Setting up website analytics

The role of analytics in marketing and business is hard to overestimate. The vast majority of marketers (over 90% according to HubSpot) believe that analytics plays a key role in making important decisions about marketing strategies and tactics. In addition, analytics helps increase ROI (return on investment), adapt to market changes, evaluate the effectiveness of channels and promotion methods, etc. 

In simple terms, what is website web analytics

Website web analytics – the process of collecting, tracking, and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data about site traffic and user interactions. Web analytics allows you to understand how visitors behave and identify their needs, based on which you can develop an action plan to improve site efficiency and expand its capabilities if necessary. Web analytics also helps determine how effective marketing campaigns have been. It is necessary from the moment the first user visits the site.

If web analytics systems are not configured on the site, you can say that the work is being done “blindly,” which may lead to the absence of expected results both now and in the long term.

What are the goals and objectives of setting up site analytics?

The main task of web analytics is to analyze data on the basis of which optimal management decisions are made, business efficiency increases, profit grows, and the work of the site and marketing activities is optimized.

In addition, there are a number of tactical tasks:

• evaluate the quality and quantity of traffic
• analyze site visits
• analyze user actions and behavior on the site, measure conversions
• identify technical problems on the site
• create a user profile
• check site compliance with set goals
• determine the most effective traffic sources 
• increase the effectiveness of organic (SEO) and advertising promotion
• identify potential for sales growth
• reduce customer acquisition cost
• increase ROI indicators

Advantages of setting up website analytics

After setting up a web analytics system you will be able to:

• get complete information about your site – quality, efficiency, traffic, etc., and compare indicators with business goals
• make more effective and well‑thought‑out management decisions
• optimize the site according to audience needs
• get high returns on investment
• launch a process of continuous optimization, making your business even more effective

Stages of setting up web analytics:  

1. 1. Identifying goals and metrics. Before starting data collection, you need to define site goals – sales, subscriptions, calls, etc. Then these goals must be matched with specific metrics. Only after this can you measure the effectiveness of the web resource.
    
   2. Choosing a web analytics platform. There are many systems, one of the most popular being Google Analytics. Evaluate the capabilities of different platforms and choose the one that best suits your business and budget.
    
   3. Installing the analytics code on all site pages. This code allows tracking traffic, behavior, and other metrics.
    
   4. Setting goals and tracking events. In the system settings you need to specify a list of goals and set event tracking, which will allow a deeper understanding of user interaction paths with the site.
    
   5. Building conversion funnels. You need to display the sequence of steps users take toward the goal. This helps identify where traffic is lost and optimize those points.
    
   6. Connecting contextual advertising tools (Google Ads) to the web analytics system to get broader data on acquisition sources.
    
   7. Analyzing and tracking user behavior. Track the most visited pages, where users leave your site, and where they most often perform target actions. All this data will help optimize your site.
    
   8. A/B testing and optimization. Track which changes on the site have the best impact on efficiency, then optimize accordingly.
    
   9. Building reports. Create reports that display key indicators, track changes, and analyze the effectiveness of activities. Based on the results, develop a plan for further actions.

Cross‑channel analytics

When using various promotion channels, it is important to understand which ones bring the greatest effect and which need optimization. For this, cross‑channel analytics tools are used. 

Cross‑channel analytics is a comprehensive method of analyzing the effectiveness of marketing activities. With it we can track the customer journey from click to first and repeat purchase, as well as understand which traffic source brings sales and which only leads, identify ineffective advertising, and reallocate the budget.

Advantages of cross‑channel analytics:

• all information about advertising channels is in one system, simplifying analysis
• helps optimally distribute the advertising budget
• allows comprehensive and accurate evaluation of advertising effectiveness
• ensures transparency of processes in marketing and sales departments

At seven mountains we approach website analytics setup comprehensively – starting with defining site goals and general metrics, and ending with testing and report configuration, so that business owners can make optimal management decisions and act as effectively as possible. We are confident that even small businesses deserve a comprehensive marketing approach to become more competitive and valuable.