Defining Quality through Google Analytics
Through the Google Analytics dashboard, you can find out a lot about your audience:
- Where your visitors live;
- What they find interesting;
- The devices and browsers that they use;
- The languages that they speak;
- And more. (Where can I find these details?)
Such metrics visualize visitors from the top level down. Alone, they cannot deem traffic as quality. How the visitors interact, however, can.
- Bounce Rate: The number of people who visit and leave without viewing another page. A high bounce rate may indicate a large number of unsuitable visitors.
- Average Visit Duration: The average time spent on a website in a single session. The greater the value, the more visitors explore. This could mean your engagement is up or that visitors cannot find information.
- Behaviour Flow: The path visitors take throughout a site. This data can determine if the average visit duration speaks positively or negatively about the quality of traffic.
Optimizing Your Content for More Targeted Traffic
Data gleaned through solutions like Google Analytics explain how a website is and has been performing. Your interpretation of the facts will determine how successful you are at improving them.
In many respects, the content you publish ultimately affects who you attract. If strategic, you’ll engage who you intend to engage. If careless, your site will get into trouble.
For example, consider keywords. Reverting to our previous example, imagine if the mountain bike shop ran a paid Google ad for “Bikes in Toronto” and “Mountain bikes for sale.” Disregarding either keyword’s traffic volume or competition, let’s see who they might attract.
- Bikes in Toronto: Individuals searching for new bikes, rental bikes, used bikes, cheap bikes, high-end bikes, road bikes, mountain bikes, hybrid bikes, bike laws and regulations, bike parking in Toronto and so on.
- Mountain Bikes for Sale: Individuals searching for new and old mountain bikes, maybe at a discount because of the possible connotations “sale” holds.
Of the two keywords, “Bikes in Toronto” will deliver the highest traffic but the least conversion potential. “Mountain bikes for sale” will attract more quality visitors because of its specificity.
To take our example further, we could compare the content written in the ad with the content of the landing page. If incongruent, the landing page would deter targeted traffic from continuing. Your keyword selection must indicate what the page will discuss; otherwise, your traffic will feel mislead and leave.
Source: altmedia.ca/attract-quality-website-traffic/
