1. Website Optimization
Using Google Analytics

2. About Vertical Nerve
• Help organizations connect with their audience online
• Help them convert that audience into customers
Web Design & Mobile Web Search Engine Web Analytics
Development Development Marketing Consulting

3. About Me
• Director, Analytics & Search Engine Marketing
• 10 Years of Search Engine Optimization /
Marketing Experience
• 8 Years of Web Analytics Experience
• Helped the following organizations:

4. About Me
• Also an Olympic
Weightlifter getting ready
to leave for London.
TOTAL LIE

5. Why Do We Need Analytics?
• Analytics helps you discover what works…
…and STOP doing what doesn’t.

6. Why Do We Need Analytics?
• Without Data,
the HiPPO Rules!
• What’s the HiPPO?
(Highest Paid Person’s Opinion)

7. About Google Analytics
• Free, enterprise level web analytics solution
• Installed on over 10M sites worldwide
• 60% of Top 100k sites online
• Over half the Fortune 500

8. How it Works
• Invisible page tag using JS & Cookies
• When those pages are viewed, the code runs
behind the scenes, sending data to Google’s
secure servers
• This data is processed and reported in Google
Analytics
• Note: Data is not shared without permission

9. What Does GA Track?
• It Tracks a Visitor’s:
– Approximate Location (city)
– Browser and System Specs (OS, language, etc)
– Referral Information (previous site and/or query)
• It Does Not Track:
– Email Addresses
– Specific Locations
– Any Personally Identifiable Information

10. WHEN IT COMES TO GOOGLE ANALYTICS,
HERE’S THE COMMON SCENARIO…

12. Common Scenario
• Most organizations “use” Google Analytics
– It’s installed on the website…that’s about it.
• Most organizations do not use Google Analytics
– No confidence in the data
– No conversion goals
– No marketing campaign tagging
– No visitor segments
– NO VALUE!!!

13. WHY?

16. “I don’t want to be a pirate web analyst!”

17. HERE’S THE GOOD NEWS…

18. The Good News
• Using Google Analytics doesn’t have to be
confusing or overwhelming
• Anybody can quickly learn some of the basics
and start making data-driven decisions

19. A FEW NICE AND EASY METRICS

20. Engagement Metrics
Avg. number of
Avg. time spent Percentage of in-
pages viewed per
on the website n-out visits
website visit

21. Conversion Metrics
Total number of % of visits
goal completions completing a goal

22. What’s a Conversion Goal?
• Every page has a purpose, and every site has
goals. Identify these and use them.
– Online Application
– Schedule a Visit
– Request Information
– Watch a Video
– Etc..

23. 1st Takeaway: Goals
• Google Analytics is virtually useless without
conversion goals, so identify and create some!
• Anything is better than nothing, so don’t be
shy

24. Example: UTSA
These are goals!

25. KEY QUESTIONS

26. Key Questions
• How Can Google Analytics Help me Recruit
More Students?
• How Can Google Analytics Help me Market
More Effectively?

27. WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION

28. Website Design & Changes
• What’s the biggest influence on most website
design decisions today?
• Why?
– No alternative.

29. Here’s an Idea!
• Identify website goals
• Optimize design, content,
images, buttons, etc.
towards the goals
• Let data be the guide
• Feed data to the HiPPO
(trends, charts, etc.)

30. Conversion Goals (cont.)
• For any given page on a site, be able to answer
these two questions:
– How effective is this page at getting visitors to my
goals?
– Is this page more or less effective than it used to
be?

31. Conversion Goals (cont.)
• For your website or section, be able to
answer:
– What % of all my visitors are completing a
conversion goal?
– Is my conversion rate increasing or decreasing?
– What traffic sources provide the best visitors?
(most likely to complete a goal)

32. A/B Split Testing
• Test & improve content pages with new
Content Experiments feature in GA
• Makes data-driven decisions
easy!

33. MARKETING ANALYTICS

34. GA for Marketing Analytics
• Prospective students come from many
channels
Blogs
YouTube Magazines
Search News
WEBSITE
Engines Sites

35. Analyzing Channels
• Which channels or campaigns are producing
the highest conversion rate?
Remember, conversion rate is the % of visits completing a website goal.
• Which channels or campaigns have the lowest
bounce rate, or highest engagement rates?

36. Analyzing Channels (cont.)
• In order to easily analyze traffic channels, they
must be tagged or grouped appropriately.
• Ever visit should have:
– Medium
– Source
• Some also have:
– Campaign
– Keyword
– Ad / Content

37. Example: Performance by Medium
Traffic Categories Engagement Metrics Conversion Metrics

38. Analyzing Campaigns
• Some traffic sources have campaigns
– Paid Search
– Display / Banner Advertising
– Social Media Advertising
– Email Marketing
• Use the Google Analytics campaign tagging
variables to track these cleanly inside of
Google Analytics

39. 2nd Takeaway: Tag Campaigns
• Ensure that, whenever possible, online
marketing campaigns are tagged appropriately
in Google Analytics

40. Marketing Analytics
• With key goals identified and marketing
campaigns tracking properly, answering these
questions is easy:
“Where should I spend my next marketing dollar?”
“Which campaigns are not producing ROI?”

41. 5 MORE VALUABLE BENEFITS OF GA

42. Track Mobile Success
• What % of a Site’s Traffic is from Mobile?
• How are those Visitors Performing?

43. Track Social Interactions
• See when visitors on your site tweet, share,
like, etc.
• See which social networks are driving traffic to
your site.

44. CRM Integrations
• Important for lead generation websites
• Campaign information all through the sales
process
Visit Lead Sale
Campaign ABC Campaign ABC Campaign ABC

45. Watch Real-time Response
• Data within 2 seconds!

46. Track Website Speed
• Studies have proven, slow sites = less money
• GA now automatically tracks your page load
times, so optimize your web experience

47. KEY TAKEAWAYS

48. Takeaways & Tips
• Identify & Configure Conversion Goal(s)
• Track all Marketing Campaigns using GA tags
• Care for Analytics Account (brush, floss, etc.)
• Utilize Scheduled Email Reports & Alerts
• Share Data within your Organization

49. And One More Thing…
• Please don’t let this happen…

50. Thank You!
• Leave a card to join our weekly Google
Analytics newsletter (free tips & new features)
• Visit our table outside and enter to win a free
Google Analytics Audit! ($1,500 value)
• Visit us online at www.verticalnerve.com

51. Q&A