Working Around Limitations And Getting More Out Of Google Analytics: Search Engine Optimization In P

By Author: Erica Ronchetti
Total Articles: 738
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This article takes a look at the not so basic ways of getting more from your analytics. To solve specific search engine optimization questions, you’ll sometimes need to work around limitations of your web analytics software. This article helps answer some of the more common “uncommon” analytics-related questions.

PA businesses, here are some analytics tips and tricks to improve upon search engine optimization in Pennsylvania. Web analytics serves as a powerful tool and is accessible to everyone, designed to satisfy the general needs of every kind of website out there. Web analytics tools (Google Analytics in particular) are particularly good at providing a very fundamental overview of traffic data, but not always so good at solving specific questions.

Because search engine optimization for Pennsylvania businesses is competitive and ever changing, here are two unique ideas for gathering more information in conjunction with Google Analytics. As a search engine optimization Pennsylvania expert, we present these starting points for your further exploration.

Google Analytics Question: Where are my ...
... users coming from?

Google Analytics does a good job of showing you the last web page a user clicked on that got him or her to your website. This “last web page” is called the “referral path” or “referring site”. Knowing where your visitors have been before your own site is helpful because you can analyze how people are getting to you.

However, in most instances, visitors and users don’t become customers the first time they visit a website. The majority of customers visit a website a few times before deciding to make a purchase.

Each time a visitor goes to your website, GA takes a look at the referral and notes this in a specific cookie—the UTMZ cookie.
What you could do is adjust JavaScript to help copy that referral information on another cookie (managed by your website) not Google Analytics.
When visitors return to your website, GA will rewrite its own cookies and your JavaScript will update (not rewrite) your own website’s cookie in your database, next to customer details.

This script of yours will provide better insight to the following:

Which referring sites drive the most sales? (No matter if it’s the first, last, or middle click.)
Which referrers do the best job of bringing back visitors to your site and convincing them to make purchases?
Which referrer brings first-click converted visitors to your site?

Google Analytics Question: How Much Are My Customers Spending?

As a search engine optimization company in Pennsylvania, the number one question our ecommerce customers ask is why there are less/more money or orders displayed in Google Analytics ecommerce tracking results than in actuality?

Our response is that Google Analytics is not an accounting application and almost never reports sales figures 100% accurately. There are usually tracking code issues, charge backs, and other differences that cause imprecise numbers.

Take matters into your own hands:

In the administrative area of your website, create a special page for sales reporting (if you don’t already have one)—create reports from your own database figures, including daily sales data, average amount paid per order, and whatever other statistics you wish to report.
Use the previously mentioned JavaScript—add referral reports to your orders.
Use Google Analytics’ API queries to display behavior data of users who make purchases compared to website averages: include number of pages, time spent on site, and other KPIs (key performance indicators).

This is a much more accurate dashboard for your business and offers a more reliable view of what’s happening. As a search engine optimization Pennsylvania company, we still condone the use of Google Analytics’ ecommerce application for a general impression of sales. However, as long as you’re up for some basic coding (or you can enlist help from search engine optimization Pennsylvania experts), nothing will stop you from finding alternative solutions and innovative workarounds for your Google Analytics questions.

Erica Ronchetti works for PA Internet Marketing, a Search Engine Optimization Pennsylvania company. If you have an interest in Pennsylvania SEO or would like to learn more about our services, PAIM would be happy to provide more information. So, without any further delay please visit our website http://www.painternetmarketing.com for more information.