A lot of us use Google Analytics or some other web analytics program to measure website traffic. Here are ways to use Google Analytics to find email content, subject lines and free prizes. (Okay, maybe not free prizes)
Google Analytics can tell you what your users are looking for, looking at, sharing and liking. That can obviously help you revise your website. And it can also help you select email subject lines and develop email content that resonates with your audience. Log into your Google Analytics account, and take a look. (The examples below are specific to Google Analytics , but they’ll apply to AWStats and other platforms).
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1. To get started, look at “Site Content > All Pages” stats.
You will learn:
What pages are most popular?
What blog posts are most popular?
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2. Now take a look at “Traffic Sources > Sources”
You will learn:
How many people are finding you from search, referral and direct traffic?
What are the keyword searches driving most of your traffic?
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Note, If you haven’t enabled webmaster tools, you’ll need to do that for the next source of data. (Google provides a handy page to show you how.)
3. Look at “Traffic Sources > Search Engine Optimization > Queries”
Export the report as a CSV.
You will learn:
What keywords people use to find content in your website?
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4. Finally, take a look at “Traffic Sources > Social > Sources”
You will see Twitter, Quora, Facebook, etc. ranked by popularity (number of visits).
Click on the social network of your choice (the most popular one is a good place to start).
You will learn:
What are the sources of social sharing that originates on your website.
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That’s a lot of information.
Now all you have to do is think about keywords and searches, what people are searching for and sharing.
If there’s a specific page, article, item or old blog post that is still getting shared a lot, then maybe that is a good source for email content.
If the keyword search displays different words than you have been using in email subject lines or email titles and headings, then consider whether you are using the right words for that piece of content.
Look at traffic source keywords for keywords you can use in creating compelling subject lines, section titles and calls-to-action.
Make a list of keywords, searches and topics that are favorites with your site visitors. Cross-check against the email content you have used recently and email content ideas you plan to use in the future.
Look at your most recent newsletters (and blog posts) and make a list of topics that are not popular with your audience. Those may be best relegated to history. Alternately, perhaps you’re wording them wrong, so users think you’re talking about something else. In that case, maybe it’s the approach or wording and not the content that you need to reconsider.
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Related:
Here’s a good slide show on how to use Google Analytics
Here’s a case study on how a nonprofit successfully uses Google Analytics
