Google Analytics The Best SEO Tool

Posted on 10. Dec, 2008 by Pete Hollier in Search Optimization

The absolute best SEO tool available! Are you using it?

Imagine in the profit driven world of today the absolute best SEO tool available is free?

Google Analytics, no charge, easy to use and provides so much for web site owners.

So what does Google Analytics do? The list is becoming more extensive and customizable all the time, but the main features of Google Analytics include:

Visitor Trends

Google Analytics offers in-depth information on visitor web site interaction. Important indicators of visitor actions include; time spent on the site, how many and which page were visited, plus new versus returning visitors.

These metrics enable web site owners to obtain detailed information of how interested people are in the web site’s topic. Returning visitors, longer and more page visits are a sure indication that you have captured your visitor’s interest, the most important factor to ensure your visitors achieve your web site business goals.

The analytics program also reports “Bounce Rate”, this is the indication of the percentage of people who leave the page immediately upon arrival, indicating you have not gained the interest of the visitor. If bounce rates are high, you can be assured there is a problem with some aspect of your web site.

Assume your home page is the most popular landing page, which is often the case. If your home page is also the leading exit page with a high bounce rate, what does this tell you? Well for a start it tells you there is a serious problem with some aspects of your home page.

These issues could include:

• Poor web site design
• Purpose of site not well defined
• Unclear navigation system
• Poor keyword selection

Traffic Sources

Where are your customers coming from? What keywords are they using?

Google Analytics provides information on where customers originate, both geographically and on the web. Are visitors directly typing in your web site address, being referred by search engine and which one, or are they being referred by other web sites? All this information is beneficial when determining what is working and where additional work is necessary.

If your business is targeting a specific geographical area, the global map overlay within the Google Analytics program provides a drill down of the physical location of your customers from continent to country to the actual city. This feature offers web site owners a powerful tool to discover how well both online and offline marketing efforts are performing..

Web Site Business Goals

The web site is a business tool and ROI must be obtained for expenditure made in web site development and promotion. The web site goals define in your SEO Strategic Planning can easily be monitored using Google Analytics. Analytic reports enable web site owners to specify four goals to be tracked. The Analytics program offers customization to specify the funnel or path which users follow to the final goal conversion which may be a sale or a news letter registration..This feateure clearly shows if the business objective is reached, its monetary value if relevant and most importantly identifies where the visior leaves the funnel enabling adjustsment to be made on the conversion path.

To say this has been a brief overview of Google Analytics is an understatement. Google Analytics is a powerful anaysis tool which should be used by all web site owners.