I want your Google Analytics data

Grant me access to your Google Analytics account or let me set one up. I want to know what your users are doing, find out what they like, what turns them away and then help you for nuff-ink!

Not got Google Analytics yet?

If you're a bit web savvy then you can see if your website has this script by looking for 'view source' on your browser's tab but finding it depends on what browser you use and with the world not being perfect each browser puts it in a different location, a pain in the arse I know!

After all that if your website doesn't have it I can set up Google Analytics on your website for you by completing my quick form

Your looking for something like this on the pages of your website if the script is there. Don't try to understand it that's my job I just need to know if you have it or not.

1. (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m)
2. {i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
3. (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new
4. Date();a=s.createElement(o),
5. m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)
6. [0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
7. })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');
8. ga('create', 'UA-12345678-0', 'auto');
9. ga('send', 'pageview');

"What is this GA thing your talking about Darren?" Firstly it's not about repping my gangsta hood so I'll explain. It sits happily on the pages of your site collecting data about your users interacting with your site. You can ignore it or you can try to understand it or atleast, be concerned about how your users are using your site because after all, you want to make your site better don't you? Yes you do!

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Analytics can highlight what your users are doing

If you have a website then there's a strong chance that you want the user to do something like complete a form, buy a product or download a document but ultimately you want them to do something.

Looking at my 'Dog Food Shop' website you'd think that the people will click on the banner and there's good reason to think so. It's big, visually attractive (grabs your attention), the user sees it straight away and it clearly says 'Affordable Luxury Dog Food' it makes sense that they'd click there.

But people are crazy, no not in the popping pills type of way but they can literally do anything they want so never assume just because you want them to click there that they will.

Rule out the guessing, never assume

Rather then guess, we could set up a way of finding out if users do click it. We could monitor it and then make some subtle changes.

Lets keep the banner and lets try to improve the amount of clicks it will get. I've made it a bit obvious of where to the user should click, the green button.

So once we set that up, we'll wait then look back at our analytical data and find out if it's made a slight improvement.

There are so many options we can take but the good thing is we can find out rather than just guess.

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Why would I need Analytics anyway, not just Google?

Lets say you have a restaurant website and ideally you want the users once on your website to be doing things such as;

• Looking at your menu / downloading your menu (.pdf file)
• Looking at your photographs
• Trying to book a table
• Find your address

Those things are what you want the site to offer the user but we need to find out if they are visiting these pages and if they aren't, we need to go back and sort it out.

An example of user interaction

We want to be seeing that:

1. a user lands on a page, the gallery
2. flicks through some images
3. then downloads the menu
4. finds where you are located
5. contacts you via a form online or make a booking if you're website offers that.

Do you want help understanding your websites Google Analytical data?

I only harp on about using Google because it's free to use/setup so it wont cost you a penny and the fact that I've been using it for a while now I've become very familiar with it.

To summarise, if you do have a website and you want help with it from someone who loves what they do, helping you for FREE, then contact me and I'll get back to you.

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The small print

To clarify how I help is that I will make sense of Google's Analytic data on my first encounter. I will tell you what is currently happening. We meet up for a quick chat, this is where I discover the websites overall aim and from there on I advise you on what you should be doing in terms of how to use your sites data effectively, such as monitoring the tasks you want your users to perform.

I won't be making any changes to your website, again, I will only advise you on what needs to be done so you can make the changes yourself.