The more I become involved with day-to-day business here at Kerigan, the more I learn about marketing versus just web site developement — and that means the importance of statistical analysis for your web site. It’s great to have a web site, but it is becoming increasingly important to know how to use it.
When the Boss suggested that I attend a webinar for Google Analytics, I wasn’t sure how much I’d walk away from it with, but now that everything is said and done, I’m very glad I did.
Google Analytics is a tool provided by Google to track visitation, hits, downloads, and other useful bits of data about your web site. It is a very powerful tool, and many webmasters swear by it; it will work with virtually any site on any server. And the best part is – IT’S FREE. You gotta love Google.
Though a server-side analytics program (such as your basic Webalizer program many sites use) is a must, in my opinion, Google Analytics is a great supplementary tool. I say this because, though Google Analytics doesn’t have access to your server’s logs (and therefore cannot be as thorough as a server-side program), it gives you an interesting perspective on how search terms affect your web traffic. Not to mention, it is fairly common for server-side programs to crash or malfunction. So, when that happens you can then rely on Google to provide your visitation data for the down time.
OK, I know most managers prefer the quick bulleted version, so here’s why Google Analytics could be important to you:
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Assuming you’re not yet checking your web site stats – and these days you really should be – you might as well begin with this simple program.
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Google Analytics is aestheticly pleasing and very user-friendly.
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It should take only 15-20 minutes to set up (or at least for your web host).
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It’s password protected.
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IT’S FREE!
With that said, the biggest benefit of using Google Analytics is its integration with Google AdWords. Adwords is a “pay-per-click” ad program that will show your site as a “sponsored link” on the results page of keywords specified by you. You just select the key words you think people will use when searching for your site. Then, when a user searches for that term in Google, your link will show on the results page. See example results page here. The attractive feature of pay-per-click ads is, you only pay when a user clicks the link. Your site may be too new to rank high or otherwise outrank bigger, more important sites in the main organic ranking area. AdWords allows your web site to be viewed high on the first page, and you only pay when people click your link! If you’ve never done this we can help you pick the right words.
If you have an AdWords campaign for the site you are monitoring, Google Analytics makes it very easy to see quick, helpful AdWords statistics from your dashboard. This can be very useful in telling you where your money is wasted – and where your money is well spent.
I look forward to using this great technology to better observe site traffic, patterns, and to ultimately better serve our customers in the future.