MARKETING

Google Analytics is a great tool for tracking your website performance. It helps you gauge user interaction with your page or app. The data it provides can be a game-changer for your business. Needless to say, you want this information to be completely transparent and accurate. When you look at your data reports, you want to ensure that what you’re seeing is a true reflection of what is happening on your site. You need to consider blocking specific IP addresses from your google analytics data to achieve this. What is an IP address? Source:  Pexels.com ‍ IP addresses are to the world wide web what postal addresses are to the mailman. When sending a letter to a friend or family member, you include important information on the envelope. Street address, town, city, and zip code. Without this, your post is sure to land up in the bin. An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a series of numbers that allows you to communicate with the rest of the web. Without it, the websites you visit wouldn’t know where to send their data that enable you to view their site. An IP address is displayed as a series of numbers separated by a full stop. There are four number groupings in a series. Each number grouping in the series can be made up of a number ranging from 0 to 255. An example of what an IP address would look like is 196.138.1.28. Source: Pexels.com ‍ These numbers aren’t randomly selected. They are assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). So, when you travel from one place to another, it would be safe to assume that your IP address would also change, as you might be connecting to the world wide web from a cafe wifi router or hotel wifi. Can I stop my Google analytics account from tracking my IP address? The short answer is yes. If you’re using a Universal google analytics account, this will be phrased as IP Anonymization or IP masking. However, with Google analytics 4, this won’t even be necessary as your Google analytics account won’t even be tracking IP addresses. While it doesn’t happen immediately, Google analytics anonymizes your IP addresses as soon as possible. So, how do they do it? Google Analytics will take the last number grouped in an IP address and set them to zero shortly after receiving the data. This would, in effect, mean that the full IP address never gets written into your analytics account. Here’s a visual illustration of what your Google Analytics Account would do to the IP address we used earlier as an example -> 196.138.1.28. = 196.138.1.00. This process of IP anonymization takes place in two sectors of Google analytics, the Java Script tag and the Collection Network. Why would I want to exclude IP addresses? Earlier, we spoke of how important it is for you to receive transparent and accurate reports from your Analytics account. Now, imagine receiving your report and noticing outstanding metrics such as a high amount of page views, hundreds of ad clicks, and fantastic video interactions. You’d be over the moon, and rightly so. But what if you later found out that half of the data came from your staff or web developer, simply testing the site usability or scrolling through pages, tweaking their hard work. Website traffic by your employees is referred to as Internal traffic. Source: Pexels.com ‍ That would be pretty annoying. By masking specific IP addresses, you would be excluding internal traffic from your report. And as there are likely multiple team members working in a company or a site, you should probably apply this to multiple IP addresses. You would effectively filter out any Google analytics data that would cause an inaccurate report. Show me how to do it Depending on the nature of your business, you might want to exclude internal traffic from one or multiple IP addresses. Here’s a look at how to do it: Sign in to Google Analytics. Click on the Admin tab, and navigate to the view in which you want the filter to appear. Navigate to the View column and click on Filters Select Add filter type Click Create a new filter Enter a name for the filter. Select the Predefined filter type Select Exclude from the filter type menu. Select Traffic from the IP addresses in the Source or Destination menu. From the Select Expression menu, select ‘that are equal to’ Enter the IP address that you wish to filter Click Save If you want to exclude multiple IP addresses, you can simply repeat these steps and set up multiple filters. Tip: If you’re not sure what your IP address is, simply type the phrase ‘What is my IP address?’ into Google Search on the device you wish to exclude and it will be displayed in the results bar. Other reasons to set up an IP Filter Source: Pexels.com ‍ “Surveillance is the business model of the Internet” – Bruce Schneier, renowned security technologist. (1) We live in a world where security or a lack thereof is constantly a topic of discussion. People track who you are, where you are, and what you’re doing. The main difference between using a personal IP address from Google and a Public IP address is visibility. The latter leaves you way more exposed to the prying eyes of others as your information is far-reaching. For that reason, you may wish to use a VPN that will display the VPN server location rather than your actual geographical location. If security is a big thing for you or your company, why not check out Abralytics. Abralytics prides itself on putting users’ privacy first. They don’t sell personal information and have gotten rid of cookie banners, which means that they are completely compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and PECR straight out of the box. ‍ Further Reading: What is a metric? What kinds of hits does Google Analytics track? ‍ Sources: https://www.schneier.com ‍

No two data analytics tools are equal. Before making potentially costly decisions, you need to ensure you’ve found an analytics solution that is right for your company.  ‍ There are some critical factors to consider. The analytics solution must:  ‍ Match your business objectives Be cost-effective relative to your business size Support mutual integration with other tools in your Martech stack Offer advanced analytics features, if needed Have an intuitive user interface, and Be data privacy compliant.  ‍ Read on if you are looking for a top-notch tool and want an in-depth Mixpanel vs. Google Analytics comparison before making up your mind.  ‍ This article covers their comparative advantages, core differences and which is the best tool for your business. What Is Mixpanel?   ‍Source: Mixpanel Homepage ‍ Mixpanel helps track a visitor’s interaction with your digital properties, such as web and mobile applications. With this, you can analyze user behavior and enhance your app’s features and user experience. ‍ Some of the services provided by Mixpanel are creating user survey forms and in-app A/B tests. Unique visitors and customer reports can be created based on this data to monitor user interaction and retention. ‍ Some of the core features of Mixpanel are: ‍ Custom Alerts and iOS Apps Data Reporting and Synchronization  Funnel Visualization  Impact Report Generation  Segmentation and Group Analytics  What Is Google Analytics? ‍   ‍Source: GA Dashboard ‍ Google Analytics (GA) is the most widely used web analytics tool for collecting user data.  ‍ Essentially, GA lets you:  ‍ find out where your website gets the most visitors, evaluate the success of your marketing efforts and campaigns, discover patterns and trends in user interactions, and collect user data like gender and demographics. The Core Similarities Between Mixpanel And Google Analytics Data Visualization  ‍ Mixpanel and Google Analytics can help you create dashboards for tracking changes in traffic, conversions, funnels, segment trends, and other data visualization metrics.  ‍ Funnel Tracking  ‍ Both Mixpanel and Google Analytics feature funnel analysis. ‍ Funnel analysis helps to track users in a funnel-based model. It tells you how many users make it through each phase of the funnel while also showing problems and areas of improvement for better conversion.  ‍ Mixpanel funnels allow you to change data, show how users interacted with your website and segment reports based on your audience. Google Analytics enables you to collect data via multi-channel funnels.  Free & Paid Versions  ‍ Both Mixpanel and GA have free and paid versions. Mixpanel has three plans – Free, Growth, and Enterprise. On the other hand, Google Analytics has two versions  – Free and Google Analytics 360.  ‍ Mobile & Web Application Tracking   ‍ Google Analytics and Mixpanel have an event-based model for tracking users across mobile and web applications. So, you have total coverage for your audience in all your digital properties.    ‍Source: Pexels Cloud Hosting  ‍ Hosting of both Mixpanel and Google Analytics is on their cloud servers. Hence, you don’t have to worry about hosting analytics remotely on your server.  Data Reporting  ‍ Both tools report analytics data from your digital properties. With Google Analytics, you can obtain the audience, advertising, and acquisition reports. Meanwhile, you can get product analytics reports from Mixpanel. The Core Differences Between Mixpanel And Google Analytics 1. Pricing Plans ‍ Mixpanel ‍ Mixpanel has three versions – Free, Growth, and Enterprise. ‍ Free: ‍ As you can guess, this version of Mixpanel costs $0. It is the most basic and has limited features compared with the other plans. With it, you can track a hundred thousand users at most.  ‍ Meanwhile, it offers unrestricted data history & seats, a data dictionary, core reports (including Flows), US or EU data residency, monitoring, and alerts.  ‍ This plan is suitable for small businesses that don’t require many advanced analytics features.  ‍ Growth: ‍ The Growth plan begins at $25/month. The actual price you’ll pay for the service depends on your monthly traffic and other advanced features.  ‍ Growth offers everything the Free plan has plus some additional features, including: ‍ unlimited saved reports & cohorts,  impact reports with causal inference,  data modeling, etc.  ‍ If you have a small or medium-sized business that requires some more features than the free version offers, this plan may be the perfect fit for you.  ‍ Enterprise: ‍ The Enterprise plan is custom-based. So, the actual price you’ll pay for the service depends on how you use the analytics tool. Essentially, the number of monthly tracked users and the advanced features used determine the monthly cost.  ‍ This plan includes all features under the Free and Growth plan feature plus some additional tools: advanced access control, experiment & signal reports,  SSO & automated provisioning, etc. ‍ This plan is suitable for large enterprises that require many advanced features and have a large amount of monthly traffic. ‍   Source: Mixpanel‍ ‍ Google Analytics ‍ Google Analytics has two models – Free and Paid (Google Analytics 360) ‍ Free: Universal GA or GA4 ‍ You’ll need to set up a Google Analytics account to access the free plan. The free plan offers real-time data, personalized reports, and advanced segmentation, allowing you to monitor your users and how they engage with your websites. And app tracking and mobile device features help monitor user behavior on mobile apps. ‍ The free version of GA offers tons of metrics that provide more than enough data for most small to medium-sized businesses.  ‍ Paid: Google Analytics 360 ‍ According to OptimizeSmart, the premium version of Google Analytics, also known as Google Analytics 360, starts at $150,000 per year with a service level agreement. ‍ Compared to the freemium version of Google Analytics, the paid version offers better data quality, enhanced data freshness (98 percent, according to whatagraph.com), and higher data accuracy.  ‍ Also included in the premium version are data-driven features, attribution modeling, double-click manager integration, and data processed through Google Big Query.  ‍ Verdict On Pricing Model ‍ Though

Understanding the average time a user spends on your website helps you see which pages convert better and which content they engage with the most. But how do you measure how long someone stays on a website? If this subject has piqued your interest, then read on. This article covers everything you should know, including: How to track the average time metrics What is the average session duration and how to improve it What is the average time on page and how to improve it What is the average time you should aim for? How Long Does A User Stay On Your Website? You can measure how long a user stays on your website by tracking these two metrics – session duration and time on page. 1. Session Duration  ‍Source: ppcexpo.com Session duration, also time on site, is the total time someone spends on your website in a single session. But, what is a session in Google Analytics? A session is a group of user interactions noted during a specific time frame. After 30 minutes of inactivity, when the user exits, or at midnight a Google Analytics session expires. And it starts when a user accesses a page on your website. What Is Average Session Duration?  Average session duration is the average time spent on your website by all users. Remember that if a user visits your website multiple times over several days or continues their activity on a web page later, they may have multiple sessions. In Google Analytics, go to Audience > Overview to see the average session duration of your website.   ‍Source: hubspot.com How does Google Analytics Calculate Session Duration & Average Session Duration? For Session Duration Google Analytics calculates session duration by noting the timestamps of when a visitor arrives on your landing page (via a search engine or any other channel) and when they leave your website. For example: The session duration of a user that spends 5 minutes on your site before exiting is recorded as 5 minutes. Suppose the same visitor spends extra 7 minutes on another page of your site. The session duration is 12 minutes. ‍ For Average Session Duration It is calculated by dividing the sum of all session durations by the total number of sessions in the same period. For example, four website visitors have session durations as follows: Visitor 1 spent 100 seconds on your website. Visitor 2 spent 80 seconds on your website. Visitor 3 spent 160 seconds on your website. Visitor 4 spent 60 seconds on your website. Google Analytics would add these session durations (100+80+160+60=400) and divide the total (400) by the number of sessions (4) to determine your average session duration. The total is 100 seconds, or 