The 6 Most Important Google Analytics Reports for Your Small Business

As a small business owner, you probably know that you need to use Google Analytics to figure out if your website is succeeding at attracting and engaging visitors. You’ve heard about Google Analytics at conferences, networking meetings, and marketing workshops for businesses like yours.

You probably signed up for Google Analytics and embedded its code into your website. For most business owners, it’s difficult to know what to look for in all of that data. So, you’re then left with the question: Now what?

That’s why, I’ve compiled a list of what Google Analytics reports you need to look at, how to access them, and what to do with the information once you review them. 

Traffic Acquisition Report

Ideally, the traffic to your website will grow over time. You can track this by using the default Google Analytics graph when you log in to see how many visitors your website received today, this week, or last month.

As important as this is, it’s more important to know where your traffic comes from so you can optimize that traffic. If a traffic source is underperforming, you can spend time fixing it. If most of your traffic comes from one place, is there a way to generate even more traffic from this source? How can you diversify?

You can find out where your website traffic comes from by going to Acquisition > Overview. For a more detailed look into what external sites bring traffic to your site, go to Acquisition > Overview > All Traffic > Referrals.

Source/Medium Report

If you’re investing your marketing dollars by paying for advertisements or SEO services, then you want to know what’s working. This way, you can stop paying for services that don’t work and spend more on those that do.

The Source/Medium report will give you the information you need to determine what’s working for your business, and what needs to be adjusted. This report details the "source" of your traffic (think search engines or Facebook or a Referring website) and what medium, or type of traffic, such as organic search, paid search, or referral from another website. To find this report, go to Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium.

Use this report to determine which sources of traffic are generating leads and sales so you can make an informed decision about how to best adjust your marketing budget.

Mobile Performance Report

In August of 2016 Google reported that over 60% of searches were conducted on mobile. Google processes roughly 3.5 billion searches per day, that’s a lot of mobile searching and it means that you need to make sure that your mobile website is optimized for users.

Go to Audience > Mobile > Overview to see how much traffic you're getting from mobile devices, how long that traffic is staying on the site, how many pages that traffic is visiting, and how that traffic is converting into leads and sales.

SEO Reports

The Search Engine Optimization reports give you information about how people are reaching your site through Google’s search results. There are three types of SEO reports- Queries Reports, Landing Pages Reports, and Geographical Summaries reports.

• Queries reports show which Google searches resulted in the most impressions for your website. You can also see how many of those impressions resulted in clicks, which will tell you your organic search click-through rate.
  
  
• Landing Pages reports show which pages of your site are showing up in Google’s search results. This helps you to identify which webpages are ranked well and which pages need a little more work.
  
  
• Geographical Summaries reports provide general SEO metrics from different countries. This is helpful to see if your SEO traffic is coming from relevant locations.

Keep in mind that these reports only include information about SEO so they won’t tell you anything about your paid advertising campaigns, social media, or information from other search engines like Yahoo and Bing. To generate your SEO traffic reports, go to Acquisition > Search Engine Optimization > Queries and select an appropriate date range. It’s important to note that these reports can only pull data from the past 90 days. Then click the Landing pages report or the Geographical report links.

Google AdWords Traffic Reports

If you’re not advertising in Google AdWords, then you don’t need this report.

For everyone else, I recommend checking your Google AdWords Traffic reports in addition to the reports provided within AdWords. That’s because the reports in Analytics have extra information that provide insight into your visitors’ behavior on your website after clicking on your ads.

The default setting in Google Analytics for your AdWords report shows both your ad clicks and your bounce rate (how often people leave your site after viewing just one page). This information can be used to evaluate different ad copy to see which ads are driving more engaged visitors.

To generate an AdWords Traffic report, go to Acquisition > AdWords > Campaigns and select the appropriate date range.

Social Media Reports

Social Media offers a great opportunity to generate traffic to your website and therefore leads for your business. However, keeping up a strong social media campaign can be very time consuming. Thankfully, Google Analytics provides several reports that can help you track and optimize your social media marketing efforts.

You can see how visitors from all social channels interact with your website, or you can focus on trends and statistics from specific channels such as Facebook or Twitter. These reports will also show you conversions from social media.

