One of the areas I am not as strong as I could be is Google Analytics. Andy Crestodina presentation helped point me in the right direction. If you have a website, you definitely need to track your progress in Google Analytics. Andy gave a very fast pace overview of what you need to track in support of your business.
Crestodina noted that 94.6% of top marketers use Google Analytics (GA) to watch the success of their sites and solve problems.
Tip: If you are using Google Analytics for your business’ website, ensure that you are the administrator for the account rather than leave it in the hands of a web designer.
Use Separate Pages
One of the things that Crestodina and Rich Brooks stressed is to use separate pages on your website rather than combine pages so that you can track the path users take through your site. Two examples were given. Instead of having the thank you as a function on a signup page, send subscribers to a separate thank you page. The other example is having all services on one service page. Instead, have unique pages for each service so that you can see which pages visitors are actually interested in. Crestodina also recommended not putting all testimonials on one page. Sprinkle testimonials on your site.
Exclude Yourself
Crestodina recommended filtering out the IP addresses of the devices you use as well as filtering out traffic from bots.
Google Analytics Strategies
Here are some of the strategies Crestodina recommended:
- Review your navigation summaries. Ensure you drill down to see which pages are getting lots of clicks and which ones are not.
- Check your user paths to see if the strongest content is on the top path. Also, check to see if the path is flowing cleanly rather than jumping back and forth. Do your pages work as expected?
- Rather than posting your email address on the page, include a contact page with a related thank you page.
- Include a call to action on all your pages.
- Use UTM for links back to your page. You can then track the results with Google Analytics.
- Set up your site search variable so that you can track what people are looking for on your site.
Recommended Books
Here are two recommended books. I have not yet had an opportunity to read them but I did order them.
- Google Analytics Breakthrough: From Zero to Business Impact by Feras Alhlou, Shiraz Asif, and Eric Fettman
- Content Chemistry: The Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing by Andy Crestodina
This was a great presentation. Unfortunately, too much content for too little time. Andy could have easily presented for an entire day.
I personally picked up a lot of new tips and have already reshaped my Google Analytics. If you are interested in getting more out of your Google Analytics, please contact me.
