How to Monitor Your Website
|
September 28, 2020
As one of the newest members on Mockingbird’s team, the world of online marketing truly overwhelmed me. The data and graphs can be difficult to decipher and obtaining that information alone can be a handful. But learning how to monitor a website has become a specialty of mine and this a guide to prove it!
Here are 4 checkpoints that I evaluate on a bi-weekly basis to ensure that Mockingbird understands where our client’s website traffic is coming from, how the data shifts over time, and what kind of opportunities for improvement exist.
Explore Google Analytics
Google Analytics holds a wealth of information, but narrowing down to the important things can be mind boggling. After all, what is “important”?
First, set your time frame, which I typically set at two weeks so that any significant changes can be easily identified. In addition to doing so, remember that while this data is useful, it is even more beneficial to compare this data to the past. Luckily, Google Analytics allows you to do just that by simply checking the “Compare To” box.
Sessions
As pictured above, the blue line represents the most recent data set, while the orange line represents the previous period. These lines display the number of sessions (number of times a user actively engages with the website) on each day. From this graph, there were two significant instances in which our traffic peaked. This data can be cross analyzed with any events, blog releases, etc. so that you can either replicate or generate similar content to consistently attract more traffic.
Goals
When a user finally decides to take action, this can be tracked in the “Goals” tab under “Conversions”. Goals are created based on different measures such as form fills, phone calls, or text messages. Keeping track of these metrics can help determine which modes of communication best appeal to your audience.
Analyze Google Search Console
Google Search Console is another helpful tool that analyzes the health of your website. Here you can find how many impressions/clicks your site receives and even what kind of keywords users are using to look up your site. The most important tabs to explore here are Coverage, Mobile Usability, and Security & Manual Actions.
Coverage
Here you can explore which pages are working properly and those that are not. When a site receives an error, it will be notated here. Errors can range from broken links to unreachable pages, which ultimately drag down your site’s SEO and accessibility, especially from search engines like Google.
Mobile Usability
Many users nowadays use their phone to search for various products and services. Therefore, it is just as important to make sure your site works as smoothly and efficiently on a mobile device as it does on a computer. This section allows you to do so by noting any problems with your site as it appears on a mobile device.
Security & Manual Actions
Should any security hacks/other Google policy or guideline violations occur, it will be listed here. It is imperative to address these issues quickly, otherwise, Google may lower the rank of your website or remove it from the results page entirely.
Evaluate Ahrefs
The importance of backlinks and domain authority plays heavily into your site’s rankings. When a site has many trustworthy sites linking back to it, search engines like Google are more likely to believe that the site is credible and provides helpful information that users are looking for. Ahrefs goes into depth with your site’s backlinks and overall domain health. Get the most out of Ahrefs and even see your competition’s backlinks to obtain that upper hand and higher ranking.
Monitor CallRail
Finally, I’ll take a look at CallRail, a phone call intake monitoring tool that helps determine where users found information about your law firm and how well various campaigns generate leads. Perhaps the most important tool CallRail has to offer is its ability to swap out your real business phone number and provide tracking numbers. From there, CallRail can provide meaningful data that could change the way you handle calls.
How Can I Improve My website?
You have the data but now what? Dedicating the time and effort to strategically develop a marketing plan, effectively execute it, and meticulously interpret the data is virtually impossible. Luckily, you don’t have to. Contact a marketing company that knows what they’re doing and get started today.