5 Google Analytics Tips You Can’t Ignore! {With Shannon Yelland}

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

I recently got to hear some great tips on web analytics, online lead generation, metrics, and KPI’s (key performance indicators) at the Vancouver SEM Meetup group. The speaker was Shannon Yelland (a web analyst from Seed the Web).

Danielle (me) + Shannon Yelland

It was my first time joining this (great) group lead by Jose Uzcategui and Ani Lopez and I am really excited to share the key takeaways with you guys.

During this Meetup, Shannon talked about how to use and view website analytics to measure the health of your company and website:

1. KPI vs Metrics
   A metric is a number or a statistic. KPIs can be a set of metrics that determine the “pulse” of your business. It can also give you insight on where to focus and what to prioritize, rather than being just a static number.

^HS: Being a huge advocate of analysis and goal setting, I love this definition of KPIs by Shannon.

2. Use KPIs that Matter
   It is better to use relevant KPIs that include many segments and metrics than one stand-alone metric. For example, instead of using unique visitors as a main measurement, use SEO conversions with overlaying information about search traffic form keywords, number of keywords, and number of conversions. This will tell you more about how your website is performing, areas of opportunity, and how your marketing efforts are doing.

^HS: We love the ‘number of keywords’ metric being mentioned here. It’s a good one to keep an eye on when analyzing your SEO efforts.


3. Use a Custom Dashboard
   Google Analytics’ dashboard can be overwhelming and include a lot of information that you don’t need. Make sure to customize your dashboard and include what is relevant to you.

^HS: This also correlates with your goals that you setup in the beginning of your marketing campaign. Once you define your goals it will add clarity on how you want to customize your Analytics.

4. Micro and Macro conversions
   Don’t just look at your macro conversions and metrics; looking at micro conversions (e.g. sign-ups) can help you measure the health of your website.

^HS: Glad to hear this one from Shannon! There’s no such thing as “just SEO” or “just website design” all of these marketing tactics that you do are interdependent (I love this word! :)

5. Human Analysis
   Great, so you have all your data and KPIs set up, but what now? To make sense of it all, devote some time and money into human analysis.

^HS: And that’s the most important and the most difficult part, too. That’s why, I guess, so many businesses ignore it, huh?

NOTE: Making sure you have all the right tracking in place is the first step, of course.

What KPIs do you measure on your website? Do share! :)

Thanks for reading!

Love, Danielle + Helen

Tags: analytics, conversions, Google Analytics, KPI, Meetup, Metrics, Shannon Yelland
Posted in Analytics | 2 Comments »