If you are new to Google Analytics or you’re just starting out this blog will identify some important metrics which can sometimes be overlooked on your reports.
As an in-house marketer starting at a company who did not track their analytics prior to me joining I have seen first-hand a rise in monthly visitor numbers , I’ve faced load time issues and also done my best to keep our bounce rate at a reasonable level. For the first 6 months if I saw a rise in visitors to my site I was happy. But as we all know you can have 000’s of visitors, but if they are interacting with your site in the wrong way you will not turn from a visitor into a customer.
The social web is very much upon us, although looking at the above is still an important factor; there are other metrics which need to be tracked and are just as important when evaluating your brands online presence.
Exit page/last page visited
First and foremost it’s important that your site has visitors, depending on the industry you will see high volumes of visitors or low volume. Low volume doesn’t necessary mean you’re doing badly. In the industry I work in we don’t have a large visitor count, but the leads we generate a high percentage of leads from the website so don’t ever be disheartened by a low visitor count.
Now once they are on your site we need to look at their ‘flow’ and especially what page they are leaving your site on. If users are only visiting two pages on your website before they drop off, you have to re-evaluate the page and see why they are exiting. A rule of thumb, if any page accounts for 5% or more of your total exits, it should be revised.
Things that could be changed or improved
You may need to re-write the content, make the information clearer to the visitor so they can find what they are looking for on that page easier. Once they have found what they are looking for you could add some related pages for them to visit, you may also want to look at adding a clearer call-to-action.
Time spent per page
When you are going through the analytics of your site your probably notice that users spend more time on certain pages than others. But could a user be spending too much time on one page? If a certain page has a higher page time it could be down to users not finding the information they are looking for easily or finding the navigation confusing. If a visitor is spending minutes on pages which don’t have videos, articles or other interactive elements then it’s likely that you may have a problem. A hint of initiative should come into play here; use your own judgement to work out if your pages are useful.
Unfollowers and Unlikes
Gaining followers on Twitter and Likes on Facebook is important in this social World; it shows off the brand and allows you to interact with customers and potential customers in real time. What we could focus on more is why people are choosing not to follow our brand any more. It could be something you’re doing wrong with your social media i.e. too many self-promoting updates, or it could be that you’re losing a certain demographic. It is important to track these changes as they are important in all industry and give you a good understanding of who your customer is.
Social Shares and Mentions
Having a social presence is great; having an interactive social presence can grow your business dramatically. This really depends on the industry you are in and the product you are selling. The RT’s you are looking for are from brand loyalists, those that share your blog posts, and 
your articles, rather than those than RT for a competition giveaway. Track the RTs you are getting, if you are finding certain posts are getting more shares then use that to your advantage.
Tip* Although Google+ has not had the most Buzz about it; it is still good to have a presence and regularly post to the network. It’s great for sharing articles and +1’s recommendations can’t really hurt your optimisation efforts.
Over To You
What metrics do you think are the most important? Do you have any tips to enhance your monthly reporting? Let us know in the comments section below.