Using Google Analytics

One of my favorite tools to help me understand how and where my website traffic is coming from is Google Analytics.  Google analytics is a free tracking tool that can be added to just about any website.  It gives the site owner the ability to view the following:

• How visitor find their site (organic listings, PPC, links from other sites, etc…)
• How long a visitor stays on the site
• What pages a visitor click too
• Track conversions and sales
• The exit page (the page the visitor leaves from)
• The total traffic volume for any given period
• Build custom reports
• And, well, a ton of other cool stuff.  Too much to list here

On the very basic side of things,Google Analytics lets you monitor the traffic to your site and where it is coming from.  This alone is enough to improve the SEO structure of the site and optimize any PPC advertising you are doing.  It also leads to new advertising opportunities as you gain a better understanding of who you customers are and their online habits.

If you do not have Google Analytics installed on your site currently, I highly suggest you make it a priority.