So you've satisfied your visitors with the option to donate to your cause easily using Google Checkout, and you've made it easier than ever to make sure your visitors can find what they need by implementing Google Custom Search. Well, I've saved the best tool for last. This tool is not even for your visitors, but for you - the webmaster (and a favorite tool at onLine). Enter Google Analytics.
Google describes Analytics modestly as a tool that will help you "learn more about where your visitors come from and how they interact with your site". However, the way Analytics presents its data and the detail by which it does so makes the tool much more powerful. (Consider that ISPs hosting a site often offer the same information, but I've yet to see one that goes into the depth that Analytics does.)
Like the previous tools covered, implementation is fast. One Google account can manage several sites, and each produces a unique code that is inserted immediately before the page's </body> tag. Once that tag is inserted, you receive immediate feedback from your (highly customizable) Analytics dashboard that the code is being read correctly.
What can Analytics do. Well, in short, in can all answer these questions for you:
- What visitors are searching for within your site?
- What search engine is bringing in most of your visitors?
- What keywords in those search engines are bringing in your visitors?
- Track and compare all your partnership conversions. Are referrals from other sites working well compared to paid ads?
- Which pages result in lost conversions?
- Where are visitors staying the longest?
- GeoTargeting, find out where in the world are most of your donors coming from. Did a recent news piece on your foundation in Detroit produce an increase in visitors? Donors?
- Which links on your site get the most clicks?
Oh, and did I mention - it's all free.
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