For most of use who signed up during the mad rush of November, the end of December brings our first full month of Google Analytics stats to pore over.
No time to lose, start 2006 off by rolling up your sleeves, clicking on “Dec” in the calendar to bring up an entire month’s worth of stats, and really get cracking.
This first full month will, in many ways, set the benchmark from which you’ll base trends and performance in coming months. So now would be a good time to make a game plan: What are you going to look at daily, weekly, and monthly? Which stats will you be tracking more closely than others? It’s really going to depend on the type of site you have and your goals. But here are a few good starting points:
Overall, you’ll want to pay closer attention to your overview report and marketing summary.
- Seeing how many new vs. returning visitors you get over a day is much less insightful than how many you get over a month. Time to find out who your REAL friends are!
Check your final goal conversions for the month.
- Again, a month’s worth of data is much more reliable at telling you what’s working and what isn’t.
Don’t forget about your old friend AWStats
- Even if you’re now completely enamored with Google Analytics, get a second opinion from your AWStats software. Two sets of stats are always better than one! Check out your referring URL’s, “add to favorites” and a few of the other things AWStats does better than G. Analytics.
Turn numbers into strategies, and strategies into actions.
Time to go beyond the numbers. All the numbers in the world don’t mean anything unless they lead to insightful actions. When you’re done immersing yourself in the numbers, make sure you’ve emerged with a handful of ways to make the numbers better next month.
- Make some topline notes about what you’re seeing in your analytics.
- Identify opportunities to improve.
- Then…improve!