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There are a range of free, yet powerful analytical tools that any business can use to get a better insight into the effectiveness of their different internet marketing efforts. Not only can you tell from this where to direct most effort and marketing spend, but also you can see how visitors are responding to your website and make improvements with a view to increasing conversion rates
Google Analytics gives you an overview of your internet marketing campaigns
Google Analytics provides an excellent overview of how the various strands of your internet marketing are working over any set period. You can see which traffic sources – whether adwords, blogging, referrals from other websites, or natural search listings – are generating the most leads and get a view on the quality of the visits, based on bounce rates, average time spent on your site, and number of pages viewed.
You can also analyse results in terms of which keyword phrases are related to the lowest bounce rates. If the bounce rate is high for certain key phrases, it may be that you need to adjust your content relating to these phrases to be more rewarding to visitors, So, from the point of view of assessing the effectiveness of internet marketing over a particular period, Google Analytics is a useful tool that can help you direct your marketing spend most cost-effectively.
Use Analytics to help improve your conversion rate
From the point of view of assessing how to improve your conversion rate, Google Analytics can give some useful pointers. For example, you can tell which pages most visitors are arriving on, and by studying the exit pages, determine whether visitors are staying long enough to achieve their goals and your business objectives. Site overlay is another useful feature, enabling you to see which links on different areas of your web pages are being most often clicked. All in all, a pretty useful tool for working out how to refine your web pages and landing pages.
Statcounter gives a rich insight into the pattern of user journeys
Statcounter, on the other hand, is better at providing a detailed insight into individual user journeys. You can see pretty much in real time, where visitors are arriving from and see their path around your site. This can give useful insight into which web pages are proving to be engaging, and which ones appear to be causing usability problems.
Complying with current data protection laws
At the time of writing this article, both Google Analytics and Statcounter operate in a way that creates a cookie that is stored on the user’s computer. The cookie logs data such as browser type and screen resolution and not any personal data about the user. However, the law on disclosure of cookies is changing and you are advised to check your legal obligations before using such tracking systems.
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