1 minute and 40 seconds. In addition, Analytics may display this as 00:01:40. Are Session Duration And Dwell Time The Same? No, these metrics are certainly not the same! Here is why: Dwell time measures how long a person stays on a single page after clicking on a search result. Google Analytics calculates the dwell time using timestamps that track a user’s actions from the moment they click a link from a search engine until they return to their search results. On the other hand, session duration is the total time your website visitors spend in one session. Note that sessions do not include time spent on exit or bounce pages. So even if a visitor spends a few minutes reviewing a page before leaving, their visit won’t be counted as part of their total time. Does Session Duration Affect Your Website’s Search Engine Ranking? Yes, session duration, or time on site, affects your site’s ranking on a search engine! A good average session duration tells Google that your site’s information is engaging and valuable to users. It suggests that the content you’re putting out deserves the first-page position in search because it gives users what they want. How To Use Session Duration In Google Analytics Source: Pexels ‍ When checking your on-site time metrics, remember that they cannot answer all your questions on user behavior and how they interact with your content. Simply telling you that most people spend three minutes on your website, for example, does not give crucial insights. The metric does not indicate the specifics! For instance – users didn’t like the content, the page took too long to load, they were annoyed by the adverts, or the next steps weren’t clear. You can do the following to make the most of the session duration metric.  First, segment the users into cohorts depending on their session durations. With this, you can see how well you are guiding visitors on how to move down the conversion funnel. If you see that many users follow the conversion funnel faster than you expected, it can mean they bypass some crucial processes or have found a shortcut. Alternately, if you find that more people are spending more time on a particular page of your website than planned, there could be something confusing that is making it take longer for customers to navigate. ‍ “Google Analytics was too complicated. I save 2 hours every week with Abralytics.” Ryan McK – Founder of Subversive Design Agency Start your 30-day free trial No credit card required Cancel anytime How To Improve Your Website’s Session Duration Here are some strategies that can help to improve the session duration of your website: Publish High-Quality Content Make sure to capture and hold your readers’ attention no matter what content you use on your website. And choose a voice that accurately describes your business and information that will interest your audience. For example, you can include pages that tell users where your products are made and how to use the products on your website. Include Relevant Keywords Even if your website has excellent content, it won’t matter if the target audience cannot find it. Using the right keywords impacts your position in search and, therefore, your visibility. So, it’s essential to use

There are literally hundreds of metrics you can track on Google Analytics. However, not all of them are crucial to your website performance. ‍ So, it is vital to separate the wheat from the chaff. ‍ Are you wondering what the most important Google Analytics metrics are? Then, read on. ‍ This article covers everything you need to know about the most important metrics to track on Google Analytics, how they affect your website and why you should monitor them. What Is A Metric In Google Analytics?    ‍Source: Unsplash A metric is a numerical value assigned to show how a website performs relating to a specific dimension. So, a metric is a quantitative measure of data expressed in percent (%), Dollars ($), time, and numbers.  For example, the bounce rate of a page is the ratio of the number of bounces (single-page sessions) to the total session number.  As mentioned, there are literally hundreds of metrics and dimensions on Google Analytics that tell you about your website performance.  As a digital marketer or business owner, you need to keep an eye on the most critical metrics to gain insight into what works or not in your marketing funnel. Ultimately, these metrics paired with dimensions can help you see what you need to tweak for the success of your marketing campaigns.  What Are Dimensions In Google Analytics?  Dimensions are a description or characteristics of an aspect of your website data. They provide information about the attributes of your website visitors.  For example, instead of measuring just users (metrics), you can measure users by gender (dimension) or user by location (dimension). In most analytics report tables, dimension data are the rows and metrics data are the columns. Both metrics and dimensions work together to give you comprehensive information about your website, who your users are, and how they discovered your content.  Top 10 Most Important Google Analytics Metrics Without further ado, here are the ten most essential Google Analytics metrics to track for any industry: 1. Users ‍   ‍Source: Google Analytics dashboard   In Google Analytics, users are people who start a session on your website. ‍ You can use this metric to determine whether or not you’re attracting the right kind of visitors based on the type of website you run and your objectives.  ‍ You can assess the Users metric under Audience > Overview. ‍ The Overview Section also includes information like new users, sessions, number of sessions per user, page views, pages per session, average session duration, bounce rate, etc.  ‍ There are two categories of users – new users and returning visitors.  What Are New Users vs. Returning Users? ‍   ‍Source: Google Analytics dashboard New users are people who visit your site for the first time.  On the other hand, returning users are visitors who have previously started a session on your website. ‍ How does Google Analytics differentiate between new and returning users?  Google Analytics uses cookies to differentiate user data. It uses a tool called Google Tracking Snippet to check for the tracking code (cookie) on the browser of your site visitors. ‍ For new users, the cookie will not be present. But the cookie will be there for returning users. ‍ It is important to remember that the “User” metric on Google Analytics is not 100% accurate.   ‍ The analytics tool counts the same user as separate users if they visit a website using different devices or browsers, erase or disable cookies, or switch to Incognito or Private browsing. 2. Sessions ‍   Source: ppcexpo.com    ‍ A session is how much time users spend interacting with your site and what they do when they’re there.  ‍ For example, a single session may include several website visits, events, social interactions, and eCommerce purchases.  ‍ Moreover, a user can open more than one session. These sessions can happen all on one day or spread out over a few days, weeks, or even months. As soon as a session closes, the user can start another.    How Long Does A Session Last? ‍ There are two determiners of the duration of a session – time and campaign change.  ‍ Time-based Expiration A session expires after 30 minutes of inactivity by default, but you may change this time frame so that it can last from a few seconds to many hours. ‍ Also, every session ends by midnight. So, if a user opens your website at 11:50 pm on July 7 and engages with your site till 12:15 am on July 8, Google Analytics counts the number of sessions as 2. This is because the first session ended at midnight on July 7, and the second session started on July 8.  ‍ Campaign Change  Google Analytics starts a new session each time a user’s campaign provider changes. Meanwhile, a campaign is any traffic source that brings users to your website – ads, search engines, social media, etc. ‍ So, an existing session ends when a user leaves your website via one campaign and enters using another.  ‍ What Is Average Session Duration? ‍ The Average Session Duration tells you how long visitors spend on your website on average. Google Analytics starts tracking a session as soon as a user enters your website and keeps track until the session is over.  3. Source/Medium And Channels ‍ The Source metric tells you from which channel users visit your website. ‍ On the other hand, the Medium metric represents the broad category of user access methods, such as organic traffic, pay-per-click (PPC), etc.  ‍ Also, the Channels metric is a group of traffic sources that use the same medium, such as Organic Search, Direct, Social, Paid Search, Email, etc. Overall Traffic and Traffic Sources ‍   Source: monsterinsights.com‍ ‍ Website traffic is the total number of people that visit your website within a specific time. ‍ And traffic sources give an account of how users found your website. They help to understand your audience and where to channel

  What is Website Traffic? Website traffic refers to the users that visit a Website. Each time a user arrives on one of your landing pages, it is counted as a visitor to your site.  ‍ These visits are often spoken of as sessions in Google Analytics. Why it’s important to Track Website Traffic Your website traffic is a good indicator of the overall success of your site. The higher the traffic, the more potential you have for conversions.  ‍ On the other hand, if your website’s traffic is low, you might want to focus more on your SEO efforts to try up the visitors to your website. ‍ Keeping a close eye on the different metrics of website traffic will tell you what people are looking for on your pages and allow you to tailor your content to suit their needs. ‍ Not paying attention to your website traffic could be likened to a shop owner not caring about the empty seats and deserted tables in his coffee shop.  ‍ If he doesn’t pick up on what prevents people from entering his shop, he could suffer great financial loss. ‍ No patrons = No Sales Key metrics to Track Website Traffic When you think about measuring website traffic, there are a few essential metrics in website analytics you want to examine closely. These metrics will also tell you much about user behavior or how people interact with your pages. Total visits Sessions or visits are metrics used to estimate the total number of times someone visits your website and navigates around it.  ‍ These are critical metrics, especially in digital marketing. That’s because they are used along with the conversion rate to measure an online store’s performance. ‍ If you use a Google Analytics Account to analyze your website traffic, this metric will be tracked by default and displayed on the dashboard, as seen in the screenshot below. ‍   GA Dashboard‍ ‍ Although the metric appears as default, it can also be adjusted when navigating to Audience > Overview. That will allow users to compare Sessions with other metrics, such as the bounce rate. ‍ Google Analytics logs a session from the moment a user interacts with a website and stops counting the session after 30 minutes of inactivity with the website. Pages per visit This is a good metric to gauge how engaging your website is to visitors. ‍ When a visitor arrives on a landing page, it could be seen as only the first step of the desired response.  ‍ Abralytics have a nice way of displaying page views using a line chart, as seen below. ‍   Abralytics Demo‍ ‍ Users can see the Total Page Views in a separate tab, or view a breakdown of page views by the pre-determined time, whether by day, week, or month. ‍ Why is it important to know how many pages are viewed each visit? ‍ Well, you want conversions, don’t you? ‍ You want people to scroll through various pages of your product line, not just visit one page and then move on to a different website. ‍ Therefore, if you see that the pages per visit metric is too low, you could adjust the way they navigate through your site. Perhaps building internal links would help with the conversion rates.  ‍ The more pages visited per session, the higher the probability of generating revenue. Average visit duration DataBox says a good average session duration is anything above three minutes. (2) ‍ This metric will tell how long, on average, your visitors are staying on your website. You can’t improve average visit duration with catchy titles or marketing campaigns. ‍ To improve your visit duration metric, you’ll need to ensure that your content grabs enough attention the keep users interested if you want them to stay on a web page for longer. ‍ There’s also something to say about the format of your content. Short paragraphs make it easier for site visitors to stay engaged, while interesting photos break up the monotony of longer pieces. ‍ You could also add videos to your pages that people find interesting and informative to watch. You can also toggle your Analytics report to display how much time visitors spend on each page. Bounce rate Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who leave the site after viewing only one page. ‍ This metric is only important if you have a site that requires visitors to move from one page to the next and not if your website consists of one scrollable page. ‍ Bounce rates could indicate that visitors aren’t finding the information they are looking for or find the site frustrating to use. ‍ So, what is a reasonable bounce rate for my site? ‍ Semrush addressed this question in a recent blog post, citing: ‍ “A bounce rate of 56% to 70% is on the high side, although there could be a good reason for this, and 41% to 55% would be considered an average bounce rate. An optimal bounce rate would be in the 26% to 40% range.”  (4) ‍ If you want to improve the bounce rate on your site, you should ensure that the pages people visit meet their expectations. When a user visits a page and finds what they’re looking for, they’ll be more likely to navigate through your site rather than click away. ‍ By monitoring the bounce rate metric, we can get a good idea of the user behavior, identifying what people are interested in or not. Traffic sources This metric measures which sources are driving traffic to your website.  ‍ Different channels fall under this metric, namely: Direct traffic: These are visitors to your site that arrive by typing your website directly into their browser Referral traffic: Visitors that visit your website from another website Organic Search traffic: Visitors that click on your website by searching a keyword in a search engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) Paid search traffic:

