You should be (but probably aren't) looking at these 4 basic but key website metrics!

Google analytics can be complicated! But by knowing these basic metrics, you can get your foot in the door and improve your website and marketing.

Bounce Rate - By Acquisition

Overall bounce rate is important to know as it can give a good indication of the quality of your landing pages. However, looking at bounce rate by acquisition will give you a clearer idea of which marketing channels are most effective. For example, you may notice that bounce rate from PPC is higher than the rest of you channels. This probably means that your keywords aren't well enough targeted or you're directing traffic through to the wrong landing pages and you need to review your Adwords account. Generally speaking direct traffic usually has a low bounce rate. Why? Direct traffic is usually traffic from returning visitors. You wouldn't return to a website if you weren't interested in it, right?

Site Loading Speed

It's a well known fact that slow loading sites have higher bounce rates and lower conversion rates. You can view how quickly your site loads via different browsers and devices on your Google Analytics account. If you notice your site loading time to be poor checkout Googles ones site speed checker for suggestions and tips on what you could do to improve it or contact your web developer.

Behaviour By Technology

Looking at your audience behaviour by technology can give a strong indication if your website is not performing well on certain devices. If you notice, for example, that bounce rate is higher and average page views lower on mobile devices, you might need to better mobile optimise your site. This is extremely important as now over 60% of all Google searches happen via mobile! You can check out googles own mobile optimisation tool to find out more about your own sites mobile optimisation.

Assisted Conversions

If you're tracking goals in Google Analytics, you should be tracking your assisted conversions. Assisted conversions occur when a traffic channel is involved in the conversion path but is not the last or direct click conversion. For example, if someone clicks on your Google ad and visits your website but does not convert (buy your product, call, fill in contact form etc) they may come back at a later date via direct or organic search and the convert. In this circumstance, the conversion would be attributed to direct or organic traffic but it was actually the Google Ad that initiated the conversion. This data is imperative to look at to get a great ideal of how your channels perform and interact with each other. Those social ads that you thought weren't doing well may have been a part of 80% of last few sales.

If you need any additional help with your marketing or understanding Google Analytics, please don't hesitate to contact us today.