To generate the Network Referrals social media report, go to Acquisition > Social > Network Referrals. This report will quickly show you which social networks are bringing people to your site. You can also see which of your pages are being shared most often on social media sites.

Conclusion

Setting up Google Analytics for your business’s website is an important step forward. However, it’s only half the battle. By running the reports listed above, you’ll get valuable insight into what’s working on your website and what needs improvement.

5 Reasons to Invest in SEO

5 Reasons Why SEO Is a Great Investment
for Your Business

Is SEO still necessary?

Every year, this is one of the most commonly debated questions in the digital marketing world. And every year, the answer remains the same -- yes, SEO is necessary.

In fact, not only is SEO necessary for your business, it's one of the greatest investments that you can make.

You can think of SEO like investing money in a 401K for your business -- it's money that will gain value over time and remain in your account. Similarly, by investing in SEO you create long-term value for your website that will continue to accrue over time.

Here are 5 reasons you should start investing in SEO now. 

1. SEO works.

This is a fairly straightforward reason, but it's completely true. As of today, Google processes 3.5 billion searches per day. With that kind search volume there's no debating that ranking in Google's search results offers a valuable opportunity to get more traffic to your business's website.

This is very important because traffic equals leads and leads turn into sales.

By investing in SEO and raising your rankings in Google you'll send more traffic to your website which can generate to more leads and sales for your business.

2. Because of mobile, SEO is becoming even more important for small businesses.

Gone are the days where people needed to wait until they got home and in front of a computer to look something up online. With mobile searches now surpassing desktop, more people than ever are doing research on the go. This is great for small businesses because it means that people are searching for things at the exact time that they need them and are ready to make a purchase.

For example, let's say someone is on a business trip in your area and walking around town when they decide they're in the mood for a coffee. All this person has to do is type "coffee shop near me" into their mobile browser and they'll find all of the local results. For a smaller local coffee shop, this creates an opportunity to rank in their area over big-name coffee shops like Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. That means people can find not only find them online, but also find them on foot in real-time.

By investing in Local SEO you're putting your small business on the radar of people who are your ideal customers and are ready to make a purchasing decision quickly.

3. Higher search engine rankings gives your business credibility.

What do you do when you're considering making a purchase online or in-store? For most people, the answer is research.

Most web users -- as high as 80% in some studies -- look past paid ads and focus solely on organic search results. That means that when someone is doing research for a product or service, they are much more likely to be pre-sold on your business if you rank highly in Google's organic search results. Plus, in order for you to rank highly, your website will have relevant content, which will help to drive sales once someone clicks through to your site

Having a high ranking means that Google and other searchers have found your website relevant. This builds trust and authority for your business and give consumers a positive feeling towards your business before they even start searching around your site.

4. Rankings can change fast, and your competition knows it.

SEO is an ongoing process and the more you invest in it, the greater it will be. This is a good thing on many levels.

If your website is already ranking highly in search results that's great -- but it means you need to continue to invest in SEO in order to stay there. With everyone vying for those top spots, your competitors are going to invest in SEO, and if they do and you don't, they can start to outrank you.

If you're not currently ranking highly in search results, you still have an opportunity to rise up. By investing in a sound SEO strategy and using smart tactics, you may be able to start outranking your competition and driving more traffic to your website.

Ranking #1 is a constant race to the finish line, and whoever trains the hardest and runs the fastest will get there first.

5. SEO is not going anywhere.

Consumers used to learn about products through advertisements on the radio, television and in print ads. People also used to make purchasing decisions in stores and look for service providers in the phone books.

While some people may long to go back to those "simpler" days, the reality is it's not going to happen.

Online shopping and searching is not only here to stay, it's going to keep growing and evolving and with that means SEO will continue to change as well. It's important to start investing now so you set your business up for success in the future.

SEO Predictions for 2017

As we already into the new year, business owners and digital marketers might be wondering if search engine optimization is officially a thing of the past.

The short answer: "No."

And the slightly longer answer: "Heck no!"

Sure, certain SEO practices are obsolete thanks to Google's ever-changing search algorithms. In many ways, though, this is a good thing. Stuffing blogs and websites with keywords, links and junk content never truly helped customers or merchants. On the other hand, today's best SEO practices - and the SEO practices of tomorrow - are based on making search results and websites more relevant to people's needs. The end result is a win for everyone.

