About measuring paid & organic search results
The amount of keyword information that has been obscured has gradually increased, but don’t be too concerned, we can still measure overall performance of search engine traffic by looking for total increases or decreases in the Organic Search report. To view the Organic Search report, click on the Acquisition tab on the left sidebar, click on ‘All Traffic’, click on ‘Channels’, and click on ‘Organic Search’
Segments.
Imagine if you could narrow down to a particular segment of your audience, such as paid traffic, search engine traffic, mobile traffic, iPad users, and so on, and instantly see how many enquiries these users have made, how much time they are spending on your site, what country they are from, and how many sales they are making.
This feature exists and it is called Segments. Segments are powerful. With Segments, you can identify portions of your audience that potentially generate more enquiries or sales than other customers. You can even identify portions of your audience having difficulty using your site, and get insights to fix these areas for better performance.
To use Segments, simply click on the ‘Add Segment’ tab at the top of every page within Google Analytics, and you can choose from the list a large number of Segments for deeper insights
Common web analytics terms explained
Pageviews. A Pageview is counted each time a user loads a page on your site. Unique Pageviews. Similar to a Pageview, but if one user loads a page several times it will only be considered one Unique Pageview. Session. A session is what occurs when a visitor arrives at the site, and then at some point closes the browser.
If that visitor returns again, this is counted as an additional session. User. If a user visits your site, and then returns at a later stage, this is counted as one unique User. Bounce Rate. If a visitor visits your site, and then leaves without visiting any more pages, this is a bounce. The percentage of visitors who bounce is your bounce rate. A common question among markets and business owners is: what is a good bounce rate? There is no general rule. Bounce rates vary greatly between sites and industries.
If you find a particular page with a very high bounce rate (+70%), this could be an indicator the visitors do not like the content or they are experiencing technical issues. Conversion rate. One of the most important metrics to monitor is your site conversion rate. A conversion rate is the percentage of Users completing a desired action.
The action could be filling out an enquiry form, downloading a product, or buying something from you. If you receive one hundred visitors, and three of these visitors complete a sale, this would be a three percent conversion rate. Goals. Goals are custom goals you can set up within Google Analytics to track particular business goals or targets you may have for your site.
Common goals to set up include newsletter signups, product downloads, enquiry form completions, and so on.
Last word
There are many web analytics tools out there to help with improving the performance of your site. Google Analytics is great for understanding overall traffic performance, but if you want to delve deeper, check out the following tools for greater insights: Crazy Egg. Free to start. Starts at $108 per year for premium features. Requires a Google Account to get started.