The beginner (female entrepreneur) guide to Google Analytics
If you're a female entrepreneur, you probably know you need a website (check out my post on the top 5 things every website needs!). But do you know about Google Analytics and why you need it? You've probably heard of it before... but I'm here to break it down for you nice and simple. Even the most non-tech-savvy female entrepreneur can implement these strategies today!
Here are 4 (simple) things that you NEED to be doing with Google Analytics.
((and I'm totally going to be showing my geeky-analytical side today... so no judging! I happen to love this stuff!!))
1. Block your own IP address from showing up.
When I checked my own analytics report, I noticed that I had three times as many views from Missouri (my home state)... but you know what the problem was? I had forgotten to block my own IP address from being indexed! Fortunately, this is a super easy fix.
Log into your account
Find the "Admin" wheel in the bottom right corner
Next, click on the "All Filters" button
Click the red "Add Filter" button
- Add a filter name (i.e. "Block my IP address")
- Set "Select Filter Type" to "Exclude"
- Set "Select Source or Destination" to "Traffic from the IP Address"
- Set "Select Expression" to "That are Equal To"
- Go to this website to find your IP address.... http://www.whatsmyip.org/ Your IP address will be at the very top of the page.
- Enter your IP address in the space provided
- Select "All Website Data" and click "Add" so it appears in the "Selected Views" box.
- Click the blue "SAVE" button and you're done!
To test your filter out, just open a new tab and scroll around your website for a couple minutes. Now go back to your filters page and click refresh. You should see a number other than 0 under the Views box.
Congrats! You are now filtering your IP address from being indexed!
2. Figure out what pages are boring your viewers
You can check your drop-off rate for each page by viewing your Google Analytics "Behavior Flow".
First, click on the "Behavior" tab on the left side of your Analytics screen.
Second, click on "Behavior Flow" and you will see a snazzy little info graph. Now this can seem overwhelming... but just focus on the basics. Technically, this graph indicates the general "flow" (duh) of your audience... Here's a great explanation from Google...
"Are there paths through your site that are more popular than others, and if so, are those the paths you want traffic to follow? You may have a path in mind for your users like Home Page > Product Page > Shopping Cart > Checkout, but you may uncover a more popular path like Home > Product > Search > Search Results > Search > Search Results > exit. That unexpected path can indicate things like users not finding products they want, or your internal search not returning results that are helpful." (source)
Just remember to not get too overwhelmed with this. Is the flow of this graph what you want it to be? If your main goal of your website is to get potential clients to book calls... are you getting them to that end result or are they dropping off of a page before getting there?
Want to take it a step further? You can click on a particular page and see the projected flow from that page as shown below.
Cool huh???!! Just click on the page and move it with your mouse or track pad to see the rest of the flow chart.
Now, obviously your drop off rate will be pretty high for Thank You pages and Call booking pages ... but if you have a high drop off rate for other pages, then you should assess what is causing this issue and look into whether or not you need to make some adjustments.
3. Find out if people are finding your site through organic Google searches (or where they are coming from, if not)
Obviously, we would all love to rank high enough in a Google search result to start landing warm leads straight on our website! But this is often a harder task than we realize. But remember, SEO work is a marathon, not a sprint! It takes planning, strategy, and a lot of time and action to get the results you are looking for.
But let me tell you, it is possible to boost your own SEO! I will be the first to recommend some amazing SEO experts, but if you are new in business and don't have the resources, you can boost your own SEO to start out with! When I first started by website I was ranking on the 7th page of Google when you searched "Revitalize Branding". Now, just 2 weeks after focusing on boosting this keyword, I'm the first result on the second page!
Ok, ok... So back to Google Analytics... to find out how and if people are finding you through organic searches, you will need to go to the "Acquisition" tab on the left hand side of the page.
Next you will click "All Traffic" and then "Source/Medium"... then finally you will click on the "keyword" tab.
Here you will be able to see what search results are landing people on your page! If you're doing some SEO work, this will be a great way to see if all your time (and money) is really paying off (are you actually getting conversions by boosting certain keywords??)!
4. Check back and make notes
Check back often - I'm no Google Analytics expert, but I do know that consistently checking your Google Analytics and seeing how your website changes are affecting your viewers and session duration is always a good idea! ((And again, it's totally FREE so why not?!)
I try to check back at least once a month (don't judge, we're all busy, right??).
Make annotations to remember events - An amazing feature of Google Analytics is that you can make notes on a particular day that you launched a new landing page, sent an impactful email, made a huge social media campaign, or just shared the heck out of your site.
This way, when you view your analytics months down the road and you see a HUGE spike on a particular date, you will be able to know exactly what that spike was from! Then, in the long run, you will be able to see what marketing efforts are working for you the best based on which spikes are the highest! Cool, huh!?
((you can also note when you had website maintenance or your site was down so you can remember if you see a huge drop in views))
So how do you set up annotations?
First, click on the drop down arrow under your analytics graph on your overview page.
- Click "+ Create New Annotation"
- Enter an annotation date and description
- Click "Save" and you're done! Super, super simple!
Now you can look back at your spikes without having to look back at your calendar or an excel sheet! Woohoo!
Want more amazing Google Analytic resources? Check out these links...
- How to set up Google Analytics in Squarespace - https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/205815608-Using-Google-Analytics-with-Squarespace
- How to set up Google Analytics in Wordpress - http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-install-google-analytics-in-wordpress/
- A beginners guide to using Google Analytics - https://blog.kissmetrics.com/google-analytics-5/
- 9 awesome things you can do with Google Analytics - https://blog.kissmetrics.com/awesome-google-analytics/
Well that's it for today! I honestly am just starting to REALLY dig into Google Analytics myself, so as I learn more about this AMAZING resource, I'll make sure to share it all with all you lovely ladies as well!!
Always cheering you on,
