Gather Intel with Google analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful free tool that can provide valuable insights into our client's websites which include traffic flow and user behavior. Here are some tips for how to best take advantage of Google Analytics:

1. Set up goals and conversions: Goals and conversions are key metrics in Google Analytics that can help you measure the success of your website. By setting up goals and conversions, you can track important actions such as form submissions, purchases, and newsletter sign-ups. This information can help you identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to optimize your website for better performance. We can't stress enough how important setting goals are, afterall if there are no goals what are you measuring?

2. Create custom reports: Google Analytics allows you to create custom reports to view the data that is most important to you. By creating custom reports, you can view specific metrics and dimensions that are relevant to your business goals. For example, you can create a report to track the performance of a particular landing page or campaign.

3. Utilize segments: Segments allow you to view specific subsets of your website's traffic. By utilizing segments, you can gain insights into how different groups of users are interacting with your website. For example, you can create a segment to view the behavior of users who have completed a purchase on your website.

4. Analyze user behavior: Google Analytics provides valuable insights into user behavior on your website. By analyzing metrics such as bounce rate, time on page, and pages per session, you can gain insights into how users are interacting with your website and identify areas for improvement. For example, if you notice a high bounce rate on a particular page, you may need to improve the page's content or design to encourage users to stay on your website.

5. Monitor traffic sources: Understanding where your website's traffic is coming from is essential for optimizing your marketing efforts. Google Analytics allows you to view the sources of your website's traffic, including organic search, paid search, social media, and referral traffic. By monitoring your traffic sources, you can identify areas where you need to focus your marketing efforts and optimize your website for better performance.

6. Monitor website speed: Website speed is a critical factor in user experience and can impact your website's ranking in search engines. Google Analytics provides data on your website's speed and performance, including page load time and server response time. By monitoring your website's speed, you can identify areas for improvement and optimize your website for better performance.

7. Use Google Analytics with other tools: Google Analytics can be used in conjunction with other tools to gain deeper insights into your website's performance. For example, you can use Google Search Console to view search engine data, or you can use A/B testing tools to test different versions of your website and measure their performance. By using Google Analytics with other tools, you can gain a more comprehensive view of your website's performance and make data-driven decisions to optimize your website for better results.

8. Stay up-to-date on changes and updates: Google Analytics is constantly evolving, and it's important to stay up-to-date on changes and updates to the platform. Google provides regular updates and releases new features to improve the platform's functionality. By staying up-to-date on changes and updates, you can ensure that you are using the platform to its fullest potential and taking advantage of all the latest features.

Google Analytics is a powerful and free tool that can provide valuable insights into your website's performance and user behavior. By setting up goals and conversions, creating custom reports, utilizing segments, analyzing user behavior, monitoring traffic sources and website speed, using Google Analytics with other tools, and staying up-to-date on changes and updates, you can take full advantage of Google Analytics and make data-driven decisions to optimize your website for better performance.