Thu 29 Oct 2009
Google Analytics Rocks! Here’s Why
Posted by Megan Dorn under Technology, Small Business
No Comments
Any small business owner who has a website needs to know where visitors are coming from, what they’re doing on the site and where they’re going.
Luckily there’s Google Analytics—an awesome tool from Google (obviously) that can tell you just about anything you want to know about your website visitors. The best part for small business owners…it’s totally free.
Here are some examples of what Google Analytics can tell you about visitors to your small business website.
- Google Analytics can tell you exactly where your visitors just came from when they reach your site. Did they come from a particular search engine? Were they directed to you from a social media site? Was it a marketing piece that sent them to you? Knowing where exactly your traffic is coming from will help you figure out where to focus your marketing efforts.
- Google Analytics can tell you which pages your visitors are frequenting. This can show you which kinds of content your visitors are attracted to and which kinds they aren’t. Maybe you could expand aspects of a particularly popular page into less popular pages.
- Google Analytics can tell you how much time visitors are spending on your site, where they are spending their time, and ultimately which pages of your site they are most frequently leaving from. This could help you troubleshoot why visitors are leaving and how you can make changes to prevent them from leaving. Perhaps it is as simple as changing some wording to make your message clearer and less confusing.
- Google Analytics can tell you where your visitors are geographically located. By looking at what is called the Geomap Overlay, you’ll be able to quickly see in a very visual way the varying locations of your visitors. You may find that the audience you’ve been targeting is not exactly the audience you’re getting. Maybe you’ve been marketing to Midwesterners but are also seeing a large following on the Eastern Seaboard. Knowing this will enable you to tweak and/or expand your marketing efforts.
Many small business owners shy away from using Google Analytics because they’re not IT experts. But you really don’t need to be. If you can follow Google’s directions (which are pretty good), you’ll be just fine. To get started just go to Google.com/Analytics.


