If you’re looking to establish a strong online presence, you must have a strong grasp of web analytics. The insights gained from web analytics can help you understand your audience, improve your marketing strategies, and ultimately help you make your way to a significant increase in revenue.
However, collecting accurate web analytics data can be quite challenging, especially if you’re dealing with a large volume of data. This is why in this post, we will explore the power of accurate web analytics and how to get them right.
Let’s get started!
What Is Web Analytics?
By definition, web analytics refers to the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of website data. It may include information about website visitors, page views, click-through rates, conversion rates, and bounce rates.
The primary purpose of tracking web analytics is to measure your website’s performance. It helps identify areas of improvement, recognise your best marketing strategies, and consequently, optimise the website for the best results.
It’s possible to track web analytics using all-embracing tools like Google Analytics or Hotjar. But as your website grows and you start dealing with large amounts of data, there’s a chance your web analytics configuration becomes askew, and you end up with inaccurate data (leading to wrong decisions).
This is where tag auditing tools like DataTrue come in. They allow you to monitor, audit, and validate your website’s tagging and analytics configuration. As a result, you can rest assured that your decisions are backed by the most up-to-date and accurate data.
Types Of Web Analytics
Broadly, there are two categories of web analytics. These are:
- Off-site
- On-site
On-site analytics refers to the data collected directly from your website, including page views, bounce rates, and click-through rates. These analytics mainly help a business improve its website’s user experience and conversion rate.
On the other hand, off-site analytics refers to data collected from external sources, such as social media, email campaigns, and referral links. These analytics help a business in improving search engine optimisation and its overall online presence.
Why Measure Web Analytics?
We briefly discussed the power of web analytics above. Now, let’s check out some benefits of accurate web analytics in deeper detail.
- To Improve Website Performance
Web analytics provide insights into how visitors interact with your website, i.e., which pages are most popular and where visitors are dropping off. You can use this information to make data-driven decisions about which pages to optimise such that they deliver the best user experience. This can increase engagement and ultimately drive more conversions.
For example, a retailer may use web analytics to identify which product pages are the most popular and optimise these pages to improve the user experience. By doing so, they will increase the store’s conversions and revenue.
- To Understand User Behavior
Web analytics also provide insights into how much time web visitors are spending on certain pages and how frequently they interact with others. You can use this information to understand the likes and dislikes of your target market and produce more of what they like.
For example, let’s say you have a news website and publish posts on topics X, Y, and Z. Say your audience spends the most time on pages related to topic Z. You can now create more content around this topic and boost your overall reader engagement.
- To Optimise Marketing Strategies
Web analytics also offer insights into which marketing channels are driving the most traffic and conversions. And you can use this information to optimise marketing efforts and improve return on investment (ROI).
For example, let’s say a startup uses web analytics to identify which social media channels are driving the most traffic and conversions. Once identified, the startup can reinforce its efforts and focus on building these channels more actively.
- To Personalise User Experience
Since web analytics provide insights into visitor behavior and preferences, they can help you personalise your audience’s experience. For example, if you have an e-commerce site, you can use web analytics to identify which products a visitor has previously viewed or purchased. Using this information, you can display related products and offer personalised recommendations. This may increase the visitor’s average order value and drive more revenue.
- To Identify And Resolve Technical Issues
Lastly, web analytics help businesses identify issues such as high bounce rates or low engagement rates and take steps to address them. Constant monitoring can help identify trends and make informed decisions to improve website performance. This is particularly useful for landing pages. If you notice a high bounce rate for the homepage and low scroll depth, it’s an indicator that the hero section of your page is not compelling enough or your site is difficult to navigate.
How To Acquire Accurate Web Analytics?
To acquire accurate web analytics data, businesses need to ensure that their web tags are properly implemented and functioning correctly.
Web tags are small pieces of code that are embedded in a website to track user behavior and collect data. However, if they are not implemented correctly, they can result in inaccurate data and skewed analytics reports.
One way to ensure accurate web analytics data is to conduct a web tag audit. A web tag audit involves a comprehensive review of a website’s web tags to ensure that they are implemented correctly and functioning as intended. The audit can also help identify issues such as:
- Duplicate tags
- Missing tags
- Incorrect tag placement
By regularly conducting a web tag audit, you can ensure your web analytics data is accurate and reliable. This, in turn, can help you make data-driven decisions to optimise your website.
Web Analytics Mistakes To Avoid
Lastly, here are some common mistakes you should avoid regarding web analytics:
- Not Setting Up Goals: Without clear goals, you cannot accurately measure your ROI or identify areas for improvement. Here’s a guide on how to build a web analytics measurement plan that aligns with your goals.
- Not Segmenting Data: Segmentation organises data and allows businesses to analyse user behaviour based on different criteria, such as demographics, location, and device type. Without segmentation, you may never be able to direct your market campaigns effectively.
- Focusing On Vanity Metrics: Vanity metrics (like page views and social media followers) can mislead and may not provide a clear picture of your website’s performance. Hence, you should focus on metrics that directly impact your business’s bottom line, such as conversion rates and revenue.
- Ignoring Mobile Users: With more and more people using mobile devices to access the internet, it is essential for businesses to optimise their websites for mobile users.
Summing it up, gathering and managing accurate web analytics is a demanding task. But it is also the first step towards building a solid online presence that truly benefits your business. So, the sooner you start with it, the better. Good luck!
Rebecca is the Content Manager at Extras, a freelance writer, and an avid reader of self help books with a focus on finance. A big believer in taking action, she wastes no time tackling obstacles that lie ahead. When it comes to her endeavors in business and entrepreneurship, she'd rather be stuck with oh well than what if.