Which Google Analytics Metrics Are Most Valuable To Your Business?

Dive into Google Analytics to maximise your online presence to help you understand just how successful your site is and which areas need some work.

The word “analytics” isn’t likely to inspire awe and wonder in many people, but it’s pretty important in the world of eCommerce. If you hope to build a successful online business you’ll have to get to know analytics tools, and Google Analytics is a great place to start.

Knowing just which Google Analytics insights will benefit your business can be difficult; all those numbers and graphs and tabs can be overwhelming! But that’s why we are here. Come, take our virtual hand as we lead you through some of the most useful Google Analytics metrics and show you how you can use them to your site’s advantage:

Pageviews

Pageviews are one way to see how the traffic is being distributed on your site. The meaning of “pageview” probably seems so obvious it probably doesn’t need to be explained, but here it is anyway: a pageview is a view of a page, or how often a user has looked at one of the pages on your site.

Inevitably you will have some pages with higher pageviews than others – for example, your home page will most likely rank pretty high on pageviews. However, if you notice that there are certain pages on your website that need attention, whether you’re trying to ramp up focus on a neglected part of your brand or you have new content that you were sure was going to get lots of engagement but hasn’t performed very well, pageviews can be utilised to see where your traffic spread is layered thick, and where it could use some work.

Average session duration

Average session duration is what Google Analytics uses to describe the amount of time a user spends on a given page of your website. It could be just a few seconds for a non-engaging photo or a few minutes for a nail-biting blog post, but again it will give you insight into where your users are spending their time when it comes to different pages of your site. If a page of rich content isn’t performing well in average session duration, it’s likely that the content needs a refresh, as it’s perhaps not as rich as you may have thought! Having this insight allows you to view your website through your customers’ eyes, adjusting your site to meet their needs and keep them on your site for longer.

Bounce rate

Bounce rate is what happens when a user visits a page of your site and then immediately leaves – as in, does not pass Go, does not collect £200, but goes to another website entirely. If a bounce rate on a given page is high, this could just mean that it’s the logical next step for a user, for example your checkout confirmation page on an online retail site; however, it could also mean that that page is viewed by users as being super boring and needs a little extra sparkle to keep users on your site and not looking for love in all the wrong places, that is on other websites.

Percent new sessions

Percent new sessions tells you how many visitors to your site are brand new and how many are coming back for more. If you have a blogging site and you see a good portion of your pie chart are from return visits, that’s great – it means that you are giving the people what they want, and they are asking for seconds, thirds and fourths. If you have a business website, percent new sessions could also be an indication of how well your marketing is working, and if it’s engaging to the average user.

Find out how you can get started with Google Analytics today in this blog post.