Although it is often done, if you just throw something up on the web and cross your fingers, your chances of success are pretty limited. The key to any website’s success is being able to measure success or failure, and having the data to make good decisions.
In order to provide a positive user experience on your site, you need to understand your visitors and what they’re doing so that you can constantly improve upon it. This is where Google Analytics comes into play. The Google Analytics tool is available free of charge to anyone who wishes to use it, and if you have a website, now you have no excuse for not having website analytics. GA (as it is known) is the tool to “improving your site and increasing your marketing ROI.” And ask any financial guru, knowing ROI is important. Knowing how to increase it is even better.
So you want to get started, right? First things first, where do you go to jump on board Google Analytics? Simple enough; www.google.com/analytics. Besides a computer and access to the Internet all you need is an email address to get started. And it doesn’t even have to be a Gmail address (but it does have to be associated with a Google account). Complete a few simple registration steps and voila, you are now part of the GA world and ready to start measuring how your visitors get to your site, who they are, what they’re doing while on your pages, and how and from where they leave. Even better, you are on the road to improving your visitors’ experience and increasing the likelihood that they do what you want them to!
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Mike Small
Mike Small leads the SEM and paid search efforts at WebShare. You can find out more about Mike here.
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