Understanding Google Analytics
There are many web analytics applications out there, both free and paid, but Google Analytics is the most widely used. Google Analytics is a free application that allows you to create customized filters and manage sets of data according to your specific needs.You can draw valuable information about your Search Engine Marketing strategy from some basic metrics in Google Analytics. Use the following metrics to make informed decisions about your marketing campaign and boost your online performance:
- Visits -- You can use the visits metric to find out the number of visits to your site. Keep in mind that this set of data measures the number of visits, not visitors. Repeat visits from the same user are counted each time.
- Pageviews -- This set of data is a total count of pages viewed on your site.
- Pages / Visit -- This metric identifies the average number of pages a visitor viewed while interacting with your website.
- Bounce Rate -- Find out the percentage of visits in which a user landed on a page of your site and immediately left.
- Avg. Time on Site -- This measures the average amount of time visitors spent interacting with your site. The higher the time, the better.
- % New Visits -- Learn the percentage of visitors who had never been to your site before.
Interpreting Google Analytics Data
From Google Analytics data, you can identify flaws and forces in your Search Engine Marketing campaign and make decisions that will drive traffic to your site. You will probably notice some abrupt highs and lows, however, the best way to utilize Google Analytics is to pinpoint trends over a reasonable timeframe.
You should also evaluate your traffic sources for a rounded understanding of how visitors are being referred to your pages, as well as what they're doing while on your site. Traffic sources may be in the form of direct traffic, referring sites and search engines (both PPC and organic search engine results), among other sources.
Analyze the metrics for each traffic source and leverage that information to amp up your SEM strategy. Discover which keywords are landing visitors on the pages of your site and evaluate the bounce rate to find out whether you need to add new keywords or create new content that better aligns with the needs of your target audience.
Driving traffic is important, but your conversion rate is the bottom line. Work with your Search Engine Marketing professional to help you identify your goals, track your conversion rates and fine-tune your campaign to achieve optimal performance.

Mister Wong
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