A strong online presence can be key to a business's growth, bringing increased exposure and better communication with both potential and current customers. However, there is little point in a sophisticated website and a great deal of online activity without a carefully considered strategy behind it. The difficulty is that strategy cannot be developed effectively without accurate, up-to-date analysis — and this is where web analytics comes in.
With excellent free tools such as Google Analytics available, there is every reason for any business, regardless of size, to use some form of web analytics to measure the success of its digital strategy.
For those new to analytics, the whole subject can seem daunting. A simple way to approach it is through a Professional Academy acronym that captures the three key stages: Measure, Adapt and Develop. A solid understanding of analytics allows a business to work through each of these in turn.
Measure
When it comes to measuring website activity, it is easy to look only at traffic numbers, much as websites once did with a simple page counter. With analytics, however, it is possible to measure success in the same way as any campaign or project, by setting target-driven goals.
Visitor numbers are still important — the more traffic a site has, the greater the chance of achieving its desired goal — in the same way that high foot traffic benefits a physical shop. When creating a goal, it helps to work back from what the website is trying to achieve. Is the aim to direct visitors to a specific landing page? Is it to guide them towards a bookings page, an online store, specific content, or an enquiry page? Specific goals can then be set to measure these targets against overall visitor numbers, allowing a business to measure the success of online campaigns as well as the site in general.
Adapt
Once goals are in place and a site's successes and failings are being accurately measured, a business has the information it needs to improve the site in small ways, helping it to achieve the goals that have been set.
A useful starting point is to examine the flow of the site: where visitors are landing, where they are going, and where they are leaving. Understanding how people use a website, and answering the most important question of all — are they going where they are intended to go — is central to achieving those goals. If the answer is not yet a clear yes, analysing the flow helps determine where to place calls to action on key traffic-heavy pages to guide visitors towards the target pages.
Analytics data can also adapt to new technologies. Knowing which devices visitors are using raises further questions: does the site need a more mobile-responsive design based on the number of mobile and tablet visits it receives? Is site speed slower on certain browsers? The answers help create a more successful and better experience for visitors.
Develop
Analytics allows a business to develop an effective digital strategy and to add new elements to its overall marketing and business strategy for the future.
Certain analytical data can be built into an online strategy. The first is a site's referrals — in simple terms, the websites that send traffic to it. This information reveals where visitors are coming from outside of SEO, which allows a business to assess its social media impact, as well as the effect of blogs and external partners directing visitors to the site. Once that is understood, a business can decide whether to build stronger links with external partners, include calls to action on social media, or measure online advertising campaigns against specific goals to gauge a return on investment.
A content strategy can also be developed based on the pages proving most popular. Creating more of this content across a site can help generate more traffic and build calls to action within popular content, either directing visitors towards goals or extending the value of that content into potential revenue streams.
Analytical data can also yield useful geographical and demographic information about site visitors, which can in turn shape wider marketing strategy. Analytics can indicate which regions and towns visitors are coming from, which opens up new questions and possibilities. Could a region be appealed to with region-specific content, or could a new location for the business be worth exploring where there appears to be demand?
By developing online and marketing strategies in this way, analytics helps a business discover possibilities it might not otherwise have considered, providing a reliable route to growth.
How Professional Academy Supports Your Journey
Understanding and applying web analytics is a core digital marketing skill. Professional Academy has over 27 years of experience helping marketers build these capabilities, and web analytics is covered in varying levels of detail across its range of CIM digital marketing qualifications. Whether the goal is to measure a strategy more effectively or develop a complete digital approach, structured study provides the practical tools to do so. To find out more, explore the CIM marketing qualifications or speak to a qualification adviser.
