Every time I do a personality test, the results come back pretty much the same. I’m a big picture thinker, whose superpowers lie in the human connection and storytelling. My weak spots are details and data. And yet I love Google Analytics.

And so should you.

If you are a fellow Google Analytics nerd, you know why I love this important tool. The power to dive deep (or shallow) into how your audience is interacting with your website, is only a click away.

For those of you who are new to Google Analytics, or wondering what I’m talking about, it’s time to get onboard and not only embrace, but Google Analytics, but write about it as it’s helped transform how I communicate online.

Personal connection

I will admit, the word analytics was a bit of a turn off. It actually prevented me from using the tool until I was forced into it by my digital marketing manager (who loves data). Turns out it was the perfect way to find out not only who is visiting my website, but also what interests them.

This has allowed me to create content my audience wants, not just content I think is worth sharing. And it’s that crucial tweak that turns into more website visits, and longer time spent on your website.

Marketing data

The key to any successful marketing campaign is being as specific as possible with your audience. Where do they live? What’s their age? Gender? Interests? And much more.

Guess what? Google Analytics helps you get clarity on who is currently coming to your site (which also helps identify who is not visiting). This is rich data for your social media campaigns where you’re needing to zoom in on your target audience to get the most out of your advertising dollars.

They like what?

This is one of my favourite features – page visits. Here you get a breakdown of what pages are visited the most. For How to Communications, EVERY week for the last year, a blog post I wrote in July 2018 on Crisis Communications Lessons Learned from the Thailand Cave Rescue is in the top five visited pages.

Another oldie but goldie that results in traffic to my website is Stop Saying That’s My Two Cents. A year after it was written, it too continues to be popular. I didn’t write either post with a magic formula in mind, but they have both stuck. As a result, future blog posts on crisis communications or personal insights have also done well in traffic generation.

Big city dreams

Although I live in a rural area on Canada’s rugged west coast, the majority of my website traffic comes from people living in big cities – Vancouver, Toronto, New York, London, Victoria, Vienna, Dubai and more.

This is another key piece of information, as I make sure the content I create speaks to people in large cities (a few of these I’ve previously called home). So no rambling about country life. Rather, I keep in mind where my audience lives when writing (while still being me).

If you already have Google Analytics on your website, how often are you checking your data? Or are you assuming someone else is doing this? I recommend visiting the site weekly, going as deep or as shallow as time allows, making sure you reflect on the data you’re viewing (not just for entertainment or ego sake).

For those of you who aren’t on Google Analytics, it’s time to embrace the data. Get your web design or digital marketing person to set you up and give you a tour. Trust me, this will be time well spent (and it’s free).

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