When you hear market research, you visualize tedious busywork. This includes grueling data analysis, hunting customers down to answer surveys, and more. This takes time and money. However, your website is full of valuable market research opportunities that are free and just a few clicks away. Successful websites that convert users tap into the wealth of information Google Analytics provides.
Google Analytics makes sense of user behavior on your website. It can answer important questions. However, what does it all mean, and how does it affect your business? Understanding Google Analytics is the first step in unlocking the full potential of your website.
Here are five questions every business should be asking that are easily answered in your Google Analytics.
1. Is Your Website a Good Salesperson?
You created your website with a specific goal in mind. For most, this goal is increasing business and making money. This means building websites that convert. However, how is your website specifically helping you achieve this goal?
The conversion rate measures your website’s success in persuading visitors to do business with you. Conversions require user action. Websites that convert engage users in many different ways. An example of a conversion is a user completing a contact form. This generates a lead and a potential sale. Increasing your conversion rate increases the bottom line of your business.
By utilizing an understanding of Google Analytics and simple math, you can maximize your profits. You need to know your:
- Website Conversion Rate
- Lead-to Sale Conversion Rate
- Average Transaction Value
For example, let’s say you have 600 website visitors for month. Your conversion rate is 2%, and your lead-to-sale conversion rate is 33%. Your average transaction lifetime profit is $200. If you double your conversion rate to 4%, 12 leads jumps to 24 leads. Your 4 sales jump to 8 sales. Profits double from $800 per month to $1600 per month. That’s a $9,600 increase in profits per year!
By building websites that convert, businesses can increase profits. Knowing how good your website is at convincing people to do business with you matters. Improving it can directly improve your business.
2. How Do You Use Your Time?
Time not well-spent is money wasted. This applies to your website, too. You don’t want to invest your time, money, or energy into a marketing channel that is not paying off. Sail with the wind, not against it.
With an understanding of Google Analytics, you can make the most of your time, money and effort. You can see where your best website visitors come from. Websites that convert uses see varying success from different channels. Channels include paid search, social media, and organic search. Once you see what channel generates the best visitors, then that is where you prioritize your time and money. You may be spending money on social media to look current. However, if it’s not paying off at the same rate as your organic channel, redirect your money. Put that time and money into organic to grow your business faster.
Google Analytics shows where you are having success and where you’re not. This helps you market with the least amount of friction. This means using channels and audiences that already respond to your messaging. Think of Google Analytics like an aptitude test for your website. It highlights where you have the greatest potential and where you are most likely to succeed.
3. Do You Make a Good First Impression?
Did you know humans to form an opinion about each other within one-tenth of a second of first meeting? Users judge your website just as quickly. Users form an opinion on your website within .05 seconds! Websites that convert need to do more than bring users to the site. They need to keep them.
When users visit your website, they scan and jump from page element to page element and page to page. However, it is important to understand what keeps users on your website. This is where understanding Google Analytics and your bounce rate come in.
A bounce is a single page session. In this session, the user viewed the page and left without taking any other action. Google Analytics reveals which of your pages have a high bounce rate.
But what causes a high bounce rate? Your website may not be making as good of as a first impression as you think. Understanding Google Analytics is key to improving it. Causes of a bad first impression include:
- Hard to Read Layout – If your layout is not user friendly, they won’t know where to go. They get frustrated and leave.
- Inferior Aesthetic – Users judge a book by its cover. If your website is outdated, it creates the idea your services are outdated.
- Overly General Copy – A user visits your website to learn more about your services. If your copy is too fluffy and provides no information, they will seek the information elsewhere.
- Self-Serving Copy – The copy on your website needs to focus on the reader. Focus on the user more than yourself.
- Slow Load Time – Users are impatient. If your site takes too long to load, they give up. They leave your site to find answers elsewhere.
Check your website for these factors. If possible, seek outside feedback about your site for a more well-rounded perspective on the impression your site creates.
4. Is Your Focus on the Right Market?
Here’s another way to get the most out of your marketing time and budget: identify your extremely specific audience. You need to be laser focused on your best audience. It’s essential to help you reach your conversion rate goal to increase leads and sales.
Google Analytics shows which age ranges and which gender is most receptive to your website content. This helps you determine what your most compatible or ideal customer may look like. There’s no need to try to market to everyone. It’s expensive. The best websites that convert focus on specific customers.
You don’t want to spend your Internet budget on older demographics if only younger demos are taking the action you want people to take on your website. Understanding Google Analytics and user demographics is critical to making the most of your marketing budget and strategy.
5. Do You Give Visitors a Reason to Stay?
If something is broke, don’t fix it. But if something on your website is sending users away, fix it immediately. A page may generate traffic, but can it keep that traffic? Websites that convert inspire user action to keep them on the page. Think of your website has a boat with holes. You have to plug the holes. If not, all the effort that you put into attracting traffic is wasted if certain pages are repelling people and causing them to leave your website.
The way to see that is to review your “Exit Pages” in Google Analytics. Exit pages are the pages that were the departure point for your visitors. Some of your pages right now may be like a revolving door. Visitors may come to your site, take a quick look around, and exit the way they came in. Google Analytics easily identifies the pages that are sending people away. You can renovate that revolving door into an entrance-only door, giving the visitors the information they want and generating leads for your business. Building websites that convert is the first step.
Understanding Google Analytics and Websites That Convert
Websites that convert give searchers exactly what they’re looking for. Achieving an understanding Google Analytics unlocks a better understanding of your website and business. Contact our Internet experts to speak with an Internet specialist about your business.