}
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3 Ways to Use Google Analytics to Improve Your Website {Part Two}
Welcome to part two of using Google Analytics to improve your event planner business website. You can find part one here.
Let’s start with the basics. Once you login to your account you will be taken to the “Home” page of Google Analytics. If you have more than one website that you are tracking you will be able to see all of them here so pick the one you want to see the statistics for now. This will take you to the “Audience Overview’ section. This is where we will be focusing on for this blog.
I will be discussing 3 general statistics from this section that will provide you with a quick snapshot of your websites health:
1) Pages/Session
2) Average Session Duration (Time on site)
3) Bounce Rate
First, I want to discuss bounce rates since it affects all of the other stats. Most people ask me what a bounce rate is and why it’s important. A bounce rate is the percentage of people who enter your website and immediately leave without viewing any other pages on your website.
If you have a high bounce rate it could indicate a few things:
Another question I get all of the time is what is considered a high bounce rate. That is hard to determine and is dependent on the type of website. Blogs usually have a higher bounce rate than informational websites. A “normal” bounce rate usually lies between 40% – 70%. Obviously, the lower the better.
I would suggest working on lowering your bounce rate first. If you can do this it will directly help your other statistics and how Google ranks your website. If you have a high bounce rate, this will send a signal to Google that your content is not relevant to what the visitor is looking for and they will lower your ranking which will affect your visibility to potential clients.
Here are some things you can work on that can help lower your bounce rate.
Pages per session is exactly that, the number of pages a user has viewed during their session (visit) to your website. The more pages they viewed means the more engaged they were with your content and the deeper into your website they went. This is obviously a good thing. The more pages they have viewed means that the information on your website is more relevant to their search for answers and it gives you more chances to get them to convert to a client.
Here are some things you can do to increase your Pages per Session:
If you have managed to lower your bounce rate and increase the pages viewed per session, then time on site will take care of itself. The longer someone stays on your site the more comfortable they become with you and your brand.
Think about it, it’s like when you meet someone for the first time. From the time you meet them you are deciding if you want to keep talking to them or not. If you don’t hit it off then you gracefully exit from the conversation. But if you do hit it off, then you decide to stay and get to know them better, which may lead into a great friendship and friendships lead to conversions. This is the goal of your website!
Here’s a shocking stat for you:
55% of visitors spend less than 15 seconds on a website (Hubspot, March 2014)
Now, how does your website compare? The goal that I have set for all of our websites is a 2:00 minute or more time on site.
In Conclusion
I have found that the vast majority of people have the Ron Popeil attitude of “Set it and forget it” when it comes to their website. This may be great for cooking chickens in one of his famous rotisserie ovens, but it can and will be disastrous for your wedding planning business! When building websites, most people look at their competitor’s website and replicate their content and pricing with the exception of a few minor tweaks to try and set themselves apart. They do this before really knowing who their ideal customer is and the information they actually want when visiting your website. This is a huge mistake that can cost you loads of money.
The 3 metrics I discussed in these posts don’t even begin to scratch the surface with the amount of data Google Analytics can provide for your website. Google Analytics is a great measuring tool that will guide you on how to improve your website. It’s up to you give your visitors the best user experience you can provide and convert them into clients.
Want to brag? Let me know what your Bounce Rate, Time on Site, and Pages per Session are in the comment section below!
This is a guest post from Shea Bailey. Shea is the co-owner of Wedding Industry Rescue and Yellow Umbrella Events based out of Austin, Texas with his wife Cheryl.
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This was great information. I had a high level understanding of the bounce rate, pages per visit, etc, but this blog post explained it all quite well.
Thanks for taking time to comment!
I have heard that bloggers shouldn’t actually be concerned about bounce rate. That we should worry much more about comments, shares, likes, pins, etc. From our Google analytics we should concern ourselves with our unique visitors, acquisitions and then time on site and pages seen.
That is interesting Michele. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for sharing such great information!
Thank you!