One of the most important parts about running a successful online business is being able to measure what’s going on.
If you don’t have hard data around where your traffic is coming from and how people are engaging with your business online you’re flying blind as to what you should do next.
The great news is that some of the most advanced and powerful tracking solutions out there are totally free.
All you need is a Google account.
Anytime I am starting with a new client, setting up these three analytics tools is the first thing that I do (if they haven’t already got them).
Data is the fuel you need to keep your marketing machine moving.
And these free tools track and measure the information that you need to take your business to the next level.
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Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free web analytics service that every person with a website should be running.
After installing their script on your site, it tracks all of your incoming traffic and gives you some incredible insights into customer behaviour, such as:
- Pages visited
- Length of stay
- Device used
- Location of user
- Conversion events (such as interaction with lead magnets, buttons etc.)
- Movement through the website/funnel
- How they found your website
This is insanely valuable information that can help you refine your funnels and messaging.
One thing that seems to put some people off when it comes to analytics tracking is the installation of the ‘tracking script’.
For some reason they think it does sound complicated, but it is actually very easy.
It’s a copy-and-paste job when you know what to do.
You don’t need any coding knowledge or anything special to install the script.
Just “control + C” and “control + V” in the right place.
Here are the steps:
- Create a Google Analytics Account. Usually you create a new account for every business.
- Find the analytics ID provided to you in your new account in the “admin” section
- Paste this tracking in the header of your website.
Pretty much all modern websites on platforms WordPress or Squarespace have a section to add tracking tracking codes to all pages for your website.
After you set that up, there is a bit more work that needs to be done.
Google Analytics doesn’t track everything you need right out the box, but you’re almost there.
Next you need be to map out the conversion events you want to track on the site: leads, important page views, sales.
Then you go into the “Goals” section of Google Analytics and tell it what pages these important conversions happen on your site.
Once you’ve done this, you’re now collecting the most valuable information you will be gathering and can help you maximize your site for conversion.
Once you do this a few times you get the hang of it, like any new platform you have to learn it just takes a couple of tries.
This resource will help you make sure you set up your Google Analytics goals correctly.
Once you have this tracking set up, you will be tracking the most important customer interactions that happen on your site.
And Google Analytics will store this data for years so you can always go back and see how your traffic and engagement has changed since you installed the software.
Google Tag Manager
Along with your Google Analytics account, I make sure that every business I work with sets up Google Tag Manager.
As you get deeper into marketing your business, you will realize that there are a ton tracking scripts and pixels that you need to have running on your pages.
Facebook has one. Google Ads has another. Your CRM has one. Heatmaps, survey software, chat platforms… everyone has a tracking script or code they need to put on your website.
It becomes a lot over time.
Google Tag Manager keeps all of your tracking tags organized in one place and makes it easy to attach them to selected pages on your website or funnel.
You can even set up rules so that certain scripts automatically fire on specific pages, which is super important when you’re running Facebook Ads or Google Ads.
Alongside Google Analytics, this is one of the first things I do for new clients.
It helps build solid processes and automation into your marketing efforts from the very beginning.
I have a free video training about how to get started with Google Tag Manager here.
Google Search Console
No matter what your main source of traffic is, your position in search results is definitely important for your business.
Google Search Console allows you to better understand how your site performs in Google search.
It is free and easy to sign up.
With just a few clicks, you can create your account and verify you own site.
It only takes just a couple of minutes.
Once your Google Search Console is active, it will give you extremely valuable data about the keywords people are using to find your site and which content is ranking.
I use this all the time to find new blog post ideas.
I look up what keywords people are using to find this site and if I don’t have a specific article about that topic I create a new one.
That’s how this article about the best conversion rates for a webinar came to life.
I regularly help clients dig into the data from the Google Search Console in our quarterly or annual sit downs to help them make the best decisions possible with their content creation and marketing budgets.
Bonus Tool: Google Data Studio
Google Data Studio is an awesome tool to have, but I put this one into the ‘nice to have’ list.
It is a really cool way to turn your data set into really appealing visual reports.
If you’re tracking all your campaigns and marketing efforts with spreadsheets this is a great way to show off your data in a more appealing way.
It’s awesome to log into a dashboard and see what you need to do instead of just looking at numbers.
Google Data Studio can change a dense spreadsheet into a neat visual report and I find it a lot easier to spot trends and opportunities when the data is presented in this way.
Data Drives Your Online Business
If you are in business online, then you need to start taking control of your data.
The best place to start is with these free essential tools.
I see way too many business owners spending money on marketing without tracking the result and this really is a wasted opportunity.
You NEED data to grow your business and improve your marketing efforts.
Get this set up as early as possible and over time you will be able to use it to dial in your marketing to grow your business.
If you want to get some help setting up business analytics and using that info to set up effective advertising campaigns, get in touch and find out how we can help.
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