When you’re starting a business or organization, building a website is one of the most important (and exciting!) first steps. But once you have your site up and running… what then? How do you make this investment actually work for you and become an effective tool?
There are a lot of potential answers to that question. To find them, it comes down to this: you have to regularly evaluate the performance of your website—and use that data to build a strategy to make it perform better. And you know how we love making things better!
For a look at this in practice, let’s dive into a project with one of our favorite (not that we have favorites!) clients: Brehob Corporation.
With locations all over the Midwest and 60+ years of industry experience, Brehob Corporation is a leading distributor of electric motors, air compressors, and cranes & hoists. Over the years, they’ve built up a stellar reputation and a loyal client base, but most of their business happens face-to-face or through more traditional channels, like over the phone. Now we want to expand their reach in the digital landscape and drive new traffic to their website, specifically through search engines.
Our plan of attack? Spend time each month analyzing site performance and visitor behavior, then use that research to identify priorities and opportunities where a little bit of effort might lead to big results.
When we first started, Brehob’s site had been live with Google Analytics and Google Search Console tracking for about six months, giving us some data we could jump into. Here are just a few of the areas where we dug out the ol’ magnifying glass (and which we’re still exploring on a regular basis):
Having the opportunity to analyze results and make improvements over time means we can develop long-term strategies. Search engine optimization (SEO) typically takes 4-12 months to show results, and Google makes hundreds of adjustments to its algorithm every year. Because we’re touching base with the data each month, we can catch changes, make adjustments, and identify new insights as they develop.
For the last year, we’ve been steadily making improvements, using data and our understanding of Brehob’s business goals to prioritize our efforts so we’re making the changes that will have the biggest impact on growth. Though this is a long-term strategy and we’re just getting started, we’re already seeing results.
A website is never done—it can always be better and you’re always learning new things about your visitors!
In fact, in January of 2017 alone, Brehob saw 37% growth year-over-year in new visitors coming from search engines; for Q1, it was 23% growth. Likewise, we’ve steadily increased the number of keywords for which we appear in Google, which means we’re casting a wider net for potential visitors.
The number of keywords ranking over the last year, as reported by SEMrush
Though we’ve been focusing on search engine optimization, many of the changes we’ve implemented have also been great for user experience, social media, content marketing, PPC, and more—you’d be surprised how much overlap there is between SEO best practices and other areas of marketing! And now that we’ve started to increase traffic, we can direct our attention towards improving conversion rates, again using data to make decisions.
So, how can you apply this practice to your own site? I hear what you’re thinking: “That’s nice in theory, but I don’t have time to constantly be digging around in analytics.”
You’re right—analyzing results takes time and resources. But whether you want more traffic, better leads, or more engagement on your site, website analytics and other site data can help you find answers and develop a plan that will actually produce results. Don’t waste time and effort working on the wrong things! Make your work matter by finding what moves the needle.
The good news is that even a little bit of analysis can lead to great insights. Here are some steps to get you moving towards actionable data.
You know that old saying about how a watched pot never boils? When it comes to websites, that’s an old wives tale. When you have eyes on your data, you’ve got a much better shot at making your website...er...boil. Happy analyzing!
Want help analyzing your site’s data? Reach out!
