Google Analytics Setup and Support

I still remember my first class in accountancy; it was a rather harrowing affair.  I felt like I had walked into an Estonian language class midway through the year at exactly the time they were getting stuck into the conversational part.  I had a vague recollection of what words like 'profit' and 'revenue' meant but 'balance sheet', 'income statement' and 'liability' were way beyond me.

Needless to say, I managed to grapple with the vocabulary over the next six months just enough to scrape through with a pass.  But a few months later, my mastering of the language of business had vanished without a trace.  It wasn't until about 10 years later when I started my own business that some of it began to come back.   This time I couldn't afford not to know the key points as it was my time and money on the line.  It didn't take me long to understand there were some accountancy words that mattered a lot more than the rest.  'Cash' was one such word, as were 'debtors' and 'margin'.

So it finally dawned on me that the six months I suffered through accounting 101 could have been distilled down into two weeks of the tutor hammering into our heads the bits that really mattered. And it is with this idea of focusing on just the important parts that we guide clients on how to make the most of their Google Analytics set up.  We are not into a comprehensive dissertation on all the features it contains - just the bits that I think you need to grasp first and foremost.

The problems this type of work solves.

Without a steady stream of accurate website analytics data any website optimisation work will struggle to produce results of note.  It's a bit like trying to manage a business without any month-end figures - not impossible but  a lot harder than it should be.

How it will make your site sell more.

Once set up properly, your analytics tools will reveal the 20% of your website pages that deliver 80% of your website's success.  Knowing this, you can now focus your attention on these areas and start to methodically test your way forward to improved conversion rates.

What needs to happen BEFORE this type of work is completed?

There are a few 'fish hooks' in any Google Analytics set-up that can cause issues with data accuracy.  Having a thorough understanding of the pages you want analytics data collected for and an ability to alter your site's content are two tasks that need to be completed first.

What coaching content do we offer in this area?

As you would imagine, we have talked about this subject a lot during our coaching calls.  It's one area I continue to drone on about to ensure everyone has this basic area set up BEFORE they embark on anything too fancy.

Here are a few calls that have referenced content in this area:

Overall Website Analytics Information

Completing Analytics Tasks Others Pass By