Not only is SEO not dying, but this crucial form of online marketing is as alive and well as ever. Social media marketing might seem easier and more accessible, but there's far too much opportunity through search engine marketing to turn your back on SEO.

Don't buy into the hype that SEO has run its course. Instead, keep on reading and learn about SEO trends that are likely to pay off big-time in 2017.

 

Accelerated Mobile Pages

Have you seen that carousel of content that appears above the organic results? These are Accelerated Mobile Pages, also known as AMP. Webpages coded with AMP HTML tags load in mobile Web browsers with simplified formatting, making pages load up to eight times faster than normal.

Simplifying these pages doesn't make them static, though; AMP pages can still be coded with audio, video, social buttons and more. Between the high search engine results page placements, the fast load times and the rich content possibilities, webpages coded with AMP tags can be great for engaging Web users.

However, the AMP concept is still being worked out. Currently, webpages displayed with AMP coding can't display Web forms, rendering them useless for generating leads or email signups. Also, this technology is only really relevant to webpages with long-form articles and blog posts. AMP pages shared on social media might not help your domain authority, either.

That said, Google's message is clear: User experience comes first. Look for Google to expand on AMP coding and similar technologies in 2017.

Social Signals and SEO

Google officials have repeatedly stated that likes, shares and other social media signals don't directly impact search engine rankings - but will they?

That's a big question heading into 2017, with social media marketing continuing to rise in importance. History indicates that Google will eventually find ways to work social signals into its algorithms. Think about it - Google is obsessed with using the most relevant digital cues to determine which websites are the most relevant and credible. How people interact with websites and content on social media is an important measure of trust and value.

Regardless of what Google officials say, it's hard to ignore the popularity of Facebook. Chances are your target prospects are using Facebook regularly so social media is certainly an opportunity to reach them. Plus, researchers have found clear correlations between social media signals and SERP rankings.

The bottom line is that social media is here to stay, and favorable social signals already correlate with stronger SEO. This symbiotic relationship will only grow stronger through the upcoming year and beyond.

Mobile SEO

What makes people more excited nowadays - a new laptop computer or a latest-generation smartphone? The answer illustrates why the shift from desktop to mobile SEO is so critical in digital marketing.

Most people you see on the street are carrying powerful, portable computers in their pockets, and these folks surf the Web from anywhere and everywhere. People who use search engines via their smartphones have completely different behaviors than those who are seated at their desktops. SEO practices changed to accommodate those new behaviors.

Going into 2017, marketers should continue investing in mobile SEO. Especially with Google's announcement that they will soon be using a "mobile-first" index.

That means making sure your website resolves properly when viewed through the Android, Apple and Windows mobile operating systems. It means creating hyper-local content that might rank well in searches from people who are walking, dining, shopping or working nearby. It means using long-tailed, conversational keywords that people are likely to speak into their phones.

Smartphones aren't going anywhere, and neither is mobile SEO. This must be a top priority if you hope to be competitive in SEO.

Machine Learning

What if Google's algorithm could evaluate how people react with search rankings in real-time and adjust itself accordingly? That's the ultimate, big-picture implication of machine learning, a technology in which machines effectively learn based on a wide range of signals and parameters.

Google doesn't use machine learning in its live algorithm, and officials within the company say they don't plan on starting. However, Google definitely uses machine learning to test out changes to its algorithms. That's a big deal considering that Google has voiced concerns about transferring such responsibilities from human programmers to computers.

Going into 2017, SEO experts need to always be thinking about raising the quality of their websites - not for Google's algorithm, but for actual human visitors. Machine learning has significantly enhanced Google's abilities to craft an algorithm that scores sites from a more human perspective. Finding new ways to engage your visitors is the best way to prepare for algorithm changes inspired by machine learning.

Conclusion

SEO isn't dead. However, finding SEO success in 2017 will require a different approach than the blunt-force tactics of yesteryear.

The name of the game in 2017 is to make your approach to SEO as human as possible. Do that, and good things will happen. It's the start of a new era in search engine optimization.