Google analytics is a data powerhouse.

It gives data-driven insights to businesses. By correctly using these insights, a business boosts its conversion rates, improves its web presence, and kick-starts its growth. To be precise, Analytics has tons of data reports inside it. However, businesses using this service have to look past the basic vanity reports that it generally shows its users.

Instead, companies that want to make the most of Analytics have to derive special insights from its reports.

That is the only way a business will unlock the real actionable data that can boost sales and convert visitors into customers. In this post, ten ways a business should use Google Analytics are shared. But before jumping to these hacks, here are some Analytics-specific facts. These facts and figures show how Google Analytics has changed the way businesses analyze data forever.

Numbers That Matter

• Among the number of web analytics tools, Google Analytics enjoys a market share of 60.67 percent.
• More than 1,749,165 businesses use Google Analytics to outperform their competition.
• Up to 63 percent of the companies using Analytics are small; their workforce is less than 50 employees. Medium-sized businesses that are using Google Analytics are up to 23 percent. While, large-sized companies that use this till are nearly 14 percent; these big players usually have the strength of 1,000 employees.

Now that it is clear how important Google Analytics, one of the most popular digital marketing services, is for businesses, here are some tried-and-true tips that have let businesses use Analytics just like a pro.

Benchmarking Competition

Analytics has a benchmarking screen that lets businesses run a number of comparison reports. By closely analyzing these reports, a business will see how it is performing in comparison with its competition. This data, however, is not 100-percent accurate. It is because not everyone from the competition will be using Google Analytics. However, as it is said, something is better than nothing.

After going through the benchmarking screen, a business will get a fair idea of whether it is receiving lesser traffic than its competition. But that is not all. By analyzing benchmarking reports, a business will know how engaged its visitors are on its site. By analyzing different stats such as average time spent on its website, a business will get a basic idea of how they are stacking up against their competition. Plus, a business may even get on this section the insights into improving the stats.

Analyzing Business Presence Worldwide

The map overlay feature inside the country view does not give detailed insights into a site’s visitor. However, by drilling down right to the city level, a business will get to know the specific details about its audiences. For instance, just because a business is based in the US, it will never mean that the traffic will come from the same country. The lion’s share of the traffic might be coming from London or Italy.

That is why it is essential to dissect the available geo data to know where the majority of a business’s targeted audiences are based. This way, a business can better modify its offerings to suit the taste and preferences of its targeted audience.

Window Shoppers Versus Recurring Shoppers

If a business’s service or product is just bought once by one customer who does not revisit, then its goal will be to attract new visitors. If, however, a business is interested in improving its repeat business stats, then it will have to strategize to rack up the return-visitor count. The best way to dive deep into such sort of analysis is by using referrer information or cookies. By doing so, a business will easily display custom options for a range of visitors.

First Impressions Are The Last Impressions

If a business wants to boost its online sales, then one way is to improve the traffic rate to the website. Likewise, the other way to improve sales is by bringing down the number of people leaving the website. If, however, the visitors are not staying long on the website, then it needs some change in terms of design or content. Many businesses have just tweaked their websites a bit to see revenue and customer-retention stats skyrocketing.

Compatibility Counts

A business’s owner may be an advanced computer user, but its customers may not be that advanced. That is precisely why it is important to know which web browser the targeted audiences of a business use. This way, a business will determine whether its website is compatible with the browser that is most used by its visitors. For example, if 20 percent of a website’s visitors are using Safari, but if it is not compatible with it, then a business is losing a major chunk of conversion rates.

How Big The Monitor Is

In the 90s, people had bulky low-res monitors. However, today, everyone seems to be using LCD screens that have a higher resolution. Just to make sure a business’s website fits on the screen of a majority of its visitors, it is better to check the screen-resolution section of Google Analytics.

In this section, a business will come to know the resolution of the screens its visitors are using. This data is useful because if the majority of customers are viewing the website on high-res monitors such as 1024×768, then it will be best to increase the website’s width. On the contrary, if the visitors use low-res monitors such as 800×600 and below, a business will want to ensure that its website’s width does not exceed the width of the screen of the visitors.

Checking The Referring Websites

By analyzing referring websites, a business usually gets the bigger picture of how many people are heading to its website from these external sources. If a site is receiving a burst of traffic from another website that is not heard of, then it is best for the business to check that referring source. By analyzing the referring site further, it will make complete sense for the business to strategize in advance. This way, the business will stand a chance to receive yet another burst of traffic from the same source again.

Which Pages Are The Most Viewed

A website may have a number of webpages. That is why it is important that which of these webpages are actually driving more quality traffic and leads to the website. Well, Google Analytics has a dedicated section having the data points related to the most-viewed webpages. In this section, a business will come to know which webpage is a real high-performer. Eventually, a business will zero in on the most high-performing webpages and optimize them further.

Analyzing The Factors Driving The Bounce Rate

There is a dedicated section on the Google Analytics that will let a business know the reasons why the visitors are leaving its website. If the visitors frequently exit from a specific webpage, then the business should modify it then and there. Also, through this section, a business will be able to analyze different factors that will actually bring down the bounce rate.

For example, the section will carry data points that will tell whether a business should add links to some specific places on the website. Similarly, this section can even suggest whether a site needs to add better calls to action that actually convert a visitor into a customer. For improving the performance of specific webpages, a business can use Google Website Optimizer as well.

Setting Goals That Pave The Way Forward

When a business sets up its Analytics account, it should create some specific goals. It is one of the basic things that must be done before diving deep into Analytics. Once a business sets its goals on the platform, it will have some specific numbers that it will use as its targets. If a business has not set up its goals, then it should do that immediately. Once the goals are set, a business will have to align the goal data with traffic stats.

Using Google Analytics With A Data Science Specialist

All in all, data becomes an asset as soon as it gets empowered by different analytics and statistical techniques. Many businesses are getting benefited by data science churned out by Google Analytics. So, if a business wants to apply result-driven data science strategies and advanced analytics, then it should use the expertise of a Google Analytics specialist. That is how a business can definitely add real value to real data in real time.