How much return on investment am I getting from my website?
That should be the first question you ask yourself if you currently have a website for your business. Without knowing how your website is performing – how do you know if your online marketing is effective?
So how do you measure the performance of your website? In this short guide we’ll take you through how these useful Google services can help you do that.
Google Analytics
What is Google Analytics?
In a nutshell – Google Analytics is code on your website that tracks a user’s activity – from the number of users to your website at any given time to how they found your website, i.e. if they were referred from a social media post or an online business listing, like yell.com.
Why is this important?
Well, if you can analyse how your website is performing, you can get an idea of how your digital marketing strategies are working.
Google Analytics can show you how many ‘goals’ or ‘conversions’ your website hits. These are pre-defined actions that you decide which results in a beneficial user activity for your business, for example someone sending you a message through your website’s contact form or purchasing a product from you.
It can also track the source of this conversion, i.e., was this action from a user who clicked on a paid Google Advert. (See Google Ads later on in this article!)
This is also really valuable data to measure how your paid adverts are performing. By being able to analyse what works you can spend less time and resources on redundant strategies that don’t bring you any leads, conversions or sales.
Google my business
What is Google my Business?
Google My Business is an online business listing that Google provides free of charge. Local exposure has never been more competitive – the days of finding a service through huge listing directories through your door is declining rapidly and people are now Googling terms such as ‘electrician near me’, ‘plumber near me’ etc.
Why is this important?
It’s vitally important that your business shows up on the Map Listings on Google. Map Listings are usually the highest on the search page, especially on mobile devices.
Your business will show to users within a certain proximity and they’ll be able to contact you within a few clicks of a button, improving your local SEO.
Once your setup on Google My Business, it allows you to edit your profile (such as photos, list of services you provide, location etc) and provides you with a link to a Google review form that you can give your customers. This is a great way to build trust with a user – if they can see your business is highly rated, they are more likely to choose your services over a competitor.
Google My Business also provides you with data such as the number of users that have clicked on your profile and how many that have requested ‘directions’ to your site address. This is a quick and easy way to track your local online performance.
Google Search Console
What is Google Search Console?
Google Search Console (formally known as Google Webmaster Tools) is a free tool which analyses your performance on Google’s search engine.
Why is this important?
In order for Google to find & index your website to list it on their search engine, creating a GSC account and submitting a website ‘sitemap’ is highly recommended. By submitting a search map, Google can find & index your website quicker ensuring you have the best chance of attracting organic traffic to your website.
Google Search Console also gives you data on the keywords users type in which results in a click or an impression on Google search. This can be useful as you can target keywords to improve on your website.
Did you know? Google can take from a week to a few months to index a website. By submitting a sitemap using Google Search Console, you give your website the best chance of being found quickly by Google’s crawl bots.
Google Tag Manager
What is Google Tag Manager?
Google Tag Manager is a free tool which is ideal for measuring your websites marketing. Used in unison with Google Analytics, it deploys snippets of code which fire ‘tags’ telling you that a certain action has taken place.
Why is this important?
In this example, you may have a low performing landing page with a contact form at the bottom. As a method to find how your users are interacting with this page, GTM allows you to setup ‘scroll tracking’ which can track whether the user even made it to the bottom of the page. If the majority of your users are not scrolling all the way to the end, you may need to move your contact form up!
Google Tag Manager is ideal for tracking button clicks too – such as how many people clicked on links to call you or directly email you.
Google Ads
What are Google Ads?
Google Ads is a paid tool which allows you to bid on certain keywords in order to show up higher on Google Search.
Why is this important?
As long as your website content is of good quality, this can be a quicker way to boost your search engine rankings and be seen by users if you’re a new business. With relevant adverts and a reasonable budget, we’ve seen website traffic increase over 50%. It’s recommended to point traffic to a specific landing page rather than just your homepage.
For example, if your advert is for an e-commerce site and you’re trying to sell a pink jumper, it would be better to link the advert to the pink jumpers’ product page so the user is immediately in the right location to buy the product.
If you’re in a competitive market, Google Ads may not come cheap. Get in touch with us today for a free Google Ad forecast!
