Maps are one of the most valuable tools that humans have at their disposal. For thousands and thousands of years, they have helped us navigate unfamiliar places and prevented us from getting hopelessly lost.
If you are a marketer or content creator, you’ve probably wondered if there was some type of map (be it a literal or figurative one) to help guide you through the rather confusing land of blogging and content creation. I have good news: that tool exists in Google Analytics.
To a newcomer, Google Analytics can seem overwhelming because of all the statistics and data that it provides. But there are a few things you can look at (no matter how much or little background you have in statistical interpretation) to help you understand your visitors and improve your efforts in content creation.
1. Traffic Sources
These particular numbers tell how visitors to your blog actually got there. Did they come from organic searches? Social media? Direct traffic? These numbers can provide insight into:
- The behaviors of your audience.
- What you are doing well as an organization in terms of digital marketing.
- Which traffic sources you need to focus more attention on.
2. Keywords
You can see some of the words and phrases your audience typed into a search engine to get to your blog. (Note – Google doesn’t show every single keyword people use, some are hidden. Many are visible though).
Use this keyword insight to guide your content creation. If they are typing in a question, answer it. If they are searching for specific products or services, write posts about them.
(Click here to see what keywords and traffic sources your visitors are using )
3. Demographics
With a quick glance you can find out a variety of demographics about the visitors to your blog, including their age, gender, location and language. Now, before you start feeling too “this is creepy”, relax. This data can’t be parsed by individual users. It’s simply shown percentages of total users.
This information can guide the way that you promote your blog. For example, if many of your blog visitors are women between the ages for 35 and 44; social media might be a good promotional channel, since this particular group tends to be avid social media users.
Getting Started…
Getting Google Analytics properly set up and collecting data might seem like a difficult task, but there are a whole host of step-by-step tutorials out there to help guide you. Check out this one from Moz. Naturally, Google has a plethora of resources, including free training courses, to help you get started.
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*In the comment box, just note that you are looking for help with Google Analytics!
