A huge number of businesses use Google Analytics to monitor the activity on their Web site. If you are not one of them, you may wonder what all the fuss is about, and whether you are missing out on something useful. Well, without knowing you or your business, I can venture a guess and say ‘yes’ you are missing out on some very useful and important information if you are not using Google Analytics. You can gather some amazingly useful information with Google Analytics, which can inspire you to take important action!
Have a reference point.
Your Web site can be an extremely useful tool for your business, no matter what type of business you have. But if you don’t know who is visiting, how they got there, your number of daily visitors, or anything else, you won’t know if any of your marketing efforts are making a difference. Even if you install Google Analytics now but don’t look at it right away, you can always go back and look at the data later on. By using Google Analytics even in the most basic way, you will start to understand how many people on average visit your site and how they got there, and you can also begin to see how the things you are doing impact the visitors to your Web site. Here are just a few examples of how it can help!
Know how people find your site.
Google Analytics allows you to see which keywords or Web sites people used to find your site. When you know which traffic sources are working, you can try to increase the traffic from those sources. For example if a large number of people are finding your site by searching for the term ‘blue widgets’, you could create a whole Web page about blue widgets. You could write useful articles about blue widgets and post them for people to see on Facebook and Twitter. You could submit that same article to your blog and to a free article submission site (like www.ezinearticles.com) with a link back to your Web site. Knowing how people find you is a great start to something that can be extremely useful in enhancing your marketing efforts.
Know which pages are sticky.
You put the time and money in to building a Web site. Now, how do you know that people are finding what they are looking for? You might be thinking “people would let me know if they couldn’t find the things they need on my Web site.” This is not true. Web searchers will not tell you anything at all; they will simply go away and look someplace else. Analytics will show you how much time people spent on each of your pages, and also where they came from and where they went next. This helps you understand whether your Web site is effective! For example, if people came to your site, viewed the home page for 20 seconds and then left your site, you should probably question whether things are easy enough to find.
Discover which call to action works best.
Do you know which action you want people to take on your Web site? Every business is different, but you should always have your call to action clear for people to see. Maybe you get the best response from having people fill in a form, or a request for proposal. Well then, that is what you should have as a call to action on your Web page(s)! Using Analytics can help you track and understand the actions people are taking on your site, which can in turn help you decide which actions result in the most sales.
I doubt I have even seen anything as useful as Google Analytics for such a low price: FREE! The biggest cost you will incur is that of your time (or your webmaster). It’s basically just a matter of signing up, and getting a piece of Java script code added to all the pages you wish to track. Install it today and open up a whole new world of data to help your business focus on what works!
Great information at this link regarding phishing scams, and how to avoid them!
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No matter the size of your business, accounting software must be an integral part in managing your finances. Of course, the range of software packages available these days is vast, and you have to strike a balance between something that can handle your needs while being as easy to use as possible. But, regardless of which accounting software you choose, keep in mind that all packages should allow you to get the information you need without a hassle. What good is a system that only allows you to pull out information on reports and other documents, with only the data they deem valuable? Consider these tips for obtaining the information you need, the way you want to see it.
Customizable Reports: While many accounting systems do include a variety of standard reports, they are typically very general to satisfy the needs of the masses. What happens if you want to include an additional field? Or how about if you would rather have two columns of information switched around? It’s best to be able to view what you and your management team wants to see on financial statements. Look for a system that allows you to take one of their standard reports and add, remove, or move fields of information as you like to see it. Then, save your revised report so you can run it exactly the same from month to month, giving all those who view the reports a consistent view of the crucial financial information. Financial information is simply too important to leave the data you pull out up to the discretion of the general reports in your system.
Drill Down to Original Source Entries: When using the reporting within your accounting system, using drill down to original source entries can be an extremely useful tool. When you are in a report, you may have a question about what makes up a number or how that figure was calculated. Drilling down to the original source eliminates the step of having to go into a full edit function or run another report. This helps keep your information accurate while also letting you make edits more quickly and efficiently.
Departmental Reporting: Do you often throw or stuff your personal cash into your wallet or purse helter skelter? No, you likely fold up your dollar bills and perhaps even organize them by dollar amount. If you had to search for and unravel scrunched up dollar bills each time you wanted to buy something, it would take a long time and frankly that would be embarrassing. This is similar to organizing your transactions in your accounting software. Setting up and tracking information by department helps you understand financial information about each of your departments, so you have a more solid idea about each department’s success and where improvement may be needed. Instead of viewing all of your financial information together, it can be broken up and more easily understood.
When you are able to pull the information out of your software with ease, you can spend less time analyzing and more time improving and carrying onward. Use the analysis tools within your software to help you get the information you need, in the way you need to see it.
Follow this link to see AgWeb's post about how to bulletproof your balance sheet.
http://www.agweb.com/article/bulletproof_your_balance_sheet/