Many believe that putting up a website is a one-time event. They think once it is launched they can go do other things and forget about it. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Your website should be a living organism interacting with other websites, including social media sites. You also have to consider the search engines (e.g. Google, Bing, etc), which index your website’s pages for various keywords to bring potential customers to your site when they search for those keywords. It’s all dynamic and constantly changing and evolving.
It is crucial to know about your website’s traffic if you want your website to help get you sales. If you don’t know what’s happening on your website, how can you know what needs to be changed or improved? If you are using search engine optimization on your website, you must be able to tell if it is effective.
You need to install a good analytics package. We like to use Google Analytics. It is free and is a solution that many small businesses start with. But you need to examine the data it generates, regularly. It is a gold mine!
An analytics package can tell you the following:
- Where your traffic is coming from. You will see which websites or search engines are sending you visitors, which keywords or search terms people used to get there, and the links they clicked on. This can tell you if you need to develop more inbound links, or do a better job with content for more relevant search terms.
- Information about your visitors. You’ll learn what cities they come from, which days they like to visit, which browsers they use, even what screen resolution they have. This tells you who you are attracting, and provides design considerations for your website.
- What’s working in your website – and what isn’t. You’ll see how long people stay, which pages they abandon, or whether they are converting to paying customers from particular online ads but not others. This will help you improve your website, your graphics and content, and your online ad campaigns. Sometimes a small change (moving a graphic from one spot to another, or a change in wording) can make a big improvement.
If you are not using an Analytics Package, get one. If you need help installing Google Analytics, contact us at Wharton Website Design and Marketing and we will be glad to help you.
