Building Your Business Presence Online with Analytics

Many businesses have turned to online platforms like Amazon and Etsy, or creating their own websites to boost their online presence. However, it requires an investment of both time and money. In return, businesses hope to reap the benefits from this investment. As you apply this to yourself, as a local clothing shop owner wanting to expand to other areas, setting up a website would become a measurable goal. To achieve this goal, businesses need to understand the steps users go through to become a customer. This applies to both online and physical stores.

Steps to Understanding User Behavior

1. First, users must find the store.
2. Second, they must enter the shop and browse its products.
3. Finally, they must select items and complete the checkout process.

Having an online store helps to accurately track these steps. For example, if a user searches for ‘T-shirts’ and a website’s page appears in the search results, this is called an ‘impression.’ When users decide to visit a website, they typically click on links from the search results. By tracking the number of clicks from the search results to your website, businesses can determine the number of visitors.

When users visit a website, they tend to browse through its pages, viewing various products. By tracking their browsing behavior across the website, businesses can determine the time it takes for visitors to become customers. Businesses can use various tools to track metrics such as impression, search queries, clicks, and conversion rates, among others. Majority of e-commerce platforms offer their own dashboard to track metrics.

Analytics Tools

Some of the top analytics tools that businesses can use to track data and user behavior include:

1. Search Console - this free tool from Google lets you track and maintain your website's presence in Google search results.
2. Google Analytics - another free tool from Google to measure website traffic, track your key performance metrics, and more.

Making Data-Driven Decisions

Once you’ve set your goals and identified the metrics that you want to track, the next step is to use analytics tools. Continuous tracking of a website's performance lets businesses make data-driven decisions to improve user experience and boost revenue. By understanding what the users are interested in, businesses can improve their product catalogue and provide users with what they need.

In conclusion, businesses that want to thrive online must use all the resources available to them. Whether it's through creating a storefront on an e-commerce platform or developing their own website, businesses must have a good understanding of user behavior to achieve high amounts of traffic and conversions. Through continuous and accurate tracking of website performance, businesses can make informed decisions to improve user experience and increase revenue.