Your investment in SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is paying off… your website has been optimized with better content, social media links, and meta-code. Traffic is up and your business is reaping the benefits of a properly optimized site. So what’s next?

It’s important to understand that the SEO process is essentially never ending. As trends change, adapting your site to remain effective is imperative. In the website world, it really is “survival of the fittest,” and an important part of SEO is keeping track of how visitors use your site in order to understand what needs to be done.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free tool provided by Google that allows you to monitor in-depth what visitors are doing on your site once they’ve found it. Having your webmaster install Google Analytics on your website will allow for you and your web developer to see every detail of what is happening on your site. For most businesses, the cost of having your web developer install Google Analytics is a valuable investment to make.

Installing Google Analytics on your site will allow you to view information pertaining to:

• Time on Site: Allows you to see the amount of time users spend on each page of your site.
• Bounce Rate: Shows the percentage of users who leave your site after only viewing one page.
• Geography: Displays the geographical location of the users who are visiting your site.
• User Flow: Shows the path that users take through your site, the order in which they click through pages on the site.
• Technology: See what browser and operating systems visitors to your site are using. You can also tell how many of your users are accessing your site on a phone or tablet.
• Referrals: You can see where your traffic comes from, like online advertising, newsletters, search results or if your users typed in your URL.

Learn more about Google Analytics and how to set it up.

Getting Users to Stay

One of the most important pieces of information gleaned by Google Analytics is the amount of time that users spend on your site. In a recent article published by Time, it was indicated that 55% of visitors spend less than 15 seconds actively on a webpage.

In the industry the term “bounce” implies a visitor that leaves after viewing only one page. This goes hand-in-hand with the time users spend on site, as a high bounce rate generally indicates that visitors are simply glancing at the homepage and quickly leaving.

The time on site for visitors of your website can be found by looking at Average Session Duration in Google Analytics.

An engaging and interesting site could see times in the 1-2 minute range per page… if the time is far less, it could be a sign that visitors are not interested in what they see, therefore they quickly leave. (See our Tips For Improving Your Website…we recommend using a video to keep users engaged.)

Even if your site has significant traffic, a site with less traffic could be far more effective if users are engaged and spend more time on it.

Understanding what this information means will allow you and your web developer to establish a strategy to improve your site and encourage visitors to stick around and see what information, goods, or services you have to offer.

CME Can Help!

At CME, we pride ourselves on bringing success to our clients with top-notch SEO services to help you get the most out of your site. With 16 years of experience in the industry, we have the know-how to get your website the results you need.

Contact us today or give us a call at 724-523-3001 to learn more about how we can help you take advantage of Google Analytics and improve your site’s SEO.

Find out more about the SEO services that CME has to offer on our site by visiting the SEO/SEM page on our site.