There are over a hundred metrics that you can look up on Google Analytics to get an idea of how well your website is performing. ‍ While it’s impossible to keep an eye on all of them, you must pay attention to the crucial ones. ‍ But what are the most important KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to track on Google Analytics? ‍ Read on as we get you through everything you need about them, including: ‍ What are KPIs? What are the 5 most critical KPIs to track? How can you improve each KPI? FAQs ‍ What Are Google Analytics KPIs? ‍ ‍Source: Google Analytics Dashboard ‍ Google Analytics KPIs are metrics that tell us about a website’s performance. They help monitor and analyze your visitors’ actions and give critical insights into what works and what doesn’t on your site. ‍ As a digital marketer, Google Analytics KPIs can show you the part of your marketing funnel that needs tweaking for better conversion. ‍ They include Bounce Rate, Number of Sessions and Users, Pageview & Unique Pageview, Pages per Session, Organic vs. Paid Session, Cost Per Acquisition, Top Landing Pages, etc. Top 5 Most Important Google Analytics KPIs 1. Bounce Rate ‍ ‍Source: hotjar.com  ‍ Do you want to know if your website meets the needs of its users? Or how many users leave your landing pages without engaging your content further?  ‍ One excellent way to do this is to check your bounce rate. What Is A Bounce? ‍ A bounce occurs when a website visitor lands on a page and does nothing else before exiting. ‍ That is, the website user does not trigger any request to the Google Analytics server before leaving the page. ‍ A bounce is also known as a single-page session. ‍ For example, when a new user visits your website homepage from a search engine and does nothing else like click on an internal link or interact with your content significantly before they exit. Then, you can say the user ‘bounced’ from your website. What Is Bounce Rate in Google Analytics? ‍ The bounce rate in Google Analytics indicates the number of sessions that result in a bounce. In other words, it tells you how many sessions start and end on the same page. How To Calculate Bounce Rate For A Website And Web Pages ‍ The bounce rate for a website is the ratio of the number of single-page sessions (bounces) to the total number of sessions. ‍ Website Bounce Rate = the number of single-page sessions (bounces)/ total number of sessions. ‍ For example, if your website has 100 sessions in total and the number of single-page sessions is 10. Then, the bounce rate for your website is 10%. ‍ For a page, the same rule applies. But let’s define the bounce rate for a page. ‍ The bounce rate for a page is the ratio of the number of single-page sessions (bounces) that start and end on the page to the total number of sessions that continue from the page. ‍ Page Bounce Rate = the number of single-page sessions (bounces) on the page/ total number of sessions starting from the page. Is the Bounce Rate the same as the Exit Rate? ‍ No, while bounce rate measures ONLY single-page sessions, exit rate covers how often visitors exit after viewing any number of pages. Why Is Bounce Rate Important? ‍ Bounce rate helps you understand how users interact with the individual pages on your website so you can make better marketing decisions and decide which pages to optimize. ‍ Moreover, bounce rate provides information about your landing page to determine if you need to invest resources on a new page or optimize your existing page for a better user experience. ‍ Also, bounce rate by any browser is another key metric that tells you how your website behaves on various browsers. If your website has an issue with a browser version, it will affect your overall conversion rate and the time users spend on your page. How To Reduce Your Bounce Rate ‍ In Google Analytics, a high bounce rate does not necessarily mean your website is not doing great. However, here are some measures to take to reduce your website’s bounce rate: ‍ Improved Page Load Time ‍ The page load time of your website is key to determining if a user will stay on your website or leave without interacting with your content. ‍ For example, if a website visitor has to wait for too long (more than three seconds) before viewing your content, there is a high chance of bouncing due to a poor user experience. ‍ Make Navigation Easy ‍ Visitors should be able to navigate the site easily. ‍ There should be a sense of direction in the organization of the pages of your website and the contents. Have a  simple navigation menu, an internal search function and create a site map for your visitors. 2. Goal Conversion Rate ‍ ‍‍Source: hotjar.com   Do users carry out the desired target action? Are you wondering why some users do and others don’t?  ‍ You can find the answers to these questions with the goal conversion rate. First, let’s define goals, goal conversion, and goal conversion rate. What Are Goals? ‍ Goals are target actions you intend for your website visitors, like sign-ups, purchases, adds-to cart, etc. Hence, every website must have one or more clearly defined goals. What Is Goal Conversion? ‍ Goal conversion, on the other hand, occurs when your web users carry out the desired target actions. That is, it happens when your visitors complete a goal. For example, when they sign up for a newsletter, purchase, add a product to a cart, etc. What Is Goal Conversion Rate? ‍ Goal conversion rate is the ratio of the number of completed goals (goal conversion) to the total number of sessions in percentage. The goal conversion rate tells you the number of completed target

You’ve done it! Hours and hours of work have finally come to an end and your brand new website or mobile app is now live. Much like a first-time parent, you want to show off your new ‘baby.’ But will this pride and joy of yours truly be successful? And how will visitors engage with your site? Are the clicking points too tricky for them to find? Do they scroll down to the desired point on a page? Are users navigating between pages in the way you intended them? These interactions are known as events in Google Analytics. Granted, there are many different kinds of events, but in this article, we’re talking about button clicks when we refer to events. Web developers and business owners need to know the answers to the questions mentioned above. You see, understanding the success rate of these events helps you build a strong, reliable website that users find easy to navigate and achieves the desired result. Before we discuss tracking button clicks, let’s first figure a few things out: Is there any other software that I need to familiarize myself with before I can track button clicks? What are some examples of button clicks that can be followed? Which of these events or buttons are the most important ones I should follow? How do I start tracking them? So then, let’s begin with familiarizing ourselves with the software. Google Tag Manager Source: Pexels.com‍ Google tag manager is a Tag Management System (TMS) developed by Google and originally released in 2012. At the time of writing, the most up-to-date paid version of this software is Tag Manager 360, while the free version, Google Tag Manager, would be more suitable for small businesses. This