Using Analytics Data to Increase Traffic to Your Website
You’ve spent months gathering analytics. You know how many people have viewed your site, you know your bounce rate, you’re even aware of how many followers and interactions your shares have received on social media – but now that you have all this data, what are you going to do with it? For analytics to be worth your time, you need to act on the data you have collected. Knowing that you’ve got a steady stream of traffic is one thing. Knowing how to use the data and boost your traffic or get more leads is another. Here’s what to do with all those facts and figures you’ve gathered.
Are Users Finding the Content They Need?
When someone comes across your site in their search results, are they bouncing right off or are they sticking around and browsing through your pages? If you have a high volume of traffic, but also a high bounce rate, it could be that your content is not properly optimized. Your landing pages should have clear titles and headings, with relevant content that lets both users and Google algorithm know what your page is about.
A bounce rate between 40-55% is considered average, but if users are staying on the site for a few minutes on average, you’re doing pretty well. If your bounce rate is higher than that or the time spent on your page is lower, you will want to spend some time making sure that your content is clear and purposeful – that it answers their questions quickly.
Utilize Traffic Source Data.
Are people finding your site by search alone? Are they visiting your site directly? Are they coming to your site from social media? Did the traffic from your paid ads increase when you increased your budget? Is it a backlink that sent users to you? Looking into the sources of your traffic can be an extremely useful tool as you work to increase website traffic. Does traffic from one source convert better? If so, you can spend more money or time working to increase that kind of traffic. Do people from Twitter tend to sign up for your lead generation newsletter? Then you’ll want to make more use of Twitter. Is Instagram generating 0 page views? You may need to re-examine your strategy to improve engagement and reach more people in your target audience by researching relevant hashtags to use.
What Keywords Are Being Used to Find You?
Are the keywords being used to find you relevant to your content and business? If not, you might want to take a second look at your SEO strategy and your on-page optimization process. By knowing and understanding the keywords being used to find your website, you can gain a competitive edge over others. Perhaps you’re a software development firm, but people are using “apps development” to find your page. Make use of that knowledge to reach the largest potential audience of leads possible. Remember that improving SEO doesn’t happen overnight – but employing a comprehensive strategy across your site with clear, useful content is always worth the effort.
Address Pages That Aren’t Getting Views.
If you have pages that aren’t getting any view, it may be time to either rewrite those pages with fresh content and utilize best SEO practices or scrap them altogether. When you see that people aren’t clicking through to certain pages or that you have pages that have earned no traffic, then it’s time to reassess whether that page is truly necessary. Eliminating dead-weight pages can help boost your traffic and focus your marketing efforts. After all, quality is better than quantity. Rework pages that aren’t working for you or let them go.
Further Optimize Pages That Are Getting Views.
When you understand how people are using your site, you can optimize those pages to move potential leads in your audience further down the sales funnel. For example, is the second page viewed the “about us” page? If so, make sure you have a strong call to action on that page, as well as clearly marked internal links so users can navigate your site easily. Make sure any phone numbers or email addresses listed in the content or in headers and footers are clickable links that make it as easy as possible to reach out to you. Don’t make it difficult to convert a user from a casual browser to a customer!
Create Buyer Personas Based On Demographics Data.
You can get some information about the audience viewing your website from Google Analytics. Sometimes you can learn where they live, what their ages are, or what their gender is. You can also learn about what their interests are. This can go a long way toward helping you to customize your content – both for the audience you already have and for the audience you want to attract. However, keep in mind that typically the bulk of your audience will fall into “unknown” for some or all of these categories, so ensure you’re not accidentally alienating part of your audience by trying to actively target a different segment of it.
Adjust Your Posting Time Based On the Busiest Hours.
When do people visit your site? Is it early in the morning, or is it in the evening? You can use this information to schedule when your new posts will go up. That will increase the likelihood it will be read. Knowing when your visitors are on your page will also help you to determine when to launch new campaigns to reach the largest possible audience.
Get Ahead of the Game by Using Analytics Data.
Through using analytics data, you can create content and marketing strategies that are more successful and move your company closer to your sales and lead generation goals.
Ronda Bowen – Content Creator
Want help with a more strategic approach to your content? EnVeritas Group can help you. Reach out to us today to find out how.
