Analytics Setup/Reporting

In today’s connected world, it is more important than ever for small businesses to analyse their website performance. Analytics helps SEO professionals understand how people are finding your website, what they’re doing on the site and how you can update your website to attract more visitors and drive more conversions.

There are a number of different analytics tools available, but the most popular in Australia are Google Analytics (GA) and Google Search Console (GSC). Google Analytics tracks website traffic and conversions, while Google Search Console tracks your website’s performance in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Setting up Google Analytics is relatively straightforward. You’ll need to create a GA4 account (the most-recent version of Google Analytics) and then add a tracking code to your website. The tracking code will allow Google Analytics to track your website traffic.

Once you’ve set up Google Analytics, you’ll be able to view reports on your website traffic. These reports will show you information such as:

• The number of visitors to your website
• The pages they visit
• The sources of traffic to your website
• The demographics of your visitors

Setting up Events and Conversions

Google Analytics is also useful for keeping track of how many people have called or emailed via your website, filled out a contact form, signed up to a newsletter or purchased a product. In reality, Google Analytics Events and Conversions can be set up to keep track of any interaction a user has with your site.

Setting up Events and Conversions is more complex than installing the tool. For the most-comprehensive guide, I refer to Google’s GA4 Documentation.

Setting up Google Search Console is also relatively straightforward. You’ll need to create a Google Search Console account and then verify your website ownership by installing the Google Analytics tracking code. Once you’ve verified your website ownership, you’ll be able to view reports on your website’s performance in Google SERPs.

These reports will show you information such as:

• The keywords that people are googling to find your website,
• The ranking of your website’s pages for those keywords,
• The impressions (number of views) your website receives for each keyword it ranks for and
• The clicks that your website is receiving from Google.

Once you’ve set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console, you can start using the reports to improve your website. For example, you can use the reports to identify pages that are not ranking highly for crucial search keywords and then make updates to those pages to improve their performance.

You can also use the reports to identify keywords that are driving traffic to your website and then create content that is optimised for those and related keywords.

Analysis is an essential process for any business with a website. It demonstrates how people are finding a website and how they interact with it. By setting up Google Analytics and Google Search Console, you can start using the reports to improve your website and attract more visitors.

It’s important to inform customers that you are collecting their data when they access your analytics-enabled website. A page outlining your data collection policy is a necessity to maintain compliance with local regulations. Making your data collection policy clear can help visitors to your site feel more comfortable and improve your online reputation!

A data collection policy page should emphasise that your integration with GA and GSC does not collect any personally-identifiable information about them. Let your customers know only basic demographic information is collected by Google when they visit your site and that this is to improve website performance for their benefit. You can check out my privacy policy and cookie policy for an example of what your data collection policy should look like.

SEO is complex. If you are interested in SEO for your website, contact Red SEO.