Google Called…They Want Their Analytics Back

Yep, that’s right. You’re going to have to give them up. You’ve abused the privilege for far too long now.

You have this incredible work horse of a tool that you don’t even know how to access.  Merriam Webster defines access this way: permission, liberty, or ability to enter, approach, or pass to and from a place or to approach or communicate with a person or thing; freedom or ability to obtain or make use of something. 

Notice that last part of the definition? The one that goes beyond simply opening up your Google Analytics page and actually obtaining or making use of something? That’s the part that gets my knickers in a wad.  

It’s Not Enough to Have it. You Have to Do Something With it!

This is why your Google privileges are going to be revoked. Well, not really, but they should!  You see, there’s SO much you could be doing with that information, beyond just looking at the interesting key words that people use to find your site, or the traffic and number of visits you receive on any given day.  I would bet that’s as far as many of you go.  Here’s why that will only make for laughs and not necessarily result in a positive impact for your bottom line.

Billy the Exterminator: Branding Genius, Keyword Goldmine & Bouncer!

Using the example of the blog post I wrote about Billy the Exterminator’s Brand, I’ll demonstrate how just skipping through the daisies in your Google Analytics is not only cause for revocation of your privileges, it will give you the wrong kind of information.

Key Words can actually be entertaining. I had a bit of a laugh when I reviewed my analytics after my Billy the Exterminator post.  Boy, did I tap into a niche market there!  I never knew there were so many ways to search for ‘billy the exterminator’ and as a result, landed many a visit.  Well, I landed a mini visit; most of them bounced off without so much as a two second glance.

Traffic and new visitors to my site definitely increased on this post.  Unfortunately, so did the bounce rates…to the tune of 90-100%. That means they barely peeked at it before heading off to find what they really looking for: Billy’s Sunglasses. I guess some folks would say that’s better than no traffic, right? I’m not so sure. If anything, it may have made these visitors mad, not entertained, and less likely to visit me again.

This begs the question: Who is my target market and what am I writing in order to bring them in? 

If I were to have just looked at the cursory data for that week and seen the increase in traffic, the number of new visitors and maybe even looked at the top layer of key word information, I might have enjoyed a false sense of success.  After all, even though Billy the Exterminator is #1, look who’s #2.  That’s right, me.

That’s not enough.  To get at the real deal, you have to dig deeper. Digging deeper gives us the good stuff.  It tells us, “silly rabbit, Billy is what they were searching for, not your awesomeness.”

Give ‘em what you’ve got! Then get them to do stuff…like contact you.

If you know me at all, you know that I adore goals and objectives and setting up measurements around them.  Did you know that you can do that and more with Google Analytics? Yes, you can set up goals, identify the funnel (multiple pages, if you’d like) through which your visitors will pass, or exit, in order to reach the final goal.  When they reach the goal, that’s when you’ve got them; you’ve achieved a conversion.

A conversion could be as simple as filling out a contact form or downloading an E-book. Whatever you deem it to be, you now have something to measure.

One key point here: you must put content on your site that aligns with those goals.  If you don’t, you may experience a campaign failure of the worst kind: a false sense of success and continued wandering in the dark (reminds me of dark sunglasses, worn by a certain Billy).

Once you write your really cool content, related to your “awesomeness,” you can begin to set up a series of steps in your goals that lead to a conversion.  This means you get your visitors to actually do something…like contact you or hire you.

I set up a little campaign this week just before I published my “Get Smart” post.  I wanted to see if my content would pique someone’s interest enough to visit my services page, then from there, click on my contact form.  I didn’t break the sound barrier, but I did get some folks to do just that! And, Google Analytics has this really cool Funnel Visualization thingie (click on it below to really see it) that makes it all come to life.

Just think what will happen when I revamp my services page, add in new content and really get crazy??!!??  I can tell you what won’t happen.  Google won’t be calling me to ask for their Analytics; someone else will!

Are you a candidate for Google Analytics probation? Or, are you a Google Analytics Pro? Come on, let’s get our “geek on” and chat it up in the comments section below!