There has never been a better time to learn more about your online client base (Internet Demographics) and how to do a better job of reaching them. Your customers’ age groups, spending habits, engagement with your site and plenty more can all be tracked with the right set of analytics. It wasn’t that long ago when businesses would run an ad in the newspaper or on TV and have no idea how many people directly responded by cutting it out of a newspaper or calling a number they saw on TV. Basically, there was a lot less information out there about how many people you were actually reaching. That has changed dramatically.
Today, you can understand your customers better than ever, if you know how to pick the right tools. Here are a few of the best.
Google Analytics
Undoubtedly the most well known system, Google Analytics will tell you how many people are visiting your site, where they come from and how they found you. You’ll also learn how long the average visitor stayed on your website and how many purchased your product or service (converted). If an ad campaign is underperforming, you’ll know it in almost real time, allowing you to tweak and tailor your campaign to get better results.
Mint Analytics
Mint analytics will tell you what you need to know with style. The beautiful interface is easy to read and harbors a wealth of valuable information. You’ll learn how many people are visiting your site, how they are finding you and the most powerful referral sources. Mint will also show you what keyword searches are sending people to your site, so you’ll know what phrases to target when it’s time to launch the next advertising campaign.
SEOmoz toolbar
The SEOmoz toolbar will help even the novice improve their search engine optimization with a series of valuable tools. You can discover what search phrases are bringing people to your site and moz will even analyze your web pages to help you make search-engine friendly modifications. This is a must-have for the SEO pros, but easy enough for anyone to use after a bit of studying.
Compete
Compete is an online analytics tool that helps you keep an eye on the competition. Through the paid service, you can learn not only what search phrases are sending people to your site, but also which terms are driving traffic to your competitor’s site. If you like to know your enemy, this is the ultimate analytics tool – particularly if you are using an ecommerce platform, which also works very well with Google Analytics.
Crazyegg
Do you want to know what part of your web page is particularly hot? Crazyegg will help you create heat maps, so you can see exactly what part you your web pages visitors are viewing and engaging with the most. With this tool, you’ll know what areas of your site people are actually interested in, as well as what areas are virtual ghost towns. This will help you tailor your site to provide an overall enjoyable experience for visitors.
This is as guest post of Ben Norris lives, works and writes from Phoenix, AZ.
