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Understanding Google Analytics – Basic breakdown of terms

By 29 November 2016Online Marketing
digital marketing

Nearly every aspect of your company is measured in some way, digital marketing and web presence is no different. Revenue, productivity, expenses – keeping track of the many functions of your company allows you to monitor trends, create a business cycle calendar and predict sales.

The same is true for your online presence. Your website is the hub of your digital interaction with customer, making it so important to understand the traffic that’s coming to and leaving your site. Using Google Analytics to track how your website is performing will allow you to form a target audience, better your digital content and convert visitors into customers.

Step number one to better understanding how to use Google Analytics is getting a grasp on the terminology. Here’s a quick overview of the terms most commonly used:

Average Pages per Visit – This represents the number of pages your visitors view during their visits. Use this state from Google Analytics to help you determine if your navigation and internal linking strategies are working, as these features typically encourage visitors to stay on your site longer and delve deeper into your online content.

  1. Average Pages per Visit – This represents the number of pages your visitors view during their visits. Use this state from Google Analytics to help you determine if your navigation and internal linking strategies are working, as these features typically encourage visitors to stay on your site longer and delve deeper into your online content.
  2. Average Visit Duration – The average visit duration stat from Google Analytics lets you see how long visitors stay on your website. The more time viewers stay on your site, the more engaged they are with your brand, and the more likely you can convert them to a customer.
  3. Demographics – If you want to know how many first time visitors are hitting your site compared to return visitors, take heed to the demographics stat from Google Analytics. You can also use this stat to see where your viewers live.
  4. Page Views – A page view is tracked whenever somebody visits a page on your website or blog. So, if one visitor clicks on five different pages, that visitor will increase your total page views by five. When your page views increase, you are able to better your conversion rate.
    Referral Sources – This Google Analytics tool tells you how visitors are getting to your website. Whether visitors enter the URL directly into their browser, find your site through a search engine or from a third-party site, this stat will let you know. In addition, you’ll be able to see how many people came through each referral source, their average time on site and the number of pages they typically visited, which can help you determine where to spend your digital marketing budget.
  5. Unique Visitors – A unique visitor is counted once, no matter how many pages the person views. Understanding how many unique visitors you have, gives you insight into how many people are actually reading content on your site, or viewing your products.

While Google Analytics offers more complex analytical tools, these basic terms should help you get an idea of how well your website if performing in terms of visitors and content. Using each aspect of Google Analytics as a complete tool can also help you build a strategic digital content plan including how to spend your marketing dollars, what type of content performs well, how long your web videos should be and where the majority of your visitors find your site.

Digital Marketing

If the idea of having to do this makes you want to run, give us a call. Understanding the analytics for your website and your online marketing is our job. It’s what us Geeks do!