords people are using to reach your site. In addition to the actual search queries, it will also show you the number of visits for each keyword, the average time on site for each keyword, bounce rate, pages/visit, etc.
With that data, you can then check your ranking for those keywords and tweak your SEO campaign to make sure you are optimizing for the most efficient keywords and targeting the right kind if visitors.
4. Monitor referring sites regularly
Monitoring your sources of referral traffic can also give you some good insight into how people are finding your site other than through paid or organic search. You might be surprised to find that your site is receiving traffic from places you weren’t even aware of. Monitoring your referring sites can be a great link building tool and a way to discover and build relationships with sites the send traffic your way.
Similar to the keywords screen, Google Analytics will also provide you with specific visitor data from each individual referring site, as well as overall data for referral traffic in general.
5. Use the “compare to past” feature
Curious to see how your site’s performance compares over time? The “compare to past” feature makes it easy to view all of your analytics data in comparison to a selected time frame. You can choose to compare week-to-week, month-to-month, or even year-to-year. When you select this feature, Google Analytics will show all of your site data with “% change” number, which clearly shows improvement or decline for certain data.
As you become familiar with the Google Analytics interface, you will surely find more detailed ways to find and interpret important data to improve your site.
Do you have any more Google Analytics tips for starters? Share them in the comments section below!
Author Bio: Erika Potter is the online marketing manager for Epic Marketing, one of the leading advertising agencies in Utah. Epic is a full-service marketing firm for many industries, but also has a focus on medical and chiropractic marketing.