The vast majority of small business websites I have encountered do not use Google Analytics (or other forms of analytic tools) as effectively as they can. Most business owners have spent a few thousand dollars building their website but ignore one of the most important things you can do for your business. If knowledge is power, then your desire to measure user activity should be a top priority. This post will help you claim the power of your website.

If you don’t have Google analytics installed yet, that should be your first step. Very easy to do and it is FREE for smaller websites. Get Google Analytics here.

One of the best ways to track what visitors are doing is to install a small piece of event tracking script on all of your primary actions such as buttons, web forms, video and downloads for example. Generating the code can be a little tricky. Use this tool to help get the script you need.

click the “Result” link if tool does not display.

Widget credit: Justin Cutroni, Thanks Justin!

The next step is to add this code to the appropriate event. For the “Water Test” button example below, this is how the HTML looks:

Either you can add this or your webmaster can. