Information is power

In-depth analysis of your visitor traffic is the first step in improving your website performance.

The central tenet of any successful sales or marketing strategy is to understand your customer.  The same mantra applies to web strategy but this fundamental concept is very often neglected or overlooked entirely by organisations, large and small.

“It’s amazing how little time people spend analysing their website statistics and how many don’t have any stats at all,” according to Joe Conlon, sales and marketing director with Webtrade.

“Everything is measureable but having clear metrics on website performance is the first step in making improvements. We try to hammer home the necessity of metrics, regular performance reviews and getting the right blend of SEO, Adwords, social with targeted content,” he said.

Cathal Dempsey, managing director of FCR Media agrees.

“Businesses need to know why, when and from where a customer visits their website. Keeping your customer top of mind is the most important factor when looking at a new online presence.”

Setting up Google Analytics, the world’s most popular analytics tool is an absolute minimum.  By dropping a piece of code onto each web page, Google can deliver deep insights into visitor behaviour as they click through the site.

User-friendly dashboards provide detailed information on visitors, visits, content viewed, time spent on pages and traffic sources, i.e. whether the visitor has come directly, through a referral site or through a search engine.   Over time, organisations can identify trends in visitor behaviour and use this intelligence to better target them with content that really appeals.

“Google analytics is key to moving the site forward and measuring return on investment. For example, seeing first hand exactly how many mobile visitors their website is getting is a real eye opener to many businesses who have not yet properly considered how poorly their websites cater for mobile customers,” concluded Conlon.