Have you ever tried to learn a foreign language? It is no small feat and takes a lot of reading, learning, and practice. For many business owners, trying to understand Google analytic reports feels like reading a foreign language. At Spot On Solutions, we want to help restoration companies utilize Google analytic reports so they can track and analyze critical data from their websites and those who visit them. The amount of information that Google Analytics reports provide is extremely beneficial to business owners, especially when you are in the restoration business. We are going to help you understand how to read the Google Analytics reports for your own business so you can make your website more effective.

How To Read Google Analytic Reports For Restoration Companies

*Before we get started, we need to break down the basics of a Google analytics report. All Google Analytics reports display a combination of dimensions and metrics, and to understand what the different reports are telling you, you need to understand the dimensions and metrics.

Dimensions: Dimensions are basic attributes of the data that has been collected. An example of a dimension that may be provided for user data, for example, could be ‘State’ – which would tell you which states your site users are from. 

Metrics: Metrics are quantitative, or number measurements. An example of a metrics measurement would be the ‘Sessions’ metric, which tells you how many sessions took place on your site over a given period.

Now that we reviewed what the reports will be made up of, let’s get into understanding one of them. The first report you are likely to see is called the Audience Overview. This report is a basic rundown of the traffic that your website gets. The metrics you will want to focus on from this report are:

• Users: the number of visitors to your site during a specific period. Watch this number and pay special attention if you notice a downward trend, that indicates a need to step up your marketing. 
• New Users: the number of new visitors during a specific time period. This is a number that you want to see steadily growing on a regular basis.
• Sessions: the number of visits to your website within a specific time period. A session times out after 30 minutes, so if someone has been on your page longer than that or refreshes their browser, it will count as another session for your page, so keep that in mind when evaluating this number.
• Number of Sessions per User: the average number of times each specific user visits your website. The closer this number is to 1, the less likely it is that viewers will return to your website. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, especially for restoration companies, because many customers will only need your services once and are not necessarily repeat customers.
• Page views: the number of pages that have been viewed during a specific time range. When reviewing this metric, keep in mind that this number only confirms whether or not viewers are looking at your content.  
• Bounce Rate: *we have found that this is one of the most misunderstood metrics because it represents the percentage of sessions that consist of only a one-page view – do not judge your website entirely on bounce rate, but do pay attention if your bounce rate is very high on mobile but low on desktop, for example, because it could guide you on improvements you can make.

While we only went through one report, it is important to keep in mind that all the analytics reports in the world are useless if you don’t know how to understand them and then turn them into actionable improvements. If you are ready to learn more or have help understanding other reports from people who know the language of Google Analytics reports, give Spot On Solutions a call today.