Google Analytics is one of the most powerful tools available to monitor your website and improve your conversion rate. The great news is that Google has made this tool available to everyone for free. In the past we had to pay for expensive applications that collected only a fraction of the information that Google gives us with Analytics.

What exactly is Google Analytics? It’s a free application from Google that monitors every page on your website and tells you exactly who’s coming to your website, what pages they visit, how long they visited your website, where they clicked on your website and what page they exited your website. Analytics gives your pages and pages of valuable information about your visitors.

Getting Started

To sign up for your free Analytics account go to www.google.com/analytics. If you already have a Gmail account or another Google account it will ask you if you want to sign in using your existing account. This consolidates your Google accounts into a single login and is the recommended way to sign up.

Once you log in, you’ll be directed to your main account page. This page gives you a detailed overview of Analytics and tells you how to get started. I highly recommend that you read the FAQ section and watch the Take A Tour video before setting up your website.

Setting Up Your First Website

To set up your first website scroll down to the Analytics Settings section where you’ll see a box labeled Website Profiles. To set up your first website click on the + Add Website Profile button in the top right corner of the box.

Next select Add a Profile for a new domain and enter your domain name. Select your Country and Time Zone. Click Finish.

After you click Finish you’ll see the Tracking Status page which displays the javascript code that you need to place on all of your website pages. It’s important to insert this code on every page that you want to monitor. The code needs to be placed just before the tag on every page. .

Click Done and you’ll be returned to the Main Menu where you’ll see the new domain in your Website Profile link.

Here it says Tracking Not Installed so I have to click on Check Status to tell the Analytics program to go out and check the website. Once it verifies the code is installed properly, the message will change to Waiting for Data as Analytics starts collecting the data. Eventually the message will change to Receiving Data and you’ll know the program is working properly.

Making Money with Analytics

Once your program is up and running, you want to View Reports to start analyzing the data. To see a video that shows you how to navigate the Analytics Dashboard visit

www.netbizexpert.com/video/analytics

You want to analyze where your traffic is coming from, what page they’re entering your website, how long their staying and what page they’re exiting your website. Set your conversion goals in Analytics and try to constantly improve your conversion rate on your website by using this data.

If people aren’t staying long enough, add more content. If your sales pages aren’t converting, then look at the Site Overlay data in the Content section. See where they’re clicking and where they aren’t clicking. Change your headlines and sales letters until they’re clicking exactly where you want them to click. Take them by the hand and lead them right to the Buy Now button!

Conclusion

Google Analytics is a very powerful tool that will tell you incredibly detailed information about your website visitors. Start collecting data today so you can track exactly what campaigns are working, what sales copy works best, what your visitors like about your website and more importantly what pages they don’t like, and how to improve your conversion rate so you make more money.