What Google Analytics metrics should I check and how often?
With so many options in the dashboard, it can be a little overwhelming. Here are the metrics you should be measuring on a weekly basis:
Social Sources
Where to find it: Acquisition > Social
How is your social media impacting your website? This tool measures your social relationship, put simply how social media channel impact your site, this includes sales for those with e-commerce websites. You are able to identify what platforms are driving users to your website, how long they are staying on your website and if they are converting to sales. This means you are able to identify high performing networks and content and also invest in ones that you see potential in.
Device usage
Where to find it: Audience > Mobile > Overview
What are your users using? Desktop, mobile or tablet? Your website should work on either regardless but knowing the source can allow you to customise the users experience. Users expect a personalised experience and with this information you can deliver it.
Bounce rate
Where to find it: Audience > Overview
This is the number of users that enter your site then leave after viewing just one page. Many things can contribute to a high bounce rate, the most popular being that people are not engaging with your homepage and therefore leaving. Now, an e-commerce business wants people to visit multiple pages and buy. But for a service business, like us, people mostly check out one to two pages then call or email so our bounce rate is at the higher end. The range is between 26% – 70%. Ideally, maintain between 41% – 55%. On average you have eight seconds to engage the audience, so you’ve got to be quick. Instead of having text-heavy pages, try to incorporate attention grabbing items like videos, images and bullet points.
Traffic Sources
Where to find it: Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium
How are people finding your website? This tool allows you to gain a comprehensive understanding of your traffic sources. Why is this important? This allows you to see and invest in sources that are most popular. It also allows you to flag and invest in any underperforming platforms. Maybe you need to amp up your IG game or maybe you need to invest in your SEO.
% New Visitors
Where to find it: Audience > Overview
You want to continuously be growing your audience. Obviously, you do not want them to all be new, return customers are valuable to any business. This is a great way to see how many new visitors are discovering your brand.
Behaviour Flow
Where to find it: Behaviour > Behaviour Flow
The behaviour flow section is one of the best features. On first look, the flow chart can look a bit intimidating but, trust us, it’s really not that bad once you get into it. Here, you can follow the journey that visitors go through when they arrive at your site, step by step. By using this tool, you can see which pages is attracting the most hits, when users leave the site, and the routes they take.
Total number of users
Where to find it: Audience > Overview
How many users are you getting each week? This is a great way to measure the success of campaigns, new launches or media pieces. This number is a different to sessions as this is the number of unique users coming to the website.