6 Great Ad-ons For Google Analytics

You have a website or blog and are looking for the best possible tracking capabilities so you install Google Analytics which is a brilliant choice that millions of people across the globe have done as well. The best part about Google Analytics is the fact that it is super easy to use, completely free to install/use and gives you loads of insightful information about your users as well as detailed information about your website or blog. If you have never installed or used Google analytics and are working with an SEO company or a digital marketing agency, they should be able to advise you on the multiple things you can enable or use within Google Analytics. If you are really looking to get the most out of your Google Analytics account then you should really look at having these specific things enabled to give you insightful information which can be very powerful:

1. Setting Up Of Goals

If you are an Ecommerce website for example or even a B2B service provider, you will be driving users to take some type of action on your website or blog. Naturally, if you are asking them to take actions on your website or blog, you should be fully aware of it and tracking it. These tracking capabilities vary from signing up to a newsletter to making or a purchase or even submitting a contact us form on a website. Setting up goals not only allows you to report and measure these specific conversions but it also allows you to track/analyze the device, traffic source as well as the location of your website visitors. Lastly, you even have the ability to setup a monetary value for each goal conversion so you can track the ROI you are getting from a specific campaign or digital marketing activity that is taking place. For example, if you are working with an SEO company in India or anywhere in the world for that matter, they should be able to advise you on best practices so you can setup goals within your Google Analytics account if you can’t do it on your own. Like any type of marketing, the more clear your goals are, the better you can gauge the success or failure of the specific activities happening.

2. Funnel Visualization

This is especially helpful in the world of a multi-step process for purchasing a product or service online. When you have multiple steps involved, you can use the Funnel Visualization tool which allows you to really understand the dropoff points within your website that may or may not be happening. You can even fix the user experience, A/B test multiple things as well as get on an overall picture of what is happening so that the relevant improvements can be made. If you are not setting up your Google Analytics on your own then ensure the SEO company or digital marketing company you are working with is doing this for you on your behalf. The more you visualize exactly what is going on through this feature, the better you can rectify or fix the overall flow or user experience within your website that is taking place.

3. Track Events & Actions On Your Website

Google Analytics out of the box only really tracks what pages a user visits, where they came from, what device they were using when they came, where are these users physically located, how long they were on your website and so on. It doesn’t really tell you much about how people are actually interacting with your website or blog which is critical. This feature is known as Event Tracking and is something that should really be enabled within your Google Analytics account. For example, to measure actual interactions such as how many people watched a video, clicked on a share button and so on, you need to have this feature enabled. You can manually track each of these actions or behaviors that take place which can be tagged and reported directly back into Google Analytics each time an event occurs on your website or blog. This will allow you to have better insights on what is working, what content is being shared the most as well as what you need to do more of. You can really tailor your website, campaign and marketing as a result with this type of feature within Google Analytics.

4. On Site Search

When a user is on your website, what they search will tell you a lot about why they actually came to your website as well as what they are specifically looking for or perhaps couldn’t find on it. For example, if they are many search queries taking place for something you don’t have, the SEO company you working with can perhaps create content around that type of information so users can find what they were looking for. When you setup Site Search on your Google Analytics account, it can give you very insightful information into what a user is looking for on your website or blog. This feature is not enabled out of the box but is definitely a feature you want enabled so you can better understand what a user is searching for once they arrive on your website or blog.

5. Fudging The Numbers & Inaccurate Data

When you are or even your internal colleagues or employees that work for you are visiting your website, the last thing you want is that these numbers are fudging the actual visits that are taking place on your website. If you have internal traffic or SEO activities happening on your website constantly, it will start skewing the numbers which is the last thing you want when you are viewing your valuable data. If you are looking for a way to not count the internal users on your website from your office for example, then you need to ensure that you are excluding internal traffic by excluding specific IP addresses. If you are not doing this, then the SEO company you are working with for example will not be able to provide you accurate information which is critical to make important decisions about your website or blog.

6. Google Tag Manager

When you implement the Google Analytics code and try to maintain it, it can be painful if you are not the actual Webmaster. It can be inefficient, cause problems and can be very slow if it is not implemented in the correct manner. If you are not a coder, then Google Tag Manager allows you to address these specific problems that can happen. It allows you to install only one piece of code across everything. Once this is in place, it allows you to easily add new tags, amend old/new ones without breaking anything. All of this can be easily done without even hassling developers or the IT department which will be thanking you. Lastly, you can even enable UTM tags which allows you to really understand the results or the impact of your digital marketing activity. Data is powerful and by tracking the clicks across email, social and display, you can really make insightful decisions or the SEO company you are working with can with you. This add-on is really a good one and is something that should be carefully looked at within your Google Analytics account.

Summary
Whether you are doing this yourself or getting the help of an SEO company, the above 6 add-ons for Google Analytics can really help. Information is power and the more information or data you have, the better it will be for all the people involved including yourself or the digital marketing agency you are working with. By enabling some of these simple, free and insightful features, it can really give you lots of information about your website or blog visitors that you never thought possible. Google Analytics is a very powerful tool if you can use it correctly which unfortunately many people don’t know how to do. If you are looking for a digital marketing agency to help you install or enable these add-on features for your website or blog, please feel free to reach out to the team at Mind Digital for any of your digital marketing or development needs. If you know of more add-ons that are really helpful or have been great to use for yourself, please feel free to comment below.