Analyse this

 No not this dodgy film, your website. Analyse your stats peeps.

You may well have heard about Google Analytics. Chances are if you run your own business or update the website at your place of work, you'll at least be familiar with the term.

You may also (like me, I have to admit), be more familiar with the fact you should be familiar with the term than with the concept itself.

Confused yet?

Yep, me too.

It's important in life to admit defeat. Thankfully people are good at different things. And the lovely Janina over at Handpicked Hotels is definitely knowledgeable about this murky, grey area otherwise known as 'who looks at my website, and how can I use this information to my advantage'.

For part one, the intro on Google Analytics see Harlequin & Romance (and then pop back here for part 2).

Take it away Janina:

Google Analytics:
The simple guide PART 2
By Janina Downey, guest blogger, e-commerce specialist and lover of helping others.

Now the simple explanation is out of the way and what a great response from
you all that own a www. Now for the exciting stuff and analysing what lovely
online visitors help make your business succeed and how to build upon this!

Who are these people and how to get more…

In part one we established ‘what is Google Analytics’ and just how simple it is
to use this FREE tool to look at your website.

Looking at your website more in depth will help you to understand which
marketing efforts have paid off and which ones; not so well. Running your own
business or department is time consuming enough so being pro-active and
using the strategies that worked can help manage your marketing time more
efficiently.

Using the interesting features such as the site overlay which visually shows
you where web users click on your pages and also how many times is
interesting to placement and content.

Google Analytics gives you the big picture about your website which in turn
helps you interpret your site and add to your advertising needs. Following the
trends and patterns will help you engage more customers and focus on what
works allowing you to in turn increase awareness and sticky content to your
site.

You can also use Google Analytics to determine which of your ads are
performing (when used in conjunction with Google AdWords, Google’s Pay-
Per-Click advertising). Google Analytics also provides shorthand information
for the non-techy user and much more in-depth info for those who are a little
more of an expert on web analytics (after all my articles you will be!).

Any questions setting up or understanding your data please just contact me,
but now I hope you are all using and understanding your website data to its
maximum potential!

Props to Janina for trying to explain to us laymen how this shizzle works. And keep your eyes peeled for more hints both here and over at H&R.