I know you’re excited. We just installed Google Analytics on your site and the dream of increased conversion rates glows brightly in your eyes.  You login and… uh-whaaaaa?  What is this jibber-jabber?  All you see is squiggly lines and a page full of numbers and links to more pages full of even more squiggly lines and numbers.

This is a common reaction to the Google Analytics Dashboard. The numbers look intimidating but with a little help, they’ll soon be your best friend.  The first step of being able to release the power of your site’s analytics is to understand the terms used.  After we get you familiar with what the terms mean, we’ll move on to understanding the way they interact with each other.  But that’s for another time.

So, put on a pot of coffee, grab your spectacles and settle in; I’m going to teach you some key definitions that will help you get the most out of Google Analytics.
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Conversion Rate is the percentage of visitors to a site that complete a desired action.

Conversion rate is the primary measurement for testing and optimizing an eCommerce website. If the conversion rate goes up a larger percentage of people are completing the desired action.

Generally conversion rates measure whether a customer bought something, but it can measure other goals like newsletter sign-up or creating an account too.

Conversion rate can measure specific actions on a single page or can be used more broadly to represent an action relative to the site.
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Pages with a high bounce rate are a great place to start optimizing your site. The visitors that enter on those pages most likely are leaving because they’re unsatisfied.

According to Google:

Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. Use this metric to measure visit quality – a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren’t relevant to your visitors.

The more compelling your landing pages, the more visitors will stay on your site and convert. You can minimize bounce rates by tailoring landing pages to each keyword and ad that you run. Landing pages should provide the information and services that were promised in the ad copy.

Lowering your bounce rate is an important way to increase the productivity of your online business. Purchase a Site Analysis and lower your bounce rates. Get 10% off Site Analysis at checkout with the coupon code: SA10!

So you have a website and you are getting visitors. But do they make it to your products, the real meat and potatoes, or are they simply seeing the home page and little else?

Knowing which pages your visitors are seeing, and more importantly where they are leaving from, is key to any site’s success.

This is where Google Analytics comes in. A small bit of code will give you access to a wealth of information to help you pinpoint your site’s strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.
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