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Website analytics can provide you with important insights into the habits of your visitors and allow you to improve your SEO practices for better conversion rates. Any analytics service you use to track website performance will tell you what non-branded keywords your visitors use, where they found your website, what landing pages are performing better than others, who your audience is, and where they are located.
Armed with this information, you can make informed decisions about how to allocate your marketing budget in order to attract the most new visitors.
Branded vs. Non-Branded Keywords
If you are generating a significant amount of traffic from branded keywords (i.e. your company name), then good for you! This means that you have established a distinct and recognizable brand that people are directly typing into search engines. These visitors already know they want to visit your site; they’re just looking for the correct domain name.
However, when it comes to attracting new visitors, you should be more concerned with which non-branded keywords drive organic traffic to your site. Get to know the types of short-tail and long-tail keywords that readers search for in order to find information that is relevant to your industry. The more you understand the habits of your potential customers, the more you will be able to customize your site and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns in order to capitalize on keyword performance.
Traffic Sources
Website analytics can tell you the exact source of each of your visitors. With the help of hard data, you can see exactly how visitors are finding your website and where to concentrate your efforts. You can see over time whether link-earning, social media, or other inbound marketing efforts are paying off. Depending on your industry and the type of goods and services you offer, different marketing strategies may perform better than others.
Landing Page Performance
Not only can you see exactly which landing pages visitors are…well, landing on, you can also examine bounce and conversions rates. If you notice that certain pages have disproportionately high bounce rates, that is a clear indication that you need to take a closer look at the page content, rethink the call-to-action, and improve other design elements that may be working against you. Once you understand how your audience is interacting with your landing pages, you can make precise changes in order to improve your site, cater to your intended audience, and increase conversion rates.
The Power Of Demographics
You shouldn’t waste time advertising to the whole world when only a small percentage of the people are actively seeking your products and services. Website analytics can tell you exactly who is searching for keywords and topics related to your site. You can then use that information to target your advertising and/or content according to age, gender, hobbies, educational background and a whole host of other categories. Instead of casting an impossibly wide net, you can connect with the right audience and get a better ROI on your marketing and advertising efforts.
Location, Location, Location
Use website analytics to track where your visitors live and how different ads and keywords perform in those different geographic areas. As mentioned before, taking on the entire world as your target audience may not be the best use of your time and money. Fortunately, you analytics tools will show you which countries, states, and even cities in which your visitors are located. You may find that certain areas are the source of a significant number of visitors and decide to cater your content and advertising to that specific location.
Knowing which geographic locations drive more traffic to your site can also help you more effectively run PPC campaigns. You may want to adjust bidding strategies so you aren't paying high PPC costs for cities and locations that don't provide much traffic. Instead of investing money in poorly performing areas, you can actually adjust bid amounts so that you are advertising more effectively in high-traffic areas. A little information can go a long way in improving your advertising strategies.
Even the best designed website full of great content won't attract visitors without a strategic approach to marketing. Paying attention to your website analytics will help ensure that you’re doing it right and in a way that’s profitable. This information is essential to making measuring your audience and making intelligent adjustments to your website that will ultimately increase traffic, improve conversion rates, and produce better ROI margins.
