So begins the journey for better analyzing my websites, product sales and emails. I confess that I do love to look at charts and numbers… I just don’t really know what they mean or how to use the information.
It’s been suggested (strongly) that I learn this skill… and learn it now. Because I’m the only one who can make the choices about which direction my business should go… I need to learn the basics. Even if I outsource this task someday, it’s ultimately better for all concerned if I know what I’m talking about.
Wouldn’t you agree? I know… tracking has been compared to “eating your veggies” by Alice Seba. But she is one smart cookie and I trust that she knows what she is talking about… so learning to track is what she says I must do.
First on the list of great tracking tools is of course the big Kahuna… Google Analytics.
http://www.google.com/analytics/
I already have an account – but it will be so easy for you to get one if you don’t already.
I’m going to start with setting up everything for a site that is really neglected. This website is a demonstration website that I built entirely with public domain material. I used it in one of my coaching classes and since then… I really have not touched it. And it’s never had analytics installed.
The website for this testing and tracking experiment is
Wording For Wedding Invitations
Not a pretty site… but we will be working on the “looks” of this site as we go along.
After you sign in – on the analytics page you need to scroll all the way to the bottom and look for this:
You will be able to set up your website/blog for Google analytics here:
Now you enter your website domain name and click Finish:
Then you get a really scary looking page like this… (don’t be afraid – this is all the easy part)
At the top (in the pink area) is something that says “your tracking is not installed”. That’s what we will take care of next.
First you must “copy” all of the tracking code and then paste into the website or blog template. I’m tracking an entire blog. You would use this a bit differently for tracking a sales letter page.
The “theme editor” is what you are looking for… then you will click on the “footer” theme
The footer theme will have this the word /body at the bottom of all that code.
Just right click right above the word /body and paste in the code. Hit save. Your done!
Now when you check your status area you will see that your website isn’t tracking yet (that’s what the little pink box is):
Click on the blue link – Check Status:
That’s what I like to see! Anything that says Success!
Analytics will now tell me
- How many visitors I’ve had in a month
- Where the traffic is coming from
- The Bounce Rate
- The most viewed pages
- Avg. time on the website
- % of new visitors
- And I can set it to collect other data like “sales conversions” which are called “Goals”. I’ll set this up and show you how in the next article!
Anyway… in a week or so I will give you all the details about what Google Analytics is tracking.
What to Test and Track For Better Traffic
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What To Test And Track On Websites For Better Traffic // Oct 22, 2008 at 10:31 pm
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