This will help you to gain an understanding of Web Analytics is, along with a description of what it means to you and the simple steps necessary to start using Analytics. Whether you handle your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in-house, are already working with an SEO Firm, or are just about to hire a firm – this is information you need.

Nothing is more frustrating than spending the time and money necessary to design the perfect site, only to find out that it isn’t delivering the results you had hoped for. There is a lot of confusion out there about what is needed to succeed online. A lot of people think it starts and stops with a great website. The truth is that is only a small part of it.

At some point you have considered SEO.

You may have even tried SEO and not gotten the results you wanted. Like many other online marketing techniques, SEO can and does work, by working at it, by understanding which keywords you are being found with, by keeping abreast of trends in the industry and reacting to those changes. With some essential knowledge that you have previously been missing, you can open the doors to brand new opportunities and profits that you have been missing out on.

Let’s start with the assumption that you are looking to increase traffic to your site, and ultimately grow your business. With 84.8% of Internet users using search engines to find websites (According to a GVU Users Survey) it’s clear that your site needs to come up high in the search engines so you can get your share of that traffic. There is more to it than simply getting your site ranked. Adding Analytics to your array of tools is what will help you get the most out of not only SEO, but ALL online marketing campaigns. For more information on SEO and how it works, please visit our search engine page.

Analytics, as defined by Wikipedia is the measurement of the behavior of visitors to a website.

In a commercial context, it especially refers to the measurement of which aspects of the website work towards the business objectives; for example, which landing pages encourage people to make a purchase. There are a huge number of applications for web analytics. Web site owners can use it to evaluate site usability and navigation as well as gauging customer interest in different advertisements and marketing campaigns, or it could be used to build models of the “big picture” of your web site’s profitability. We want to focus on web analytics for SEO purposes in this article today.

Analytics is not new, but the marriage of SEO and Analytics is, and it deserves your attention.

Analytics is not something most SEO Firms offer. In order to stay a step ahead of your competitors and not only get all the traffic you can, but actually convert those visitors to sales, the information in Analytics is essential. Without the time or knowledge of Analytics, it can be overwhelming. The fact is, it does take time to learn everything you need to get the most out of Analytics. Hiring an SEO Firm That Offers Analytics Is Guaranteed to Increase Your Traffic and Sales. Marketers have a growing number of channels driving people to their site. They need to be able to track all of those sources and see where people from each source go and what they do.

With that information you can make changes and quickly learn what your site visitors are responding to, and without increasing your traffic at all, you can increase the results you are getting. However, since there isn’t a website out there that isn’t interested in more traffic, taking things a step further and implementing SEO to acquire new traffic and using Analytics to get a higher conversion rate from the site visitors, you are guaranteed to quickly get better results than you currently have.

What Can Analytics Tell You That You Don’t Already Know?

To outline the importance of the information that you are currently missing, simply ask yourself these questions:

• What are your site visitors doing once they get to your site?
• Are they doing what you want them to do?
• Where are they coming from?
• How often are they coming?
• How long are they staying?
• Do they get error pages on your site?
• What actions are they taking?
• What marketing activities are producing higher conversion rates for you?
• Which keywords produce the highest conversion rate for you?

Let’s look at HOW the answers to those questions will help your business.

What are your site visitors doing once they get to your site? Are they doing what

you want them to do?

If you know what catches people’s attention first, and it isn’t what you want,

then you can make quick alterations and get feedback from Analytics to tell

you if it is working. You keep tweaking until your data tells you that your

visitors are taking the action you want quickly. This will result in increased

sales, or opt-ins or whatever it is your most desired action is.

Where are they coming from?

Understanding where your traffic comes from will guide you in directing your

advertising and marketing dollars to the sources that benefit you the most.

How often are they coming?

Are you getting repeat visitors? If not, you’ll want to add something that will

make people come back. Many sites don’t get a sale on the first visit – so

trying different techniques to drive traffic back and then measuring the

results through Analytics gives you more opportunity to get the sale.

How long are they staying?

Are your visitors leaving quickly? That tells you that you need to improve your text and what you have to offer. On the flip side, do they stay for a long time but never order? That tells you that you need to work in stronger calls to action and more compelling offers to get the order. With the information from Analytics reports, you can use this information to get more out of the visitors already coming to your site and also feel confident that your site is now improved for all the new visitors you will get from your SEO campaign. Do they get error pages on your site? If your website has errors you are losing traffic and sales. One look at your Analytics will tell you what errors people are encountering on your site. This alone is vastly important. With so many sites out there, people are going to quickly leave a site with errors and find a better one. Eliminate that issue as quickly as you can.

What actions are they taking? Determine if that really “neat” feature you added to your site is distracting your visitors from your true goal – getting them to buy, or opt-in, or call you. Knowing what people respond to on your site also gives you insight into your visitors – do they like the pages with more pictures? Do they respond to the text? Once you know your visitor, you can better target your marketing materials to them – resulting in increased sales, opt-ins, calls etc. What marketing activities are producing higher conversion rates for you? Whether it’s a banner ad, an email campaign or Pay-Per-Click, learn which campaigns have the highest conversion rates.

Are your campaigns seasonal? Learn when it’s best for you to start and stop them. Getting all the details about your campaigns helps you to laser focus your marketing efforts for maximum results. Which keywords produce the highest conversion rate for you? Most people tend to focus on the words that are searched for the most. Those keywords may produce the most traffic, but do they produce the highest conversion rates? If one keyword drives 150 visitors a day, but only 5 out of a 150 buy your product and another keyword only delivers 50 visitors, but 10 people buy your product – you are getting a higher conversion rate from the word with the lower search count. So, you get fewer visitors and more sales. You would do well to focus on the keywords that produce the sales. Understanding this information can help you with your content addition (which will help you drive more traffic for those words). Those are just a handful of ways that you can use the information Analytics offers to get more out of your website and all of your marketing efforts.

Growing Your Business the Easy Way Combining SEO and Analytics is the way of the future. Drive new traffic to your site and ensure you have all that data you need to make the most out of that traffic. Since Analytics isn’t a common offering by SEO Firms, we give you the edge by combining these two essential services. Combining the two services gives you the convenience of one-stop shopping and the assurance that you are going to get actual results out of your SEO. Having your SEO Firm prepare your Analytics reports saves you time, and also allows them to tweak and adjust optimizations as necessary. Your reports are also analyzed by a marketing expert and include suggestions for improving the problem areas – so you aren’t left sorting through endless pages of data with no real ideas for an action plan.

Conclusion: Whether you are currently running an SEO campaign, and simply need to add Analytics, or whether you are looking to start SEO and Analytics, now is the time to take action. For more details on Analytics and which package is best for you, simply contact Ecom Buffet.