How to Use Web Analytics to Discover the Right Answers to the Right Questions

Web analytics refers to the analysis of data on the web to study user behavior and draw insights from it. Today, every business that has an online presence employs a team of web analysts to track the performance of their website and other online assets. To that end, analysts use different web analytics tools that include free services such as Google Analytics. The primary intent is to get information about website visitors and details about their interaction with the website pages.

94% of Chief Marketing Officers say Analytics would help them achieve their goals.

Web Analytics: What It Means for Businesses

Is the Website Performing as Planned?

Today, almost every organization has an aesthetically-built website that highlights the company’s achievements, offerings, clientele, and other information. However, not every website is popular with visitors; there can a site with less than a handful of visitors per month and another, catering to the same industry and with similar offerings, with enviable organic traffic.

This is why it’s important for website owners to measure the performance of their site, and this is where web analytics enter the scene. Using a web analytics interface, users can view data about the number of visits the site has had in a specified period, the number of visits to individual pages, time spent by users on each page, and other additional information.

• Users also get visibility into the referral source, i.e., how visitors are landing on the pages, be it Google, social media posts, paid ads, or anything else.
• Web analytics reveal the quality of user engagement and the number of conversions through each source, enabling the business to identify the channels they should focus on.

In a survey of marketers, a whopping 76% said that engagement (not acquisition) is what they value the most in terms of website performance.

Who is Visiting the Website?

One of the primary reasons for businesses to have a website is to get better visibility into the preferences and behavior of their customers and prospects. The data derived then helps them customize their offerings to cater to the audience’s needs. Organizing a physical survey for this purpose is inefficient, expensive, and has a narrow reach. On the other hand, web analytics tools offer custom features and functionalities that speak volumes about website visitors.

The industry standard for average session duration, i.e., the average length of all the site visits combined, is 2-3 minutes.

In-depth information about visitors includes data about their age, gender, preferred topics, geographic location, the device and browser they had used to access the website, and a lot more. This helps businesses in making the right choices to enhance the user experience of their website and offerings.

• Businesses must be judicious with their actions as anything that irks the audience or hurts sentiments can backfire. With audience data handy, such instances can be reduced to nil.
• Website content can be customized as per age category, gender, or location, allowing enterprises to boost organic visits and the average duration and reduce the bounce rate.

A Boost to SEO Efforts

Just launching a website isn’t enough; it also has to rank high on the search engine results pages (SERP) to grab eyeballs and register more visitors. And while paid ads are an instant way to feature on the top of the SERP, SEO is the answer when it comes to a long-term ranking that leads to more traffic, leads, and conversions. Web analytics reveals what search queries are generating the most traffic, prompting businesses to focus on content optimization.

67% of all search engine clicks are in favor of the first five organic results

Web analytics provides the actual data of total page clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR), and average position, allowing users to identify their strong and weak areas in terms of SEO and audience interest. They also get information about website backlinks by tracking their referrals.

• Web analytics lets users compare between existing content and what users search for, a litmus test to determine if the website is meeting audience expectations.
• With access to near real-time changes in consumer trends, it’s easy to identify differences in data on a week-on-week basis, helping businesses pursue their desired results.

Leveraging Web Analytics the Right Way

Pick the Metrics that Matter

The dashboard of a typical web analytics tool has a plethora of information on display, including family charts, graphs, numbers, etc. But not all these facts and figures mean much to the user. They should know what really matters to their business and gives them a true picture. A performance measurement plan that mirrors the overall business objectives helps users to choose the most useful indicators.

What Does the Website Funnel Say?

In the context of a business website, the top of its conversion funnel refers to the total traffic the website has received, and the bottom is the total number of desirable actions completed, be it making a purchase, filling the contact form, downloading content, or something else. The part in between, which refers to the steps/pages the visitor has been through to take the action, comprises the actionable areas to optimize the website and achieve more conversions.

Automated Reports and Dashboards

A web analytics tool can be configured to generate all kinds of website and online marketing reports as per the need of the user. However, the user must ensure that the reports answer critical questions about the business and the target audience. To save on the report-generation time, they can create interactive dashboards for specific actions such as auto-generation and sharing of reports on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.

Common reporting problems a dashboard can solve: Tools that cannot provide easily-accessible reportingNot all users are provisioned for individual loginsThe need for stakeholders to log into multiple toolsData stored in multiple locationsTools that require technical expertise to understand the results

For businesses, web-analytics, if used smartly, can be the magic crystal ball that tells them everything about their audience and gives them precise insights for improving the performance of their website. With the right approach, businesses with even low marketing budgets can keep the leads and revenue wheel spinning, thanks to the insights and action-item generated by web analytics.

Web analytics reporting tips Foster a data-driven approach for decision making.Do not provide only on traffic reportsFocus on providing insights with the data

Who We Are and Why Our Expertise Matters

At getSmartcoders, we have over a decade of experience in assisting global clients with their end-to-end digital marketing and web analytics efforts. Over the years, our clients have leveraged our service to build their brands by catering to the target audience with digital tools and focusing their marketing effort with well-devised strategies. We believe in enabling every business to have a global reach by harnessing the true power of web analytics.