Google Analytics is the industry standard for businesses and website owners to track their website data to better improve their digital marketing. It helps them to make data-driven decisions that improve website performance and shed light on user behavior.
To keep up with modern technological advancements, Google moved from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). While the move is necessary for businesses that wish to continue collecting analytics data for their marketing, using GA4 to improve website performance will have some distinct advantages.
The Transition to GA4 Happened July 1
As of July 1, Google no longer provides user data to Universal Analytics. This essentially necessitates the change to GA4 for anyone looking to continue receiving analytics data.
Yet GA4 is more than just the newest update to analytics. It’s got a stronger foundation for a more meaningful experience. Below are some of the ways that using GA4 can improve website performance.
Improving Website Performance with GA4
Demographics
Your user demographics include characteristics such as:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Interests
Analyzing and understanding these audience characteristics can help you understand who your visitors are, and market more directly to them and their needs. For example, marketing to men over 50 could sound considerably different than to women in their 20s.
Or, if you knew that the majority of your audience was in the Midwest, you could concentrate your marketing efforts there. When you understand who you are marketing to, your website becomes stronger.
Understand Your Audience's Interests
GA4 can help you uncover and understand your visitors’ interests. This allows you to create content that carries a stronger appeal. For instance, if you know your audience also enjoys football, creating content around that interest can help it to gain more traction.
Learn From User Behavior
It’s important to understand how your visitors interact with your website. GA4 can help you to understand what pages your audience visits, how long they stay on each page, and what actions they’re taking while they are there. This information can provide valuable insights into what works on your website and what will need improvement.
If you discover that visitors aren’t filling out the form, you might want to simplify it. If you discovered that people were viewing but not buying a certain product, you might want to re-evaluate the pictures and written content on that page.
Know Your Traffic Sources
GA4 can give you powerful insights into your traffic and where it comes from. You can gain better insight into whether your traffic is coming through search engines, social media, or other websites. This can help you understand what marketing efforts will need to be strengthened.
Determine the Exit Pages
Understanding what pages people are leaving your site allows you to optimize to encourage people to stay longer. You could also incentives for repeat purchases or other ways to keep them onsite longer.
Maximize Goals and Conversions
Your website's goals and conversions are simply the actions you want visitors to take. Some examples might include:
- Filling out a form
- Downloading certain content
- Making a purchase
By tracking these actions as goals and conversions, you gain clear insight into the effectiveness of your website and what might need to be optimized.
The Need to Migrate to GA4
Using GA4 to improve website performance allows you to make more informed marketing decisions every step of the way. Remember that improving your website’s performance is an ongoing process and not something that is done once and never to be evaluated again.
Our analytics team is offering GA4 migrations to help you take advantage of all the benefits the new platform has to offer. Contact us now to find out more about how we can help you make the transition!
