Analytics for Your Website

So you've got a website.  Great!  Congratulations!  You and a billion other businesses have made a great first step!

Sarcasm aside, whoever told you that having a website created on just sitting out there online will bring you new business was crazy.  It just doesn't work that way.  In fact, the website launch is just the beginning.

Step TWO is figuring out how to leverage your website to get more business.  So, very simply, you need to know who's coming to your site.  Who are they?  How often do they visit?  How much time are they spending there?  How did they find you?  All of this information gives you clues on how to market your website.

You can get all of this information for FREE.  Just go to:  http://www.google.com/analytics/

Get started by clicking on the "Sign Up Now" link in the blue box in the upper right corner.  Google Analytics will walk you through some somewhat simple steps to install Analytics on your site.  (If you're daunted by this process, you can certainly hire a consultant to take care of all the nitty-gritty for you...  hint, hint...)

Once you've installed Analytics, you'll have access to a whole bunch of information that you won't have a clue how to use.  The basic Dashboard will give you an idea if your web traffic is going up or down, but beyond that, what do you do?  Check out this Google Analytics Cheatsheet.  This will take you through some basic know-how and also show you how to use some pretty cool tricks.