We cannot have a successful brand or business without first understanding the components behind our site and its visitors. As such, it is important to understand what your visitors like and dislike, which pages of your site are most popular and how elements such as social media and email marketing all tie into the broader picture. This is where an element like analytics can be of service, but some people become lost in all the numbers and statistics that can be derived from its use. There are plenty of important elements to be learned from this data, but we’ll discuss a few below that are essential if you want to be successful in the long run.

Traffic Source Trends

Running a successful online brand revolves around having enough people interested in your site to justify its existence. Ultimately, however, they have to be able to find your site for this to apply. With respect to traffic, though, you want to be sure that your traffic is coming in through a variety of sources: social media, inbound links from other sites and social media are common examples. Site metrics – even the most basic ones – will tell you from where your traffic is coming and how much is originating from each source. This will allow you to figure out where you should be pinging links to make progress and where you currently have sufficient coverage.

Social Media Insight

With so many social networks out there, it can be hard to know which ones are worth your time and which ones are a waste. While not all of your social media efforts will relate or link directly to your website, many of them – when done properly – will. It is for this reason that site metrics can be of the utmost importance in determining where is worth your time and where isn’t. By analysing where your traffic is coming from (as mentioned above), you’ll be able to assess which social media networks are producing the most visits, conversions and other forms of engagement. With this information collected, you’ll then be able to refine your overall social media strategy.

Landing Page Research

How are your landing pages currently performing? Do you even know? With site metrics available, you’ll suddenly be able to figure out which landing pages are converting the most customers or subscribers, and which ones should probably be replaced. Especially effective when combined with a marketing strategy and the metrics provided through its deployment, your insights will suddenly be sufficient enough to improve performance across all pages.

Demographic Clarity

Last but not least, the information gained across site metrics and marketing campaigns can be combined into an effective demographic profile of your user base. With this information in hand, you’ll suddenly realize how to start pinging links that are more in line with who your audience is, rather than taking a simple shot in the dark. Whether it be age, gender, location or a variety of other demographic characteristics, this form of insight is no doubt one of the most valuable pieces of information you can collect from site metrics.