Last month we talked about impressions from first to last, location, lets continue…
Understand How Visitors Find Your Site
Having a clear sense of how visitors are finding you gives your firm insight into which marketing efforts are working and which are not. In Google Analytics under the acquisition’s menu, you will find a breakdown of your sites visits by source.
Organic traffic is when a visitor finds you through the search engines and clicks on your firm’s result. These visits don’t come from clicks on sponsored or paid advertisements but from your firms “organic listing.” Users can search for your firm’s name, an attorneys name or a term like “car accident lawyer.”
If you are investing in search engine optimization (SEO), you want to see a healthy percentage of traffic from organic search. Also, it’s important to note that if you do any off line advertising, you will usually see more organic visits due to strong brand awareness and, in turn, branded search traffic.
Claim your Free Law Firm Growth Strategy Session
Direct traffic is comprised of visitors who keyed in a URL for your site, those that visited by using a book-mark in their browser, and other visits which for technical reasons did not record a referring source. Some visits from social media, emails, and other sources may end up classified as direct.
Claim your Free Law Firm Strategy Session
Referral traffic comes from directory websites where you may be investing in ad placement (e.g.,. Avvo.com, Lawyers.com, Findlaw.com, etc. or any other site linking to your firm’s website or your website). Social visits from sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others will appear in analytics under the social heading.
Paid search and display will show traffic if you are investing in paid advertising. There are many effective channels in which to run advertisements online depending on your practice area and market area focus. Analyzing your channels via Google Analytics frequently will allow you to stay in tune with your Web marketing activity and investments.
Determine the Effectiveness of Your Blog
There has been no shortage of lawyer blogs written over the last decade. You have probably heard the phrase “content is king” – and it was likely in conjunction with the question, “are you blogging?”
You should never blog just to blog. In fact, having too many blog articles on your site that are merely filling space can be detrimental to your overall Web visibility. Many firms that have committed to blogging daily or weekly are finding that those efforts are doing very little for their bottom line and when compared to the time invested in keeping up such a routine, they likely see they have lost money.
A few tips on your blogging approach:
Determine if your blog is generating positive results by assessing how many visitors it generates. Ask yourself, “How often is our blog the first entry page for a new visitor?”, “How long are visitors staying on our blog?” “What is our bounce rate for blog pages?” If you find that your bounce rate is high (typically over 75%) for your blog pages, that means the vast majority of visitors who land on your article from search engines are not visiting other pages on your site. Usually, your blog is not set up to drive conversions like your main practice area pages are. Therefore, consider linking your blog articles to applicable practice area pages.
Through the help of analytics, you may also find blog topics that have performed well, which will give you better direction for future blogging efforts. You should consider promoting the high-performing blog articles on your site through social media outlets to gain additional traction and visibility. You may also consider pushing them out through email marketing if you have those capabilities.
You should use your analytics data to drive your blogging strategy forward.
Know the Devices Commonly Used to Access Your Site
Today, people are browsing the Web on all kinds of devices, including their phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. Every device screen has a unique size and resolution, which may alter your site’s user experience.
Use Google Analytics to see how visitors are interacting with your site based on the device they most use. For example, you may be surprised to see that visitors rarely spend much time on your site when they are on a smart-phone. That could mean that your mobile experience is poor and needs reworking to retain visitors longer.
Studying this data over time will give you great insight into usability issues related to certain devices. Most credible Web companies are now starting to design with mobile at the forefront, then desktop. In many industries, mobile has already well-surpassed desktop usage. Don’t underestimate the power of your site’s mobile experience and what impact that can have on your bottom line.
Combine and Filter Data in Google Analytics to Tell the Full Story
If you really enjoy getting deep into data, there is no shortage of opportunity to dive in using Google Analytics. Comparing how visitors from multiple cities respond to certain pages on your site may be very useful. Or perhaps comparing how visitors respond to your site when they come from different searches on different platforms will begin to tell you where you are making the biggest strides toward effective online advertising.
By using various data for your site’s activity, you can continue to refine your marketing approach and website design to allow for an improved return on investment month after month.
Better Yourself and Your Business
If you are serious about learning Google Analytics to help you manage your campaign, or hold your Web vendor more accountable, you may consider earning your Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ).
Knowing how to read and interpret your site’s Google Analytics, will make you a more informed buyer of Web marketing services, as well as a more-in- formed business owner.
Your website is your hub to all marketing and brand-related activities. Prospects are using your site to evaluate your firm and to help them make a decision about legal services. Analytics can provide insight to help you communicate effectively with them and understand if your website meets their needs.
