Make 2014 the Year You Get Analytics Working for You

Knowing the sources and origins of your site’s online business is an integral piece for competing in today’s competitive online landscape. Analytics programs will help immensely in showing us the roadmap customers and prospective buyers took to find us, and also the actions they made once there.

Not using any, you say? Well, you’ve just defined job one! Until you identify a greater need, it’s fine to start with Google Analytics as it will probably deliver far more than you’ll even know how to deal with. And, did I mention it’s free?

Once you start collecting data, listed below are five methods to make better and more profitable use of it in 2014!

5 Ways to use analytics in your small business

  1. Choose the performance indicators you want – While there are lots of things you are able to track, it can be overwhelming to bite off a big slice when just beginning. First pay attention to indicators that all of us need to know, like site traffic, conversions, referrals and time on page.
  2. Understand what your Analytics are telling you – This can be a lot to digest in the beginning. There are a lot of terms and acronyms you might not be familiar with, so take a moment to understand what you’re looking at. The data will start to be more accessible if you do.
  3. Set up an automated email report – Many of us will be either too busy or forget to login in regularly to look at the data. Take care of this by setting up a regular email that sends to the data in a PDF format, so you can act on it!
  4. You can track a lot more than your site – There are few web properties that can’t accept the JavaScript code required to track for your Analytics. Therefore, be sure to use it in code on all of your significant pages, such as social media, squeeze and landing pages, videos and emails.
  5. Note key changes in your data – If your site went through a redesign, or you began a pay per click campaign, or some other significant change occurred that impacted your site, make note of it so you will understand the variations in the data you are viewing. If you don’t know why that spike in traffic occurred, you might find it difficult to act on it!