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Getting your small business website up and running is a big accomplishment. But then you begin to wonder, “Is anyone even visiting my site?” You have no way of knowing how people are finding you, who’s visiting your site, or what they’re doing once they get there. Even when you make a sale, you have no idea what inspired the customer to make that purchase. You just don’t know where to go from there and no way to really know where you might be able to make some improvements to your website and your marketing.
Why You Absolutely Must Track Your Website
Curiosity can be a big motivator, but there are several other more important reasons to track your website. It all boils down to getting the most out of your site to increase your bottom line. Here are some of the details you can find out and how they’ll enhance your marketing.
Know Who’s Visiting Your Site
It only makes sense to tailor your site to the people who use it. To do that, you need to know some basic facts about them. With website tracking, you can discover demographic details like:
- Age, gender, and location
- What devices they’re using to access your site
- What languages they speak
- What they’re interested in
Fine-Tune Your SEO
Organic traffic brings consumers to your site that are specifically looking for something you offer. They type their query into the search bar and get the search engine results page that contains your link. They know what they’re looking for and are willing to see what you’ve got.
The more you know about your site visitors, the more information you have to build your SEO strategy. You can focus on the keywords that are bringing in the traffic you want. Then, you can create content that appeals to your audience.
Identify Content That Works
You don’t just want to fill your website with random content, of course. You want content that brings people to your site, keeps them there, and keeps them engaged. Website tracking can show these facts for each piece of content by showing you the number of visits to that page, the average duration of the visit, and the bounce rate (visitors who only visit a single page and leave).
See Reports from Your Website
As a small business owner, typically the most important reason for having a website is to promote your business and make sales (whether that is actual ecommerce or simply getting people interested enough to contact and hire you for your services). You can’t know how to do that better if you don’t know how well you’re doing right now. The best tracking methods give you detailed information about things like:
- Your top products
- Top pages people visit on your site
- Your conversion rates
Top Two Website Tracking Tools
So, tracking information is important. But how do you get all that data? You’ll need to use a website tracking tool. There are a lot of options out there. Here are two that offer excellent tracking and features.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is tracking method you can use for free. It has an impressive array of website tracking features. With it, you can analyze your website audience on a deeper level. Here are some of the reports it generates in real time:
- Audience
- Advertising
- Acquisition
- Behavior
- Conversion
- User flow
It doesn’t stop with just showing you raw data. You can use the data analysis features to understand what the data means to you and your business. It gives you insights on your sales funnel from shopping/browsing to checkout/contact.
Google Analytics will send you insights about your site automatically. You can use their Smart Goals, Smart Lists, and Session Quality to discover opportunities to improve your website. Another great thing about Google Analytics is it’s highly customizable. You can sign up here for free. Google also offers an Online Academy for learning all about Analytics and how to use its many features.
HotJar
HotJar is an exciting online tracking method. Like Google Analytics, it has a free level. It has two main types of tools: analysis and feedback.
HotJar’s Heatmaps provide an excellent visual representation of how users interact with your site. It shows every click they make, every tap, and even how they scroll through the page. When you can clearly see all that information, you know why users are on your site and what they hope to get there.
HotJar analysis tools also include actual recordings of visitors’ behavior on your site. Of course, its conversion funnel tool is great. The Form Analytics screen helps you create forms your visitors will be happier completing.
The feedback tools in HotJar let you take surveys and polls, recruit participants for user research, and get instant feedback. You can sign up for Hotjar here (choose “personal” for the free level and to try it out). They also have documentation to help you get started.
Knowledge is Power
Knowing what’s happening on your website is crucial if you want to make it work for your business. Fortunately, the information is all right there. All you need is the right website tracking method to access and analyze the data you need to develop and carry out a truly effective marketing strategy on your site.
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