When to implement analytics on the site?
Are you sure you need analytics? Take our word for it – you do need and appreciate it. Every website should, at least at a basic level, collect data on the behavior of users who browse it. Even if no improvement or marketing activities are currently underway, if you want to implement them in the future, the data collected will be invaluable in helping your company build its marketing.
What is worth measuring?
What parameters to measure? Below we will zoom in on the ones that, in our opinion, most strongly affect the quality of the site.
Rejection rate
This is the percentage of visitors (sessions) who viewed only one page and left the site. From their perspective, there was no valuable interaction with the site. This is often due to the characteristics of the site’s design – if the site is a one-page type and has no sub-pages, then automatically analytics will count most sessions as high bounce rate. However, if the site has several sub-pages, and the so-called bounce rate (rejection rate) is still high, then the problem may be, for example, low quality content or features on the site that do not meet users’ expectations. It is worth recognizing such problems and eliminating them as soon as possible.
Visit time and average session duration
Using analytics, we can compare the duration of visits of individual visitors. In the panel, it is presented as the average session duration. The indicator is calculated by dividing the duration of all sessions by the number of sessions. With this indicator, we are able to determine how much time visitors spend on average on our site, and then work on increasing this parameter.
Basic analytical tools
Below we will describe three basic tools that, when properly implemented, can give us a great deal of valuable information about website behavior.
Google Analytics
The most popular analytics tool is Google Analytics. It allows for comprehensive analysis of data from the site, creation of comprehensive reports and remarketing databases (in conjunction with Google Ads). Google Analytics itself provides a full range of information, on the basis of which we are able to effectively improve our site.
Google Search Console
The second recommended analytics tool is Google Search Console. Its primary functions include reporting on your site’s search engine status and providing optimization advice. Thanks to this tool, your site will become visible in Google, and you will be able to examine, for example, what keywords your audience is displaying your site for in Google searches.
Hotjar
HotJar offers two main functions: creating a heat map of the site, where we can see the places most frequently clicked by users, and recording visitors’ sessions – their behavior on the site, clicks and movements. This allows us to observe visitors’ actions in real time, and then draw conclusions about, for example, the intuitiveness of the site or critical errors blocking them from moving on.
Implement analytics on your site with a team of professionals
Your company needs help implementing advanced analytics on its website? At WeAstronauts, we support businesses in this regard. We install the right tools on your sites, then analyze the findings and provide reports for our business partners. Contact us using the contact form and see what we can do for you.
Tip at the end – a quick installation on the WordPress system
If your site uses WordPress, you can easily add the appropriate tracking codes to it. In the case of Google’s tools, try the GA Google Analytics plugin, with which you can set up the collection of information from your website in minutes.
Virtually every analytics tool has the appropriate plugins that will install the codes on your site. Admittedly, in many cases additional configuration will be necessary anyway, but in the beginning this will be enough.
Summary
The times when many tasks were approached on the basis of “I think…” are irrevocably gone. Nowadays, everything can be measured and verified, and a rational decision can be made based on the conclusions drawn. Implementation and development of analytics on the website is the basis on the road to efficiency of operations. With the proper implementation of tracking codes, you are able to draw conclusions on which you will base future business decisions to improve the profitability of the company.
If you want your website to meet the expectations of today’s audience, use analytics.
