Have you ever had a nosey around your Google Analytics?
If the answer is yes, then chances are that you either dived in and lost a lot of time in a Google shaped rabbit hole.
Or you took one look and ran to the hills.
Whatever your response, this podcast will demystify Google Analytics and help you use it to make more sales in your pet business.
It’s with website expert and self confessed Google Analytics geek Vicki Jakes who has helped hundreds of small business owners transform their websites into sales machines.
She shares what you can glean from the data to delight your pet business clients and you can listen in on the player link below or continue reading as a blog post.
You can listen to this episode on the player link below or continue reading as a blog post.
How does Google analytics work?
“Your website is the most significant driving force that brings you clients and ultimately money.
“Google Analytics can help you understand where your clients are finding you, how many are clicking through to your website, and what content is hitting the mark once they get there.”
What can Google Analytics tell me?
“Google Analytics can tell you whether your website and your marketing methods are working for you.
“Is the time and money you’re spending translating to visits to your website? Is that traffic resulting in sales?
“Understanding your data can be a lot of fun once you know how.”
What can you do when you learn more about your traffic?
“We all want to know how much traffic we are getting, but perhaps more important is where is it coming from?
“If you’re spending the bulk of your time on social media, but most of your traffic is coming from Google to your blog posts, then are you using your time productively?
“Understanding your data helps you identify where you need to put more effort in and where you don’t.”
So how can this help us as small business owners?
“If you’re working really hard on your social media presence and you’re either not getting much traffic to your site from it, or the time spent on your site is low.
“Then we know that the work you’re doing on Facebook or Instagram isn’t converting, it’s not valuable.
“So your data helps you understand where your time is best spent.”
OK, so what’s the best way to get started with Google Analytics?
“Google Analytics looks scary. It was designed by developers, for developers.
“There are just three reports you need to focus on to understand if what you’re doing to drive traffic is working for you.
• How much traffic you’re getting (Go to Audience: Overview)
• Where your traffic is coming from (Go to Acquisitions; All Traffic; Source Medium)
• What pages your visitors are viewing (Go to Behaviour; Site Content; All Pages)
“Yes, Google Analytics can do an awful lot more than that, but as a one man or woman band, you don’t need the rest!
“If you want to dive a little deeper, then look at Behaviour flow. Here you will find the pages a user has viewed on your site and the pathway they have taken.
“Which page did they land on, where did they go next, and crucially, where did they leave?
“Where people drop off is really important. Can you update that page with useful links or something to lead them somewhere else, so they stick around?”
How can I find out what content my readers like?
“Your secret weapon reports here are pages per session (a session is how long the user spent on your site) and average session duration.
“These are very powerful because if people are spending a long time on your website, they are interested.
“You can drill down and see what pages people are spending time on and which pages are tanking.’
“You can also see new vs. existing users. You need 10-20 touch points for someone to buy from you, so if someone keeps returning, that’s excellent!
“The behaviour section will tell you if the posts you’ve worked really hard to write are resonating with your ideal customer or not.
“If they’re not looking at these pages or not spending long there, you probably need to rewrite the headline, change the content’s layout, or write stuff they actually do like!
“Give them what they want! I have tried to write pieces which people don’t want, but I think they need. And that’s when I’ve kind of been served my ego back to me on a plate!”
Where should someone start if they’re looking for the right keywords to use?
“How would your ideal customer search for your product? We are really well trained to use a search engine now; we type how we think.
“We no longer put in ‘dog collar’ because it will return a whole host of results that aren’t what we are looking for.
“So, you’re going to put in ‘leather dog collar for a poodle’ or ‘leather dog collar for big dog.’
“That’s the type of keywords you need to be using in your content and any ads you run.
“Think about how your ideal client speaks and use those word, speak in their language.
“Remember your website isn’t about you – it’s about the keywords your customers are searching for.”
What are the benefits of having a better understanding of Google Analytics?
“New shiny things come along all the time, like Clubhouse, and people forget what they can get from their website.
“When you understand your customer journey, you can start to tweak it accordingly to better your website’s whole experience for your visitors.
“You can do this on your website in a way that you just can’t on your social accounts.
“With your website, you can really understand your customers’ behaviour and make the experience better for them, which will result in more sales for you.”
Want to learn more about Vicki?
Vicki Jakes works with small businesses on social media ads at The Social Ads Squad.
Find out more on her website: https://socialadssquad.com/
If you enjoyed this post, check out How to start a pet business blog or if you’re working on your website content and you fancy working together, see Is my Pets Get Visible membership right for you.
