What are Google analytics?

It is a free tool from the giant search engine - Google. Google Analytics gathers most of its data through third-party click cookies and the end-users Google account profile. It collates, analyzes and shares data about guests on your website. Here's a full guide on how to use Google analytics.

https://smartsmssolutions.com/blog/83-updates/1810-how-to-use-google-analytics-full-user-guide However, Google Analytics does not reveal the personal information of guests to your site.

Most of the data collected are referred to as metrics. Here are 5 important metrics to track to boost sales.

5 metrics to track with Google Analytics

• Traffic sources: What is it about? If you are recording high traffic to your site, one of the first questions to ask is, how are people finding my website? This metric tells you how people found your website. People visit your site either by clicking on an ad, through a search engine result, or by typing your URL on their browser, these can be categorized as referring traffic, search engine traffic, and direct traffic respectively. Google Analytics provides specific information about the source of traffic, it tells you the number and percentage of visitors to each source.

Why is it an important metric? The information provided can help tell which marketing channel is increasing your brand awareness and how organic search is performing as compared to paid search. Learn the difference between organic and paid search. https://www.webfx.com/seo/learn/organic-search-vs-paid-search/ For example, high traffic from search engines would indicate that the content on your site has a high SEO ranking. Or you may record high traffic from your social media channels indicating that your social media campaigns are effective. In essence, it helps to measure the success of your brand awareness campaigns.

To navigate these features on Google Analytics, go to Reports > Acquisition > All traffic > Channels.

• Audience reports: What is it about? Audience reports provide information about the demographics and behaviour of users on your site, it also tells the amount of new or returning guests. There are 3 important categories of audience reports to focus on, which are: Demographics, interests, and behaviours. Demographics show some information about visitors such as gender and age range. Interest is subdivided into two categories, affinity shows what your visitors want to learn about your products/services, and in-market segments, affinity while in-market segments show the product purchase intent. Behaviour shows the number of returning guests and new guests, their average session duration, and the number of pages visited.

Why is it an important metric? It helps you to identify which audience segments are most interested in your products/services. It can also help to categorize your audience into different segments and provide products/services based on their interests.

To navigate these features on Google Analytics, go to Audience > Audiences > Demographics.

• Bounce rates: What is it about? This is the percentage of visitors who viewed only one page on your site and ended the session. You can see the bounce rates for individual pages on your site. Google Analytics records a ‘bounce’ if a guest visits only one page on your site and leaves.

Why is it an important metric?

It would assist you in determining how visitors interact with individual pages on your site. For example, you may have high traffic on your landing page but with a high bounce rate, this indicates that you would need to optimize the content on your landing page so your visitors can clearly understand the page and navigate your site seamlessly. Learn more about acceptable different bounce rates for different websites. https://www.semrush.com/blog/bounce-rate/

To navigate these features on Google Analytics, go to Behavior > Site content > All pages > Bounce rates.

• Conversions: What is it about? Conversions tell how well you have been able to achieve your marketing goals. Google Analytics allows you to set up marketing goals and tracks your success. Your marketing goals can be a purchase of items, watching a video, subscription to your services, form submissions and more. To enable this feature, you need to first set up a list of goals, and then mark them as conversions. Also, ensure that you enable Google Analytics on each page that has a marketing goal.

Why is it an important metric? It helps you to determine the success of your digital marketing campaigns. It would also help you to calculate your ROI. Knowledge of your conversion metrics would help you to optimize your digital marketing campaigns and provide products/services that meet the needs of your clients.

To navigate these features on Google Analytics, go to Goals to create your marketing goals, then go to Conversions to view the conversion data.

• E-commerce revenue: What is it about? The e-commerce revenue tab shows the average order value, the number of transactions and revenue for each product. It enables business owners to know if a session ends with a purchase or not. You would also know how many users are adding products to their carts and those who abandoned their carts.

Why is it an important metric? It helps to determine products with high sales and optimize them to increase revenue. Using this feature would help you to identify significant peaks or drops in sales over a specified period.

To navigate these features on Google Analytics, go to Conversions > eCommerce.

Metrics are valuable tools for your business, you should harness them as quickly as you can. It helps in the financial planning, forecast and budgeting process and should be part of your marketing process. Here is more information on how google helps your business. https://smartsmssolutions.com/blog/83-updates/1807-google-for-business-all-you-need-to-know

SmartSMSSolutions- how we come in.

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