Competition among businesses for consumers’ attention has become more intense with the advent of digital platforms like search engines and social media. With traditional advertising methods, like TV, print, and radio, only large corporations can afford to publish commercials in their full production value.
Fortunately, small to medium-sized companies have online channels to provide a cost-effective method for promoting their brand. If you’re one such entrepreneur, know that your website serves as a digital storefront where you can display your products and services. Meanwhile, you can think of your social media profiles as branches that also feature your merchandise as well as platforms where customers can talk to you.
Improving Business Performance Via Digital Analytics
These days, your business’ success relies heavily on your online presence. Most consumers explore the web to find solutions to their problems or get updates on their social networks. Thus, the internet is where a sizable amount of digital foot traffic could be found.
With this, you need to boost your visibility with techniques such as link building and content marketing so that you can reach your target audience. But first, you have to do web analytics to know your digital marketing campaign’s status and how you can improve them.
Here are some tips to help you:
1. Foster a Data-Driven Environment
Before anything else, you have to cultivate an environment that prioritizes data. Having accurate information on your site’s performance can help you make better decisions regarding where you want to go.
You should set the key performance indicators (KPIs) that you want, depending on your business’ needs as well as short and long-term objectives. Remember, you should have a specific goal for each of your digital marketing campaigns to implement targeted strategies. You’ll have a higher chance of success if you focus on a single demographic, for instance, rather than aiming for quantity.
These are the key web analytics that you should track:
- Traffic: This factor pertains to the total number of visitors you get for a specific period. You ought to be monitoring this rate to know whether your digital marketing efforts are effective.
- Bounce Rate: The bounce rate of your website shows the percentage of people who leave without exploring other pages. Having a high rate implies you aren’t providing valuable content to users. A slow site speed could be another reason that drives people away.
- Traffic Sources: The four major sources of web visitors are search engines, backlinks or inbound links from other sites, email campaign visits, and social media links. You should identify which ones generate the most traffic for you and which platforms don’t so that you can find ways to boost the latter’s number.
- Desktop vs. Mobile Visits: It’s no secret that most users prefer to browse the web through their mobile devices. Nonetheless, this data should help you determine where to focus your efforts and enhance site elements to provide the best experience for users.
- Visitor Type: You can segregate users into two categories (new and returning). While getting fresh visitors is always a good thing, you should aim to convert them into recurring traffic. This shows that you provide relevant industry information, a way to help boost your position in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
2. Do Competitive Research
Aside from checking your metrics, you should also know what your competitors are doing. There are various competitive research tools in the market today. Some allow you to check backlinks and see where your rivals are getting their traffic. This way, you can get inspiration on how to improve your content.
3. Monitor Your SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing practice that entails enhancing the elements in your site to boost your position in the SERPs. This way, when people use your target keywords in their queries, your webpages would be at the top of their list.
Again, site speed is a crucial ranking factor you should monitor. Domain age and authority are other aspects to be mindful of since they lend credibility to your website. Of course, you should ensure to churn out high-quality content to make your domain backlink-worthy.
4. Check Your Performance on Social Media
Another aspect that you should analyze for the success of your business is your social media performance. If consumers aren’t using search engines, they’re likely scrolling through their news feeds to get updates on what their family and friends are doing.
Effective social media analytics should show you how people are feeling about your brand through sentiment analysis. Social engagement is also a crucial factor for your performance on these platforms.
Having a solid social media campaign can improve people’s perception of your brand. This way, you establish yourself as an authority figure in your industry. Digital channels like Facebook and Twitter are excellent ways for you to talk to consumers and engage them in relevant conversations.
5. Measure Engagement with Heat Maps
Heat maps are data visualization tools that utilize colors to emphasize which areas of your webpage get the most attention. It maximizes the warm-to-cool color spectrum to help you optimize your site elements to pinpoint where people are most engaged.
For instance, if you generate a heat map on one of your blog posts, check the color for the portion where you placed your call-to-action (CTA). Ideally, it should reflect a warm hue, such as orange or red. If it doesn’t, you should transfer it to an area where most visitors reach.
6. Look Deeper into Your Data
While data is essential, you should always look beyond the surface to figure out more insights on your site’s performance. Having lots of traffic doesn’t always mean your digital marketing efforts are working. You’ll also have to check conversions and the actual sales transactions to get a holistic view of the success of your campaigns.
Conclusion
Digital platforms have become a necessary tool for businesses. A majority of consumers are either using search engines or social media sites, so it makes a lot of sense for brands to meet their target audience on these platforms. Web analytics is crucial for this endeavor since it allows you to identify your domain’s strengths and areas for improvement.