software allows users to configure and immediately use tags on a given website. The free Google Tag Manager account boasts multi-user support, rule-based triggers, and support for Google and Non-Google Tags. However, it has a limit of three workspaces available for simultaneous tagging projects. Take the time to read about tag manager and study its features before setting up your event tracking parameters. (1) Pro tip: Tag manager works best when used in conjunction with Google Chrome, so make sure you adjust your browser settings if needed. What are some button clicks that I could track with Google tag manager? Source: Pexels.com‍ Depending on the nature of your business and the design of your website or app, there will be various button clicks available for tracking. If you have an e-commerce web page, you will focus your button tracking on call-to-action events. You want to track how many users follow through with a purchase or how far they browse on your site before they lose interest. Name your buttons appropriately – Add to cart / Get it now / Subscribe / Book Now / Submit button. By using the tag configuration setting in your Tag Manager, you’d be able to name each button click and understand your website visitors better. Not all websites would be tracking the same user clicks. That is because pages and apps are designed with different reasons in mind. A blog post geared heavily toward advertising would be tracking outbound link clicks or perhaps file downloads. You’d also want to track video engagement so you could set up an event tag that would let you know which video’s have success on your page and adjust accordingly. Source: Pexels.com ‍ How do I set up the tracking? Once you’re familiar with the Google Tag Manager, you can use it to track your button clicks. It’s a bit of a process to set it up, but the same steps are used for any new tag or click event you’ll set up in the future, so it’s not too painful. Here’s a step-by-step guide. Enable click variables in Google Tag Manager Once you’ve logged in to your Google Tag Manager workspace, navigate to variables and click on configure. Tag manager has a selection of built-in variables to choose from and they will appear on the pop-up page. For example, you can choose from any or all of the following: Click element Click Classes Click ID Click Target Click Url Click Test Pay attention to your selection here, as Tag Manager uses this to identify the click parameters for each button you intend to track. Configure Click elements as Triggers You now need to configure these click elements to create a trigger. Do that by navigating to triggers in your tag manager workspace. Click on add new trigger, select all elements and click on all clicks. It’s helpful to select all clicks at this stage, even though you won’t necessarily want to track all button clicks during your data sampling in Google Analytics. This is because you need to first identify the unique parameters of the individual button you intend to track. You can come back to this step later on and adjust as needed. Set a variable for the button click to be tracked Google tag manager workspace will now give you the option to preview the changes you’ve just made. Preview mode is a convenient feature in Tag Manager as it allows you to browse a site and preview all the changes you’ve made before you hit save and the changes are published. You can then use this debugging feature to inspect the order in which your tags fired. So, click on preview and then enter your domain URL values to begin the debugger. Your set button will then appear in the domain tab. Click on it. Once you click on it, you will see the debugger running. The debugger will then monitor all actions performed by the trigger fires. The intention of this exercise is to find and set parameters for each button click. Source: Pexels.com ‍ Adjust the trigger accordingly in Tag Manager Think of these triggers as listening to your website. It detects specific actions like submissions, button clicks, and page views. The trigger will then

Struggling to make sense of how Google Analytics impacts your SEO? You’re not alone. Many marketers feel overwhelmed by the endless data and unclear metrics, making it difficult to translate analytics into actionable SEO strategies. But what if I told you there’s a way to simplify this process and get clear, actionable insights? In this post, I’ll show you how to turn Google Analytics into your SEO secret weapon—and how Abralytics can make it even easier. To get the most out of Google Analytics for SEO, it’s crucial to understand the connection between your website’s data and your search engine rankings. Analytics isn’t just about tracking visitors; it’s about uncovering patterns that can boost your SEO strategy. However, without the right approach, you might miss valuable insights or get lost in a sea of data. Here’s what we’ll cover in this post to help you unlock the full potential of Google Analytics for your SEO efforts: Understanding Key Metrics: Learn which metrics directly impact SEO and how to interpret them Setting Up Custom Dashboards: Get the data you need at a glance with easy-to-use dashboards. Tracking SEO-Specific Events: Discover how to set up events that highlight SEO performance. Why Abralytics Is a Game-Changer: See how Abralytics can simplify your analytics setup, giving you the tools you need without the clutter of GA4. By the end of this post, you’ll have a clear understanding of how to use Google Analytics to supercharge your SEO efforts, making your data work for you instead of the other way around. Next up, we’ll dive into the specific metrics you need to focus on and how to use them effectively. Understanding Key SEO Metrics ‍ When Looking at GA4, Focus on Organic Traffic‍   Focus on Organic Traffic. This is the lifeblood of your SEO efforts. In Google Analytics, you can filter your traffic sources to see only organic visits. This helps you understand how well your site is attracting visitors through search engines. If your organic traffic is growing, your SEO strategy is likely on the right track. Monitor Bounce Rate for SEO Pages. A high bounce rate on key landing pages could indicate that visitors aren’t finding what they expected. Check the bounce rates of your top-performing SEO pages in GA and identify areas where content might need improvement to better engage visitors. Track Keyword Rankings with Analytics Goals. Set up goals in Google Analytics that tie to specific keyword performance. For example, you could track the number of conversions that come from visitors who found your site through particular keywords. This will help you see which keywords are driving valuable traffic. The metrics you focus on can either guide your SEO efforts or lead you astray. By concentrating on organic traffic, bounce rates, and keyword-related goals, you’ll be better equipped to refine your SEO strategy and achieve better search rankings. ‍ Setting Up Custom SEO Dashboards In Looker Studio This Google Search Console Report Was Created In Looker Studio ‍ Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) is a powerful tool for creating highly customizable and interactive dashboards. Here’s a guide to setting up SEO dashboards specifically: Google Analytics: Connect your GA4 property using the