Web Analytics: Why It's Important and What You Should Use

Web analytics tell you everything you need to know about your traffic. In short, they are one of the most important parts of running a business or using the internet to make money. Many people question what you need to use to track all your data, along with which the best piece of software is.

Why Are Web Analytics So Important

Remember that the analytics tell you everything you need to know. You’ll find out where your traffic is coming from, including location and types of devices. You learn which parts of your website are visited the most, so you can build on that area to help make more money online and grow your business.

Without the analytics, how would you know where growth is required and whether something is working? The whole business would be running blind, and any growth ends up being pot luck.

Spending Your Budget, Targeting Your Market

The information gained from the analytics will give you the chance to reassess your marketing budget and your target market. The information tells you how your traffic is finding out about you, so you can focus on those methods more. There is no point spending money on an area that just isn’t working.

It also gives you the chance to reassess your target market. You may find eBooks work better than blog posts or videos work better than the written word. The analytics give you the chance to engage with your target market more, giving you more leverage to sell and improve your online business.

There are many factors that go into setting your budget and targeting your market. These are things that will change over time depending on the results from the analytics. How does analytics help? It tells you who is accessing your site and how. You will know the country people come from, the type of devices they search from and even the operating systems they use. More importantly, you will have a rough guide at the sites they visit from, which tells you which bits of your marketing plan are working. You can then determine where to spend your budget. For example, if you find more people coming from Facebook and Twitter but none from direct links in email marketing, you can spend more money and time on social media marketing instead to boost your sales.

The only thing this doesn’t cover is your offline activity. If you do any form of offline marketing, you will need to track this through other means. However, if you are getting sales and customers but your web analytics doesn’t look promising, it is a sign your offline marketing is the place to focus.

Better Understanding of Keywords

The analytics will also tell which keywords are popular and those that are not doing as well. This is extremely important to boost your sales, since it allows you to focus on those keywords. There is no point using words and phrases that are rarely picked up! You’re wasting valuable resources.

This is more than just which keywords do well. It tells you more about the number of pages people look at while they visit and how long they spend on those pages. You know whether the visitors are new customers or returning ones. It gives you an idea of how well separate pages and posts do, so you can duplicate that success again and again. The data gained from this section will need to be used with other data so you can make the necessary and effective changes to your website.

So, Which Web Analytics Should You Use?

This is the big question. Is there one web analytics software better than all the others? The best really does depend on your circumstances.

Google Analytics is the most commonly used system. Originally designed for those using AdWords, the program is completely free to use and will tell you where people come from, what devices they use, and your current traffic stats—including the number of visitors you have right now.  There is also a premium version of this tool, if you’re willing to pay, along with paid tools that offer further benefits.

You really need to have some type of analytical tool for your website. The choice is whether you want to pay for them or not. Google Analytics is a simple and free tool to use for those starting out.