Marketers who use five or more web analytics tools are 39% more likely to see improvement in their campaign performance. Why? Namely, these marketers know where to make improvements.
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Without website analytics tools, you might struggle to make informed decisions. Instead, you can track everything from traffic to page performance. The website data analytics you gather can help you generate more traffic and leads.
On the fence about using website traffic analytics tools?
Here are five reasons you need data to drive your marketing decisions. By tracking your key performance indicators (KPIs), you can save time and money.
Start marketing smarter with this guide today!
Table of Contents
1. Know Where Your Traffic Comes From
One of the main reasons to start using web analytics tools is to learn more about your website traffic. Understanding the source of your traffic can help you determine where to spend your time and attention. You can then better engage the customers on that platform.
You can use Google Analytics to learn more about the source of your web traffic. You can go to Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels to review your data.
Here, you’ll see if your traffic arrived through:
- An organic search on Google
- Paid advertising (pay-per-click)
- Social media
- Direct (meaning they typed in your URL)
You can also view the number of users, bounce rate, conversions, and the number of sessions.
If you want to learn more about each source, you can click on Source/Medium.
If you’re gathering a lot of direct traffic, it could speak to your brand awareness. People already know about your business and are typing in your URL.
If people are searching for your product or service, they could arrive through organic search. For example, they might find your website using Google or Bing. The user will then click on your URL from the search engine results page.
Websites with a lot of organic traffic usually have strong content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO). The higher you rank on search engines, the more often people will see your website. A higher ranking can help you attract more web traffic, too.
Are you attracting a lot of referrals? Referrals indicate someone clicked on your website URL from another website. For example, they could have clicked on your guest blog post.
A lot of referral traffic means other websites are talking about your business.
If you have a lot of social traffic, it means your social media marketing strategy is performing well.
Understanding where your traffic arrives from through website data analytics can better inform your marketing strategy. Which channel is driving the most traffic to your website?
2. Understand Each Page’s Performance
How are your website pages performing? Which pages attract the most traffic? Are visitors staying on these pages?
You can use website traffic analytics tools to learn more about each page’s performance. Otherwise, you could struggle to understand how people engage with your content.
You can check Behavior > Site Content > All Pages in Google Analytics for this data. This report will show you the top-performing pages based on:
- Pageviews
- Unique page views
- Average time on page
- Entrances
- Bounce rate
- Percent exit
- Page value
Do your pages have a high bounce rate? This indicates that people are arriving on your pages and leaving without clicking around. A high bounce rate could hurt your SEO rankings.
You’ll need to make improvements on these pages to increase your dwell time (how long people linger on your site). A higher dwell time could improve your SEO rankings.
3. Learn About Your Visitors
Who are your customers? Are you making content with their needs and interests in mind? You can use website data analytics to learn more about your web visitors.
For example, you can break your broad audience into smaller groups based on demographics. The Audience tab can tell you about age and gender. Then, you can better personalize your website content with your target audience in mind.
You can use analytics to learn where your visitors are located, too. The Location > Geo tab can break down countries, states, and cities.
How do people behave while they’re on your website? You can look at Behaviors to learn more about how they interact with your content.
The Behavior Flow report can tell you about the path people use on your website, too. You can see where they started and track their movement throughout your site. Where did they stop?
Which pages did they leave or convert on?
You can use website analytics tools to improve the buyer’s journey and increase conversions.
4. Improve Your Content
Almost 70% of marketers say search engine optimization (SEO) is the most effective tactic they have for growing their content strategy. In fact, content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing.
It also generates three times as many leads.
For content marketing, the top three KPIs marketers track include:
- Organic traffic (76%)
- Leads generated (62%)
- Sessions (60%)
You can use web analytics tools to improve your SEO strategy. For example, where are people bouncing? Do you have 404-page errors or broken links you need to fix?
What content do your visitors enjoy reading? Which topics are attracting the most traffic?
You can use this data to look for trends and improve your SEO strategy. With the best SEO tools, you can boost your ranking and expand your reach.
5. Identify Weak Points
You can use analytics to improve your website page design, too. Are your pages designed with the user experience in mind? If you’re neglecting the user experience, people could leave your site.
Which pages are getting the least amount of traffic? Which pages have the highest bounce rate?
Make improvements to these pages. Make sure your site loads quickly and is mobile-optimized, too.
You can use a heat map to learn about where people linger on your pages.
This data can help you boost engagement, leads, and sales.
Strengthen Your Marketing Strategy: 5 Ways Web Analytics Tools Can Help
Don’t let your website scare away potential leads. Instead, use web analytics tools to learn more about your website’s performance. Then, you can make informed decisions regarding your web design, development, and content.
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