GA4 connector to get data on website traffic, user behavior, and SEO metrics. Google Search Console: Link your GSC account to access keyword performance, impressions, and click-through rates Start by creating a new dashboard in Looker Studio. Give it a descriptive name. Add Data Sources to Reports: Create new reports within your dashboard and add the connected data sources. Select the relevant SEO metrics and dimensions you want to analyze. Some common examples include: Organic traffic, keyword rankings, impressions, clicks, bounce rate, average session duration, device, browser, location, landing pages, traffic source. Create Charts and Tables: Use Looker Studio’s various chart types (line charts, bar charts, pie charts, tables) to visualize your data effectively. Customize the appearance and formatting of your charts to match your branding and preferences. Implement looker studio filters to segment your data and analyze specific subsets. For example, you could filter by a particular time period, device, or location. Add controls like date pickers, drop-down menus, or sliders to allow users to interact with the dashboard and explore different data points. Branding: Apply your company’s branding to the dashboard, including colors, fonts, and logos. Annotations: Add annotations, text boxes, or images to provide context or highlight key findings. Share your looker studio dashboard with team members or stakeholders for collaboration and insights. Set up scheduled email reports to automatically send updates to relevant recipients. Setting Up Event Tracking in GA4 for SEO This Google Search Console Report Was Created In Looker Studio Google Analytics 4 (GA4) offers a robust event tracking system that allows you to measure user interactions on your website beyond pageviews. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set it up: Understand GA4 Event Tracking Basics: Event: A user interaction on your website, such as a button click, form submission, or video play. Event Parameters: Additional data points associated with an event, like the button’s label, the form’s field values, or the video’s duration. Enable Enhanced Measurement: Go to your GA4 property settings. Under “Data Data Streams,” enable “Enhanced measurement.” This will automatically track common events like page views, scrolls, outbound clicks, and site search Create Custom Events: For more granular tracking, you can create custom events. In the GA4 interface, navigate to “Configure” > “Events.” Click “Create Event.” Give your event a name and optional parameters. ‍ Using Abralytics as a GA4 Alternative If you’re finding GA4 too complex or overwhelming, Abralytics offers a simpler, more user-friendly alternative. Streamlined Interface: Abralytics is designed with simplicity in mind, offering a clean and intuitive interface. This makes it easier to navigate and find the data you need without the clutter of unnecessary features. Privacy-Focused Analytics: Unlike Google Analytics, Abralytics emphasizes user privacy. You own 100% of your data, and there’s no need for cookie banners, which ensures compliance with GDPR and other

Site performance refers to the speed at which your site loads and displays on a user’s web browser or mobile device. This includes all content, such as text, images and videos. While it’s obvious that factors such as your industry and the product or service you offer will affect conversions, can the speed at which a page loads make or break your business? ‍ According to the latest statistics, the answer to that question is a resounding yes! ‍ Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich ‍ Below are 24 statistics that prove just how important faster page loading times are: #1 The first 5 seconds of page load time have the highest impact on conversion rates. Rates drop by an average of 4.42% with each second of load time between seconds 0-5. Website conversion rates drop by a further 2.11% with each additional second of load time between seconds 5-9. (portent.com) #2 According to a recent study by Deloitte, with just a 0.1s improvement in site speed, retail consumers spent almost 10% more, while lead generation and luxury consumers engaged more, with page views increasing by 7% and 8% respectively. (Deloitte) #3  Nearly half of all visitors will leave a mobile website if the pages don’t load within 3 seconds. (Think with Google) According to Statistica, mobile devices account for 48% of web traffic in the U.S., and 54% of web traffic worldwide. If your mobile page takes longer than 3 seconds to load, that’s a significant amount of potential customers that you’ve lost before they’ve even seen your product. #4 Transactional pages need to have the fastest loading times. Checkout, login, and product category pages are most important as traffic to these pages is most likely to convert into paying customers. To Improve transaction conversions, aim for a 0-2 Second Load Time. (Portent.com) ‍ #5 The longer the load time, the higher the bounce rates. The probability of bounce increases 32% as page load time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds, and by 90% when the page load time goes from one to five seconds. (Google/SOASTA Research, 2017) ‍ ‍Photo by Anna Tarazevich ‍ #6 Nearly 70% of consumers admit that page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer. (Unbounce) ‍ #7  Amazon would lose $1.6 billion a year if their site slowed down by just 1 second. (websitebuilderexpert.com) ‍ ‍ #8 The optimal time for a full mobile page load is less than 3.1 seconds. Anything less than 3.1 seconds would put you in the best 20% of sites we benchmark for time before full mobile page load, and less than 2.5 seconds would put you in the best 10%. Time before a full mobile page-load of more than 6.6 seconds would put you in the worst 20% of sites, and more than 8.3 seconds would put you in the worst-performing sites. (LittleData) ‍ #9 The optimal time for a full desktop page load is 2.8 seconds. Anything less than 2.8 seconds would put you in the best 20% of sites we benchmark for time before full desktop page load, and less than 2.2 seconds would put you in the best 10%. Time before full desktop page load of more than 6.1 seconds would put you in the worst 20% of sites, and more than 7.7 seconds would put you in the worst-performing sites. (LittleData) ‍ #10 88.5% say slow loading pages are the main reason why they would leave a website. (Review42.com) ‍ #11 39% of people will stop engaging with a website if images won’t load or take too long to load. (Hubspot) ‍ #12 Even if you’re not in the e-commerce business, mobile speed can still impact your sales. For example, after BMW revamped their mobile site to provide a reliable and smooth web experience even under poor network conditions, the percentage of visitor’s clicking through to the BMW sales site increased from 8% to 30%, 4 times higher than before. (thinkwithGoogle) ‍ Photo by cottonbro‍ #13 The majority of web users would be willing to give up animations and video if it meant site pages would load faster. When used correctly, video marketing can be a powerful part of our SEO strategy. But it could also negatively impact conversion rates if not optimized to load quickly and efficiently. (Unbounce) ‍ #14  A 1 second delay reduces customer satisfaction by 16%. (Abtasty.com) ‍ #15 In 2021, Vodafone improved its LCP by 30%, which led to an overall 8% increase in sales. The LCPis the amount of time it takes for a page’s main content to load.  (hobo-web.co.uk) ‍ #16 Website owners have only 5 seconds to catch a visitor’s attention. Most users would rather spend several extra minutes browsing fast-responding but irrelevant websites, than waiting for relevant pages to load. (kinsta.com) ‍ #17 Retail sites had a 9.2% increase in average order value when load time was decreased by just one-tenth of a second.  (Deloitte) ‍ #18 Over  45% of people admit they are less likely to make a purchase if an e-commerce site loads slower than expected. (Unbounce) ‍ #19 52 percent of online shoppers stated that fast loading pages are important to their site loyalty. (hobo-web.co.uk) Photo by Sora Shimazaki ‍ ‍ #20 When pages load in less than 1 second, the average conversion rate is almost 32%. At a 1-second load time, the conversion rate already drops to 20%. At 2 seconds, the conversion rate begins to level off at 12-13% and reaches its lowest at a 5-second load time. (portent.com) ‍ #21 Mobile sites that load in five seconds or fewer earn twice as much as sites that take 19 seconds to load. (blog.google) ‍ #22 79% of shoppers who have trouble with site performance say they won’t return to the site to buy again.(neilpatel.com) ‍ #23 It takes 50 milliseconds for a user to form an impression of your website. Page load time will be the first impression you make. (researchgate) ‍ #24 85% of users expect a

When it comes to heavy hitters in Website Analytics, few can pack a punch like Google Analytics and Hubspot. ‍ Hubspot is an end-to-end SaaS platform that offers Website Analytics and other tools, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.  In the words of Hubspot itself, helping customers and businesses ‘Grow Better’. (1) ‍ But Hubspot offers much more than web analytics. It’s an integrated marketing, sales, customer service, operations, and CRM software platform. When customers use the Hubspot Web Analytics tool in conjunction with all these other SAAS tools, the overall workflow of their company will improve. ‍ Google Analytics also allows a person to track interactions with a website or app, allowing the user to understand better how others respond to the content of their site. ‍ Both platforms have been around since 2005 and have helped millions of people track website traffic and performance. ‍ Let’s look at what these Analytics Tools have in common and where they differ. “If statistics are boring, you’ve got the wrong numbers.” Edward Tufte, Statistician ‍ But first, if you’re new to the world of Website Analytics, you’ll find several terms often repeated. Here’s a brief explanation of a few of them to help you better understand our article: Landing pages The first page on a website that a visitor “lands” on after clicking on a link or ad Organic search Visitors to a site who chose to navigate there after an internet search. They aren’t there as a result of paid advertising or something similar. Paid search The traffic that arrives on a website as a result of paid means only. For example, they might have landed on your page by clicking an ad that popped up in search results. Traffic sources Refers to the origin from which people found your website. This could be from a Google search, clicking on an ad, social networks, or directly typing your site’s URL into a search bar. Single session The time a user is active on your site or app. A session can end after 30 minutes of inactivity or when a user leaves your site. CTA clicks Call To Action clicks or buttons could be an image or line of text that prompts your visitors to take a specific desired action. ‍ What do HubSpot and Google Analytics have in common? ‍ Most analytical software share a few standard features. Here are 5 similarities that might interest you. Traffic Analytics Both Hubspot and Google Analytics allow you to track the number of visitors to your website. ‍ Screenshot: Hubspot Sample Site‍ ‍ Hubspot allows you to view your web traffic in a weekly, monthly, and yearly view. It makes good use of graphs and line bars to help the user visualize how many visitors reach a website. ‍ It also gives you a breakdown of how many users have arrived at your website as a means of direct traffic, paid social campaigns, paid searches, organic searches, and other means. ‍ The report is customizable, meaning that you can change the view to see where your users are based geographically. ‍ Google Analytics has an even more in-depth take on traffic reporting. For instance, it shows the user which type of devices visitors use and tracks new and recurring visitors. Page Views Hubspot enables you to check the metrics of individual website pages, such as your blog posts, landing pages, and white pages. You can also toggle your page views report to display metrics of all the pages together, which will give you an overview of the site as a whole. ‍ But it doesn’t end there. Hubspot also lets you see other important properties regarding your pages, such as the bounce rate, the exit rate, and CTA buttons. This helps dissect user behavior, allowing you to tailor individual pages to boost conversion rates. ‍ Google Analytics differentiates between page views and unique page views, which are explained in-depth in the article ‘Google Analytics Page Views by URL.’ ‍ GA offers the page views abilities as Hubspot and with the addition of unique page views tracking. Goal Setting Ability Source: Pexels.com‍ ‍ You set goals in your analytics tool to assess your website’s overall performance. This is especially important for e-commerce websites because you can see where people are more likely to click and spend money. ‍ Hubspot can set goals for specific pages or teams within your organization. You can rename a goal and set the category to best suit the description, such as sales goals. ‍ You can then track the progress in weekly or monthly reports. ‍ Google Analytics allows you to set goals for specific conversions, such as a form submission or video view.  You can then assign a value to these goals so that Google Analytics knows how much these actions are worth to your company. ‍ This, in turn, helps GA focus its reports according to what the user sees the most value in. Conversion Rates High conversion rates mean your website is doing well in the areas you want it to, while low conversion rates give you room for improvement. Source: Pexels.com‍ ‍ Hubspot allows you to set up goals on individual pages to track conversions, like CTA button clicks. ‍ While Google Analytics shows you the same metrics as Hubspot, it goes a bit further by allowing you to see every visitor interaction in a single session. Sources Question: Why is it important to understand the traffic sources arriving at your website? ‍ Answer: There are several reasons. For instance, you can check the diversity of your audience. This will allow you to make needed changes to ensure a site’s longevity, as you won’t be relying on visitors from only one medium, such as paid traffic. ‍ Another important reason to understand the true traffic source is that you can gauge the Return-On-Investment (ROI) of your marketing campaigns. You want to know if it’s worth the time and effort you put into individual