Today, the ability to use Google Analytics is a skill that can set you apart from others in your field. Did you know it’s also a skill that can radically change your business for the better? At Social Media Marketing World 2020, Analytics expert Andy Crestondina taught his audience how to attract visitors to and engage them on your website through use of analytics. Here you’ll find a short breakdown of his strategies, and hopefully leave with some new ways to entertain visitors.
The first step in using analytics to boost your business is to actually take a look at the data. Taking this first look will allow you to employ an age-old technique: work smarter, not harder. Crestondina recommends analyzing which pages are getting the most traffic – a data point you can find under the ‘behavior’ section. There you’ll find the fifteen pages on your site that generate the most traffic. Invest your energy into these pages; view them as a strong starting point.
Similar to step one, you’ll want to take a look at which pages are attracting the most visitors, or which pages can be considered landing pages for your audience. Again, work hard on these pages. Add internal links and calls to action on these pages. They’re already inherently interesting, as proven by the fact that visitors land there, and bolstering them will only aid in your success.
Crestondina also recommends creating advanced filters or utilizing the tool of segmentation to view which pages are getting the most visitors from social media. If you’re active on social media, it’s vital to know not only if you’re bringing in visitors from those pages but also where you’re bringing them. Don’t be afraid to use the work of others to aid you in this tedious process – Google has an Analytics Solutions Gallery, and you can import segments from that gallery to your Analytics studio.
With sufficient information about how you’re already attracting users to your site, you must use the data to spur action. Crestondina was sure to mention throughout his talk that these reports mean nothing if you do nothing. The same is true when it comes to engaging visitors, which the entire second portion of Crestondina’s talk centered around.
Headlines are one of the most vital and important, yet often overlooked, components to engaging your audience. There’s an abundance of evidence that shows which headlines perform the best, a lot of which might seem counterintuitive. For example, headlines that consist of 15 words tend to perform the best – despite how lengthy that may seem. Yet evidence shows that headlines of that length generate three times more traffic, two times more shares, and five times more backlinks.
However, not everything should be lengthy. Crestondina taught his audience a critical lesson: people like short sentences, short words, and short paragraphs, but they don’t like short posts. To entertain and engage visitors, you should draw them in with a compelling, longer headline paired with a longer post, but make sure that post is digestible.
Making a post digestible doesn’t necessarily have to mean all your paragraphs are less than three sentences, or that you exclude every long word in the dictionary. It could mean interspersing images, including sub-headlines, or using lists. You can and should get creative.
Finally, Crestondina reminded his audience to always go back to the data. See what’s working and what’s not working by using Google Analytics. And, importantly, don’t be afraid to experiment. He stated plainly that the difference between a beginner and an intermediate or advanced user on Analytics is that beginners are afraid to move beyond pre-programmed tabs and features. So, don’t be afraid. Create filters, create segments, create charts, and use the data to your advantage.