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Data Driven Results: How to Dominate Online with Data

The internet was not made for static websites. If you’re not adjusting your website (and tracking what works), you are just asking for your website to wither and die.

Data, data, data.

Website collect data

Your website is able to give you all kinds of information if you know where to look. This information can be used to tweak your website to better meet the needs of your website’s visitors.

Best ways to collect website data.

If you’re wondering where to start collecting website data, the place that most people go is Google Analytics. Google has designed its analytics platform to be one of the most robust analytics platforms available.

From your Google Analytics dashboard, you are able to see at a glance which of your pages have the most visitors, which pages have high bounce rates, which pages earn you the most money, and so much more. You are also able to track where your site visitors are coming from, which is especially helpful when you’re running any sort of marketing campaign.

Google Analytics is also designed to work especially well with Google Ads. (Remember step one?) The Google Analytics platform can give you even deeper insights into how users from your Google Ad campaign have interacted with your site.

As deep of a dive as Google Analytics can give you, sometimes you want something more visual, something that can give you an at-a-glance analysis of what people are clicking on when they visit your website.

We love HotJar for just that reason. We use HotJar to analyze our site on a regular basis. They give you access to three very useful tools for analyzing visitor behavior.

  1. Heat maps. Heat maps show you exactly which links are the most popular on any given page on your website. Similar to weather maps, popular, or “hot” links, are shown with a red cloud while unpopular, or “cold” links, are shown in blues and greens. HotJar’s heat maps can also show you how far down the page visitors are scrolling. If you’ve placed a valuable lead generation piece at the bottom of your site, it would be good to know if people aren’t making it that far.
  2. Recordings. While it may seem like something from the novel 1984, HotJar does allow you to view recordings of real-life visitor behavior. You can track an individual visitor as they browse your website, seeing what they click on and how they navigate around your website. As intrusive as it may seem, it can give you some very valuable insights into how visitors interact with your website.
  3. Conversion funnel analysis. If you have a conversion funnel on your website, wouldn’t it be helpful to know how many people make it to the end? And where most of them drop out? HotJar’s conversion funnel analysis can tell you just that.

Best way to test changes.

AB Testing

HotJar and Google Analytics are great ways to figure what’s working and what’s not on your website, but it’s pretty hard to test how well website changes are working if you can only see data after the fact.

When you want to test tweaks to copy, navigation, or other parts of your website, what you really want to do is conduct some A/B testing.

It sounds complicated, but it’s really not. What A/B testing does is allows you to present two different website versions: one to 50% of your visitors and one to the other 50%. SplitHero is our tool of choice for running A/B tests.

A/B testing doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be for something as simple as swapping out an image or trying a different header for the page. It could be moving up your signup form or lead generation offer to higher on your homepage.

A/B testing is the perfect way to try out some of the ideas you got from all the amazing insights you learned by tracking your website’s performance and visitor behavior.

Final word.

If you did it well, you used data about your market and target audience to build your website before you launched it. There is no good reason to stop using data to make the ongoing changes needed to keep your website fresh and relevant so you stay top of mind for your clients and potential customers. These tools, and our help, can take your website game to the next level.

Keep Reading: The Killer Offer: Step 6 of 9 for Dominating Online

Thrive Design is a customer-centric web design and development company from SeattleContact us today to find out how we can elevate your business online! Find us on Clutch, UpCityLinkedInFacebook, and Twitter.

Category: Web design seattle

Noah Britton

Hi, I'm Noah Britton, the founder of Thrive. I focus on understanding our client's goals and proposing solutions including branding, website design, and marketing. After 20 years in business, I've earned the grey hairs and expertise needed to knock your project out of the park.

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