I spend a lot of time measuring digital campaigns. I mean I measure everything a business does online.
You never know what you’re going to find. You never know what pattern is going to appear.
Measure for Action
Of course, we measure to find what we can take action from. That’s half the time. The other half of the time we’re measuring / taking stock of ‘what the hell has Google changed now?’
Avocado Anyone?
Five years ago I was measuring what content was being shared and liked the most on a social profile. Yes. The start of the great avocado on toast days.
And cake. Yes cake works as content.
Time on Page
You can see this in Google Analytics. How long visitors spend on a certain page. It can give you an idea of if the content is readable and of interest.
It’s not the greatest of measurements but it is worth keeping an eye on when you start a website and your budget is small.
Engagement
I’m not a believer in Facebook or Twitter’s explanation of what they see as engagement.
Measure true engagement for your content. Find the pieces that people share, comment or react to as they are doing something. They are taking an action.
Don’t blindly follow what the social platforms tell you is engagement.
Put a Goal on It
If it’s online and you want people to take action can you measure that? The simple answer is to use a Goal in Google Analytics.
If someone fills in a form, set a goal. Neil Patel has a great piece on setting up goals in Google Analytics and why.
Measure Everything you Can with A Goal including:
- Leads
- Subscriptions
- Newsletter signups
- Downloads
Measure Clicks
If you’re setting up ads or if you have content that links to your website you can use a URL shortener like bit.ly or even better Google’s own Campaign URL Builder (which now has bit.ly URL shortener built in).
Measure Website Health
Because I treat Google with some scorn I measure ‘health signals’ of client websites. This means using Google Search Console. I log the amount of organic clicks per week and the amount of links coming into the website.
This also means I am in Search Console at least once a week so I can see if Security issues of Manual Actions (warnings) flagged.
The Power of the Chart
I find it easier to take in numbers if I use a chart. Then I’ll map different figures to see if there is any pattern.
Try this with traffic by channel eg organic, paid, direct, referrer. Does your website have any patterns?
The Dashboard
There’s all manner of software services out there, which can act as a dashboard. I use a spreadsheet. Simple, adaptable and free.
I also track the top keyword phrases on the spreadsheet (and new ones from time to time). Why not use a tool like Moz or SEMrush? Well, they are great tools but they blind you to what’s happening in Google.
Try it
Try keeping a dashboard by the week.
About Conversion Detectives
Conversion Detectives is a full service digital marketing agency in Hertfordshire.
We find the best quality traffic for your website and convert more of that traffic into sales or sales leads.
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