Google Analytics Metrics You Need to Keep an Eye on
Google Analytics is as important a skill as any for being an expert SEO marketer. It’s easy to learn and you will gain a lot of knowledge from it. Here’s a fast-track guide to Google Analytics metrics. A quick learning guide to the basics and how you can use them to your advantage.
Google launched Google Analytics in November 2005, It has had mixed reviews ever since. Recently Google analytics saw a rise in the number of its users since SEO marketing is on the rise. Google Analytics is a great tool to analyze your digital marketing strategy.
Your audience engages on your website in many ways, evaluating the performance of the website is fundamental for improving your marketing strategy. Athough, there’s a tiny problem with Google Analytics, there're so many parameters that you can get lost. We have rounded up the top Google Analytics Metrics for you to follow.
- No of Sessions and Users
- Bounce rate
- The average duration of one session
- Site speed
- Social Media reach
- Channel conversions
- Unique page views
- Location
Number of Sessions
This metric is as simple as it read, it’s the number of website visits. As mentioned by Google “group of user interactions with your website that takes place within a given time frame.” A single session can include multiple page views or other actions within your site. It’s mainly important to gain information about your site’s popularity and its core pages.
Bounce Rate
In web analytics terms, a bounce rate is when a user leaves the website only after viewing the page they landed on. This usually happens when the user isn’t engaged by the landing page. There could be various reasons why this happens.
- Click-bait content
- Inadequately constructed or too complicated pages
- Pages take too long to fully load
- Incompatibility with certain browsers
- Mistakenly landing on the page
A higher bounce rate can affect your website ratings and leads to lower search rankings.
Average Duration of One Session
What happens after the user has arrived on your website? Average duration of the sessions helps you to know if your content was engaging enough for the user. To keep a user engaged, make the flow of your website easy and user-friendly. Update new content that your user wants to share and engage in.
Site Speed
The site speed can make or break your website. Most users leave a site if it doesn’t load in 3 seconds. Making sure your loading is at top speed is very important. When your website is slow, the user can’t even see what you offer or share. This affects your Google search rating. All this will lead to lower visibility and reduced sales.
Social Media Reach
Not all social media platforms have the target audience for you, so you need to know which one is sending maximum traffic to your website. This will help you focus your attention on only the channels that are beneficial to your website, saving you a lot of time and money.
Keep in mind you don’t have to be active on every social media platform. If you are a small business, it’s better to concentrate your efforts on the channel that benefits you the most. Make sure that you are on a few social media platforms, and not totally skip them altogether.
Channel Conversion
The ultimate goal for any business is sales. All the efforts should lead to sales, for a successful business. Various channels conversion helps you track the whole sales journey. You can clearly see which channel is the most beneficial for your business.
There are various parameters that Google Analytics includes in this.
- Organic search
- Paid advertising
- Direct
- Email
- Social network
This can help you plan for your campaigns and what the future approach should be for the same. Each campaign can be tracked individually through a unique URL. If you run multiple campaigns concurrently, Google Analytics lets you isolate the data to a specific promotion.
Unique Page Views
A pageview in simple terms is the number of times a single user visits your site. If the number is two, that data will show two, but it will be a single visit for unique page views. This gives a better idea of the true reach for your website. So if you land on a page it’s a single view and if you reload the page it’s two views, but only one unique page view.
Location
It’s important to concentrate your marketing efforts on the regions that give you the most business. Recognizing which locations give you the highest number of conversions can help you plan a future strategy. Most small businesses throw over a big net when it comes to locations. But for a successful business realizing key locations is necessary.
Locations give you valuable insights into your customer persona, language you can advertise in, etc.
The perpetual development in the digital world makes it mandatory to learn and use complex tools like Google Analytics. It’s important to recognize its value and use the insights to their maximum abilities. The above-mentioned metrics are just the tip of an iceberg of information Google Analytics provides us with. Utilize this to improve your web presence and grow your business overall.
Like every other business, you too are gathering this data, but it’s important what changes you make to your business with the help of this data. Which improvements or radical changes will eventually affect sales.
Don’t get lost in the sea of data that Google Analytics provides. Start small and eventually dig into the immense information at hand. Spend time on this metric list before you spend hours on the Google Analytics screen.
About the Author
Semil Shah, Chief Marketer at Shrushti Digital Marketing