Google Analytics 2.0 with TradeMark Media

Written by Rachel Dawn Hayes, Patrick Wicker of TradeMark Media.

Congratulations! Despite being less than digitally super savvy and while balancing your full-time job, or jobs, you’ve gotten Google Analytics up and running for your website(s)! Now, how do you mine the information it offers to increase site traffic, phone calls and your bottom line? Take a deep breath and read on— WCA sponsor TradeMark Media has made it easy with a few Google Analytics 2.0 tips.

How much time should I invest with Google Analytics?

It’s a good idea to review Google Analytics (GA) annually or biannually to understand how website visitors are using your website. However, it’s only necessary to look at reports regularly if you are measuring how your website is helping your organization achieve its goals according to a strategy.

For example, if your organization is deciding whether or not to invest in a mobile responsive website, it is important to discover how much traffic is coming from mobile and tablet devices, and if these mobile users are finding it too difficult to do what you want them to do on the site. While the proportion of your mobile traffic may change over six months or a year, there really isn’t a reason to check this report monthly.

However, if you are blogging or posting on Facebook in order to increase engagement with clients, prospects, and partners, you should check Google Analytics more frequently. If you are receiving more traffic, are these users engaging more with the rest of your content? Check Google Analytics often if you are investing in any kind of online advertising, because a lot of money gets wasted every year with ad campaigns that don’t have clear goals or performance tracking.

What are some things people overlook when it comes to staying on top of or understanding their analytics?

Don’t come to rushed conclusions when the data is – either positively or negatively – reporting something different from what is expected. For example:

Changes in traffic patterns: It is always nice to see website traffic increase over time, and this is hopefully caused by online and offline efforts, but there could be other contributing factors. A newsletter, sponsored event or news release could boost traffic overall in month one and then traffic could drop in month two. An increase in referral traffic from users who click on links to your website from other websites may be caused by the increasingly common referrer spam. A drop in traffic may also be seasonal, dipping in December and picking up again in January.

Bounce rate: This refers to the percentage of single-page visits, and is often used to measure website engagement. If your bounce rate is over 50 percent (meaning that more than half of your site visitors leave after viewing only one page), the first question to ask is, “Why?” Maybe you need to work on your website to increase engagement, but if many of your users arrive at your home page and then click to login to a client portal on a separate domain, your bounce rate will be higher. Your website may also be successful in providing users with the information they need quickly, and there is no need for them to visit more than one page.

Search engine optimization (SEO) efforts not showing results: If you are being deliberate about incorporating keywords in your content, you may not see results quickly because you are currently on Google’s second or third page, and most users don’t proceed past Google’s top 10 results. There may also be other issues hindering searchers from arriving at your site. There may be too much online competition for the keywords you are targeting, or nobody is searching for these terms. Don’t be afraid to ask for help with SEO!

What is the most effective thing I can start doing today?

• Be clear about what you want your website users to do, and measure when they do it.If you want more leads, include a (short!) contact form on your site and give users an incentive to fill it out. Then measure those who reach the thank-you page.
• If you want more calls, make the phone number more visible on pages. Some may find it worthwhile to spend $30/month for call tracking to see where those calls are coming from (Organic search? Ads? Facebook traffic?).
• If you want more visits to your location, make the link to your map more visible on your pages, and then measure how often they reach the map page.

You can also measure whitepaper downloads, video views, donation or volunteer form completions, and more.

It can be tricky to set up goals in Google Analytics. TradeMark Media is happy to spend 20 minutes helping WCA members set up a few goals at no charge. Contact Patrick Wicker at patrick@trademarkmedia.com or 512-960-8053 for more information.