So, you\u2019ve installed Google Analytics.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t know what the heck to do with it next.<\/p>\n
The dashboard looks complicated, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
At a glance, you can see where your traffic comes from.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not enough!<\/p>\n
You need to know which traffic sources convert into email subscribers.<\/p>\n
Which traffic sources convert into paying customers.<\/p>\n
And which\u00a0social media\u00a0site has the\u00a0BIGGEST impact on your business.<\/p>\n
Why is that important?<\/strong><\/p>\n In this tutorial I\u2019ll show you how I use Google Analytics to make informed decisions for strategic blog growth.<\/p>\n If you haven\u2019t already\u00a0installed Google Analytics\u00a0and excluded internal traffic for accurate data, you\u2019ll need to go do that now before we continue.<\/p>\n Using Event\u00a0Goals To Track Email Subscribers<\/strong> Let\u2019s go do that now.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Why is that important?<\/strong>\u00a0If you don\u2019t\u00a0activate the funnel settings and someone accidently\u00a0lands on\u00a0your thank you page via the search engines, Google Analytics\u00a0will include that visit as a new subscriber in its data \u2013 giving you inflated statistics. When you activate the funnel settings, visitors have to go through your entire email funnel to be included in Google\u2019s data as a new subscriber.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re\u00a0done, left click create goal.<\/p>\n Using Event Goals To Track Sales<\/strong><\/p>\n Now you\u2019ve successfully set up tracking for email subscribers, tracking paying customers will be a walk in the park.<\/p>\n E.g.\u00a0<\/strong>I sell services,\u00a0clients start\u00a0on\u00a0a sales page (usually), so that\u2019s step one of my funnel. Then, after payment has been\u00a0made, clients are forwarded to a simple optin page asking for their primary email address, so I can contact them about their order\u00a0\u2013 that\u2019s step two of my funnel.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re done, left click Create Goal.<\/p>\n Identifying\u00a0Engaged Traffic Sources That Convert<\/strong><\/p>\n Here comes the fun part!<\/p>\n Now you\u2019ve created your goals, it\u2019s time to analyse your data to discover which traffic sources send you quality\u00a0traffic that converts into email subscribers and sales.<\/p>\n When you have this information, there\u2019ll be no more guess work. You\u2019ll know\u00a0the exact\u00a0websites, social platforms, forums and communities\u00a0you need to\u00a0leverage for strategic blog growth.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s get started.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Left click the image below to\u00a0enlarge it\u00a0in a new window.<\/p>\n Looking at the left hand navigation you can see that this data is an overview of the Acquisition report.<\/p>\n In the top\u00a0left corner of the screenshot under goal option,\u00a0I\u2019ve filtered the results to display \u2018new subscribers\u2019 as my goal conversion (see the 3rd column of the bar chart), which I\u2019m displaying in descending order so we can easily see which traffic sources convert the most visitors into email subscribers.<\/p>\n At a glance we can see that direct traffic\u00a0has the highest goal conversion rate, correct?<\/p>\n In second place we have referral traffic, followed by social\u00a0sources\u00a0and organic search.<\/p>\n We can ignore traffic sources\u00a05\u00a0and 6, because that\u2019s traffic generated from my email list.<\/p>\n So what does this tell us?<\/strong> To\u00a0learn more about direct traffic, you\u2019ll definitely want to read\u00a0Where Does Website Traffic Come From: Direct Traffic\u00a0by Ana Hoffman, creator of the Traffic Generation Caf\u00e9 (highly recommended!).<\/p>\n Back to the acquisition overview\u2026<\/strong> Meaning, commenting on popular niche related blogs, forum marketing, and networking in communities like Triberr, should be a\u00a0\u2018priority task\u2019\u00a0over social media activity, keyword targeting and\u00a0search engine optimization.<\/p>\n And\u00a0if\u00a0I\u00a0dig a little deeper by left clicking the referral tab,\u00a0we\u2019ll discover\u00a0which blogs, forums and communities attract the highest number of visitors and subscribers. With this information\u00a0you\u2019ll know exactly where to spend the\u00a0vast majority of\u00a0your time, engaging\u00a0your target\u00a0audience!<\/p>\n Tip<\/strong>: With experimentation you\u2019ll soon discover that only a small handful of referral sites, like 2 or 3,\u00a0generate 80% of your traffic, subscribers and sales.<\/p>\n Now, you\u2019ll notice that I\u00a0emphasized the words\u00a0priority tasks\u00a0in my\u00a0example above.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not saying social\u00a0media should be ignored!<\/p>\n Social media is a MUST for anyone serious about building a successful blog.<\/p>\n You should be active on ALL the main social media sites, but there\u2019ll always be one leading platform\u00a0that works best for you as an individual.<\/p>\n You need to discover which one that is,\u00a0and then make it a primary focus in your social media marketing plan.<\/p>\n And Google Analytics is an awesome tool to help you identify which social media platform has the\u00a0BIGGEST impact on\u00a0your business.<\/p>\n Left click the image above to enlarge it in a new window.<\/p>\n In the\u00a0Sessions column,\u00a0under Acquisition, we can see that Facebook delivers more traffic than Google Plus, agreed?<\/p>\n The bounce rate for Facebook is almost half that of Google Plus \u2013 and Facebook traffic stays on site for longer (see Avg. session duration).<\/p>\n Does this mean Facebook has the biggest impact?<\/p>\n No, not necessarily\u2026<\/p>\n At first glance the data can be misleading \u2013 that\u2019s why it\u2019s important to set up goals!<\/p>\n If you look at the\u00a03rd column titled New Users, under Acquisition, and at\u00a0the\u00a0Goal Conversion\u00a0located in the final section of the chart\u2026<\/p>\n Google Plus attracts a higher percentage of new visitors\u00a0and\u00a0email subscribers!<\/p>\n Note:\u00a0<\/strong>To discover which traffic sources convert visitors into paying customers, you simply select the appropriate goal from the drop down menu under Goal Option. This can be found in the top left corner of the Acquisition overview.<\/p>\n Have a go yourself<\/strong> \u2013 set up the goals we\u2019ve talked about in today\u2019s tutorial and then come back here and let me know what you find in the comments below!<\/p>\n And if you need help with Google Analytics I\u2019m currently\u00a0offering my services\u00a0to readers of The Strategic Blogger. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.<\/p>\n\n
\nTo discover which traffic sources\u00a0convert into email subscribers,\u00a0you\u2019ll need to\u00a0create an\u00a0event goal inside Google Analytics. Don\u2019t worry, it\u2019s not as complicated as it may sound.<\/p>\n\n
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\nWell,\u00a0as important as direct traffic is, we can ignore it for the purpose of this tutorial \u2013 it\u2019s not a traffic source we can\u00a0easily control. And \u00a0I\u2019m not going to explain why, or where direct traffic comes from, because\u00a0it\u2019s a complex subject.<\/p>\n
\nAlthough organic search and social\u00a0sources attract more visitors than referral traffic (see 1st column of bar chart), we can clearly see that referral traffic has a higher email optin conversion rate.<\/p>\n