You have a website, but how is it used? You add information, but what do users value most? These and many other marketing questions can be answered with Google Analytics. GA tracks a range of key stats and insights related to your website performance. It provides essential intel to help you target your marketing.

Data Available from Google Analytics

Google Analytics gathers a lot of data. What matters most to you depends on your type of business and your goals.

• Where visitors are located
• Visitor interests
• Browsers and devices used
• Age and gender

GA tells you what people do at your site:

• Pages viewed
• Links clicked
• Time on page
• Actions taken

You also get great intel on where people come from, whether it is social media, a search or  another website.

From Data to Insights

Data is nice, but insights are better. The default Analytics dashboard will give you great info which may or may not tell you what you need to know. Usually, you have to look deeper into the data to give you the info you need to guide your marketing.

Here are some common insights you can get from your Google Analytics Data.

• Pages viewed tells you what’s most interesting at your site. You learn what people want more of and what they don’t care about.
• Traffic sources tells you what marketing channels are sending traffic to your site. There’s no sense in investing more effort with channels that don’t get people to your website.
• Devices tells you just how much effort you need to put into an excellent mobile experience. If half or more of your visitors are using their cell phones, you must make sure your site functions well on the small screen. You must.

Look at your online marketing goals and explore how Google Analytics can give you actionable data to measure progress as well as understand what to do next.