First things first- Use analytics to judge website performance and strategy
New website owners feel great watching their rise in search results. Many times the rise to the top results from folks searching themselves not realizing Google uses their own search history to deliver search results. Google thinks you are looking for your website and delivers your website higher and higher on your devices.
Website designers and developers like Grand Rapids based Pegasus Ventures Michigan use a number of tools to improve actual search results for local small business owners. One of the best? Google Analytics. Pegasus Ventures Michigan embeds code into client websites allowing Google to collect data as visitors access websites. A powerful tool, Google Analytics automatically delivers a short summary report to small business owners, either daily, weekly or monthly.
Want more information? The webmaster provides clients with Gmail accounts access to the full spectrum of more than 80 reports from Google Analytics. Obviously far too much information for most small business owners to digest, Google Analytics allows web design clients the opportunity to dig in or drill down into a truly massive trove of data.
Analytics; one tool guiding a website's development
Facts best drive strategy. Google Analytics puts real data before business owners, managers and website design firms helping drive fact based decisions as the small business owner and web design/development team chart a course for the small business' web presence. As always, job one for the web designer/developer? Drive top line sales and using top flight tools like Google Analytics puts real information in front of small business owners and managers.
Google Analytics tells us what, exactly?
Website data consumers never really find the limits of available data from Google Analytics; check out this short summary of available information:
- Device type accessing the site- tablet, I pad, smart phone, traditional computer
- Geographic location of users drilling down to city
- Traffic sources- Specific links websites or which search engines sent how much traffic to a website
- Search terms leading visitors to find the website
- Landing page- visitors often land inside a website
- Exit page
- Pages viewed
- Time on the website
- Number of unique visitors
- Frequency of returning visitors
Build it and run, really? in the second decade of the 21st Century?
Oddly enough most website designers and developers serving small business in local markets still an employ the "build it and run" business model. No one advocates every small business hiring someone to sit in a small room bent over a computer chain smoking continually updating a website. At the same local website designers like Grand Rapids based Pegasus Ventures Michigan better serve clients with ongoing design and development services.
The win for a small business owner updating regularly? The folks staying behind leave a wide door open who updates.
Pegasus Ventures Michigan designs/develops each client website with one low price, once a year with unlimited pages and unlimited updates making updating and adding pages super simple.