Most websites use analytics, but that doesn't mean they use them correctly.

Unfortunately, most website owners don't spend enough time monitoring and understanding their analytics.

It takes a lot of time.

And sometimes it can be hard to understand how to make the data actionable.

Let's review some popular types of analytics and see how they can be used.

Conversion Rates
If you haven't already, you need to determine what you want visitors to do.

It doesn't have to be one thing.  In fact, it's better to have a series of goals that can lead to your main objective.

For example, obviously, for e-commerce websites, the main objective is getting the sale.

However, it's probably good to track other smaller goals.  Actions that can increase the chance of a sale if they do them.

You want to track these as conversions in your analytics software.

Once you do this, you'll be able to track your conversion rate(s) and see what percent of viewers complete the goal.

After setting up a conversion, you'll be able to establish a benchmark.  You should strive for increasing the conversion rate with constant experiments (A/B testing).

Here's a video to give you some ideas on ways to increase your conversion rates:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGqX9fpweyc

Popular Content and Search Terms
Understanding what pages receive the most visits and what search terms people use to find your website are critical.  

In addition, you'll want to know how long people spend on your most popular pages.  It could be that people thought that the page was going to be interesting based on the title and description, but once they visited you, they realized that this wasn't what they thought it would be. In that case, you might consider revising the content on the page.

In addition, by knowing what attracts visitors, you can create additional content that relates to your most popular pages and search terms.

People usually don't buy as soon as they land on a website.  

Instead, they take a path.

For example, on a shopping site, people rarely jump directly to payment.  Instead, a typical path looks like this:

This is a funnel, where the most people will see the first step, and fewer visitors reach each subsequent step.

You want to set up a funnel in your analytics software, so you can see how many people are dropping off at each step.

What that allows you to do is focus on the steps where you see the biggest drop-offs, so you get more people reaching your main objective.

The better you know your customers, the more successful you'll be.

Some analytics, such as Google Analytics, give demographic and visitor interests.

This can be powerful info that allows you to cater to your customers better.

By knowing their interests you can tailor your content, and potentially the products and services that you offer.  You can also attract customers better by targeting them from websites focused on their interests.

 

Heatmaps are a graphical way to represent data on a map. In website analytics, heatmaps are used to show where people spend their time on different pages of a website or app.

The color of the points on the heatmap changes based on how long someone spends on a given page. Red and yellow usually represent the content that is seen. or clicked on, the most.  The darker the color, the less often people see, or click on, the content.

This is important info and lets you reorganize the page.  If the main things you want to be seen, aren't being seen the most, move them.

If your analytics software doesn't offer heatmaps, you could try Hotjar or CrazyEgg.  Another alternative is to use analytics that record videos of visits so that you can see what people do (this is especially helpful to see if people are getting lost on your site).  Both Hotjar and CrazyEgg offer this feature, as well.