It's a truism that the way most people find out how much good
their website is doing their business is by ignoring it or shutting
it down -- whereupon they can tell by their lost revenue just how
much it was doing for them.
There's a better way.
Have your webmaster or web developer install tracking for you.
Google Analytics is the name of the system we use at Onsharp, and
it gives you a lot of information about how your website is
doing.
Here are just some of the things Analytics can tell
you:
- Traffic: Anaytics tells you how many people are coming to your
website, but also where on the internet they come from, how they
find you, how many are new and how many are returning, and whatday
and time of day they arrive. This lets you see whether your website
is becoming more popular over time, what efforts in web marketing
are succeeding, and even when is the best time to send that e-mail
newsletter.
- Behavior: It's nice to know what your visitors do when they
arrive at your website. Do they stay and look around, or do they
take one look and leave? Which pages of your website are popular,
and which ones could use some work? Analytics tells you these
things.
- Visitor infomation: Analytics can tell you a lot about the
people who visit you, from the kind of internet browser they use to
where in the world they come from. Here's an example of the Map
Overlay screen, which shows where visitors are
geographically. This website has visitors from all over the
world. If you're providing legal services to people in Fargo or
cutting hair in Moorhead, this isn't what you'd want to see.
However, if you sell something online, this would be great. Without
tracking your traffic in this kind of detail, you might see lots of
traffic and wonder why people weren't coming by your shop.
- Conversion rates: Analytics can keep track of visitors who are
filling out your form, downloading, your video, or buying your
product. What's more, this tracking system can tell you
which visitors did these things. Are the visitors who
found you at Twitter shopping more than the ones who found you by
searching? It would be good to know that.
Google Analytics is a tremendous storehouse of information. You
can keep track of it yourself, and use the data to make strategic
decisions for your business. You can also let Onsharp help you with this. Our
experts can track all the information for you, report it to you in
a digestible form, and assist with web strategy based on this data.
Call or email us to discuss the best plan for your business.