6.5 Reasons Why You Should Use Google Analytics

Google Analytics launched in 2005 and it has forever changed the way that people think about analytics. Being free of charge, there is literally no reason why a company shouldn’t use this powerful service. According to Google, “Google Analytics not only lets you measure sales and conversions, but also gives you fresh insights into how visitors use your site, how they arrived on your site, and how you can keep them coming back.”

Analytics has morphed tremendously over the past few years, especially with the explosion of smart phones, but Google Analytics has always kept up with the trends and continues to improve every day. Using valuable data to make critical decisions should be a core part of any business. Below are 6.5 reasons why you should use Google Analytics.

1. Google Analytics is completely FREE!
There are no monthly costs associated with the service, there is no need to go through any consultants to get it and it’s relatively easy to set up. To top it off, Google provides amazing training resources and guides for the public. Anyone can use the basic functionalities of Google Analytics, but to reap the full benefits of all the features one would need to do a little learning.

Note: Google Analytics will cost money if your site generates more than 10 million hits per month.

2. They track everything.

Who visits? Find out the geographic location of your visitors, what device they used, what language they speak, what browser they used, their screen resolution, what keywords were used, and so much more.
What do they do on your site? Find out how long visitors are on your website/page, the bounce rate, how many pages they’re visiting, the order of the pages they visit, what page they land/leave from, and so much more.
When do they visit? Find out when visitors visit your site so that you can publish new content at the most beneficial times.
Where did they come from? Find out where your users came from whether it was through social media, a search engine, a website referral, or directly. You’ll be able to focus your efforts more effectively.
How they interact? Find out if your visitors are engaging in content, if certain promotions are doing better than others, which sites lead to more conversions, and so on.

3. There are so many apps available.
Who doesn’t love apps? They can make implementation, configuration and monitoring so much easier and user friendly. As mentioned before, there is a lot that you do with Google Analytics, but a deeper knowledge is required. However, with these apps you reap all the benefits without needing to learn all the details.

4. Customize it how you want.
See your data the way you need to see it. Google Analytics offers powerful customizable reports. There is so much information available that it can be overwhelming. Fortunately, Google Analytics allows you to create your own reports easily (doesn’t get much easier than drag and drop) so that you can compare what is important to you.

5. Integrates perfectly with AdWords.
There is no doubt that the majority of your traffic comes from Google. That being said, it makes sense to advertise on Google – enter AdWords. Since these are both Google services, it makes sense that they fit together like two peas in a pod. Being able to associate the costs of AdWords directly with the outcome of each visit is efficient and logical.

6. Helps improve your website.
While Google Analytics doesn’t literally make your website better, it is one of the most helpful tools out there. By analyzing the data you can learn what works for your website and what doesn’t. For instance, if your landing page has an alarmingly high bounce rate, then you know to reconsider the content on that page. Perhaps it’s confusing and unclear or maybe it’s simply not engaging. Or maybe you find that a lot of customers complete 3 out of 4 steps for a transaction, but then quit. It would be worth it to see if there is some sort of obstacle that makes the last step hard. Remember, with the internet people have so many options for everything so it is in your company’s best interest to make everything as user friendly as possible.

6.5. It’s Google.
Enough said.

Feel free to comment and share your ideas about why you think people should use Google Analytics!