How can businesses benefit from using analytics on their website?

If you recognise the potential in website analytics but haven’t yet fully tapped into this, then this post is for you.

Maybe you’ve glanced at analytics dashboards now and then but haven’t fully grasped how these numbers translate into actionable business insights. Or…  Perhaps you’re looking to move from occasional glances to strategic use, turning data into decisions that propel your business forward.

Diving into website analytics doesn’t require you to be a data scientist – google has a course!

With the right approach and understanding, your analytic suite can shine light on aspects of your business and customer base you might not have considered before.

In this post, we’ll explore the benefits of website analytics for small businesses. We’ll look at how it works, what analytics can tell you about your website and visitors and, most importantly, how you can start using this data to your advantage. So, if you’re ready to move from data curiosity to data-driven action, let’s begin.

How can businesses benefit from using analytics on their website?

Before getting into the meat of it, let’s answer the question. “How can businesses benefit from using analytics on their website?”

Businesses can benefit from using analytics on their website in numerous ways. Primarily, website analytics provide a treasure trove of data that, when used correctly, can significantly enhance various aspects of a business. Here are some of the core benefits:

1. 1. Informed Decision Making: Analytics give you a factual basis for making decisions. From understanding which marketing campaigns are performing to identifying popular products or content, data takes the guesswork out of your strategy.
   2. Understanding User Behavior: By measuring how users interact with your website, you can gain insights into popular services or products, behaviours on these pages and an understanding of any bottle necks in your funnel. This knowledge allows you to tailor your offerings and website layout to better meet their needs and encourage conversions.
   3. Optimising User Experience: Analytics help you pinpoint areas of your site that are underperforming or causing friction for visitors. By addressing these “friction points” you can create a smoother, more enjoyable user experience that keeps people coming back.
   4. Enhancing Marketing Strategies: With analytics, you can see which channels bring the most traffic, the demographics of your visitors, and how different audiences interact with your site. This information helps refine your marketing efforts for greater impact and ROI.
   5. Tracking Progress and Growth: Regularly reviewing your analytics allows you to set benchmarks and monitor your progress over time. This not only helps in celebrating wins and understanding challenges but also in adjusting strategies for continuous improvement.

By utilising a websites data, businesses can make smarter, data-driven decisions that lead to improved performance and greater customer satisfaction.

Business analytics dashboard displaying traffic and user engagement statistics, demonstrating how businesses benefit from using website analytics.

Understanding Analytics: What Do Website Analytics Allow You to Do?

Your websites analytics are more than just a bunch of numbers and graphs – they’re a peek under the hood as to how your website is performing. Here’s what they allow businesses to do:

1. 1. Detect Trends and Patterns: Website analytics reveal trends in visitor behaviour, popular times for site visits, and emerging patterns in user interaction, enabling businesses to anticipate and adapt to changing customer needs.
   2. Identify Your Target Audience: By examining data such as user location, devices used, and user source, businesses can paint a detailed picture of their audience, where their from, whether they’re more likely to be viewing on a mobile device and how they’re finding you. Knowing this allows for tailoring of content and design – you can adapt your website to suit your audience.
   3. Optimise Marketing Campaigns: A properly configured analytics account shines a light on the performance of your various marketing efforts – It shows you what’s attracting visitors and driving conversions. Having the right data allows you to distribute your budget, fine-tune your strategies and enhance your results. For instance, if you notice a particular ad campaign is bringing in a high number of conversions, you might decide to increase its budget and frequency.
   4. Improve Website Functionality: Data on page views, bounce rates, and exit pages help identify which parts of your site are engaging and which might be causing visitors to leave, guiding redesigns or content updates.
   5. Enhance Content Strategy: Understanding what content your audience actually interact with enables you to produce more of the same (content that works), aligning your content strategy with user interest.
   6. Facilitate Goal Setting and Tracking: Your analytic data can help set quantifiable goals and track progress. Whether it’s increasing visitor numbers, boosting sales, or growing subscriber lists, having a data driven approach helps.

Image of an analytic pie chart breaking down the conversions which occured by source

By utilising the analytic data from your website, you gain the insights needed to enhance your sites performance. In understanding visitor interactions on a deeper level, and adapting to market trends, you can turn your data into strategies for growth and success.

Hypothetical Scenario: Leveraging Website Analytics for Growth

Let’s consider a hypothetical yet realistic scenario where a small online retail business, “EcoWear,” uses website analytics to transform its digital strategy and achieve significant growth.

Background:

Meet EcoWear, a small business who specialise in eco-friendly clothing. They’ve built a loyal customer base, but lately, their online traffic and sales aren’t growing as expected. One thing the team decide is to look “behind the scenes” into their website analytics to understand the issue and see if there are any areas that might be contributing to this.

Challenge:

Despite a steady stream of visitors, EcoWear’s website isn’t converting as many sales as hoped. The team isn’t sure which marketing efforts are paying off or why visitors aren’t engaging more with their products.

Approach Using Website Analytics:

1. 1. Understanding Visitor Traffic: EcoWear starts with the basics. They look at how many people visit their website, which pages they visit most, and how long they stay. They notice that lots of visitors check out the homepage but don’t click through to see product details.
   2. Identifying Popular Products: Through analytics, they find out which products visitors view most often. They decide to feature these products more prominently on the homepage and create promotions around them.
   3. Improving Product Pages: The team realises that visitors leave the website quickly from product pages. After a short brainstorming session they add higher quality product images, add more detail to the descriptions, and showcase their customer reviews – overall, improving the quality of the product pages.
   4. Simplifying Navigation: Analytics show that visitors are having a hard time finding what they want. EcoWear simplifies the website menu and adds clearer categories so visitors can find items faster.
   5. Evaluating Marketing Efforts: Finally, they look at which marketing channels (like email, social media, or search engines) are bringing people to their site and which ones lead to more sales. They decide to focus more on the most effective channels.

Results

By starting with the basics of website analytics, EcoWear begins to make small but impactful changes to their website and marketing. They gain an understanding of what their customers like, how they behave on the site, and how to better attract and engage customers. These changes lead to more website traffic, longer visits, and, most importantly, more sales.

Scenario Conclusion:

Our EcoWear example showcases how utilising your analytics properly can benefit a business. It’s about turning data into actionable insights and measurable improvements – a science and an art.

When we get asked what we think makes a good website, our answer is usually the same – it depends. While we have experience in web design and understand many of the best practices, our approach is data first. For us, a successful website is one that effectively meets your business goals, not just one that looks good on the surface.

Final Thoughts: Business Benefits Of Using Analytics

Analytic data is your digital compass offering clear directions and insights for your business’s online journey.

Analytics are more than just numbers and graphs – They’re a “peek under the hood” showing you your website’s performance.

If your analytics aren’t already up and running, consider setting them up today. Even if you’re not ready to dive deep into the data, starting to collect it now means you’ll have a rich resource to draw from when you are ready to make informed decisions.

If you’re unsure where to start, send us a message, whether it’s setting up, understanding, or strategising based on your analytics, we’re here to turn your data into growth.