Google is not just the #1 search engine, they’re also a voting machine. They determine, through numerous factors, if your site deserves to be on the first page of search results or the next, or the last. Google is always trying to improve the quality of their search results. One way of doing this, is to follow the search user from the search (at Google) to the site they found in the search. Before Google Analytics, Google had no way of doing this. Now, they can remain tethered to the search user if they click on a search result that has Google Analytics installed.

For Google, it let’s them know if the search was a good search or a bad one. And that is determined by the bounce rate. How long or how short does a user stay at the website/page they found from the search. If they don’t stay very long, like less than 20 seconds, we can assume that whatever content they saw on the site they landed on was not what they were originally searching for, or was not compelling/engaging enough for them to stick around.

Whether you are Google or the owner of the site, knowing your analytics and reviewing them is pinnacle to understanding what your site visitors are experiencing. Having 15,000 unique visitors is great. Finding out they all came and went in one hour and you’re bounce rate was 85% for that day means that your marketing was awesome to drive traffic, but your content on the page scared them all away. And the bounce rate is just one many juicy analytics that is being collected all day long, month after month.

If you’re too afraid to look at your analytics, email me and I’ll introduce you to a world you need to know.

Cheers,
Richard Lee, Chief at Large
The Agency @ PILLAR
chief@pillarsupport.com

Using that philosophy, one can apply that practice to website analytics, which is the measurement of data collected by a web server. It contains an assortment of interesting and very useable information about your site visitors. If you thought that this sort of data was only available for e-commerce sites, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that most websites have this information. Getting access to it is a different story.

Though there are many brands, we often use Google Analytics. First, the code is free to use. Second, installation is very easy. Third, it automatically generates a simple, handsome report that easily shows web data on the site for the last month and will compare the last two months together. Google Analytics also allows Google to track the user experience after a user finds you via a search. This is how Google can best provide quality search results for people.

Google Analytics

Cheers,
Richard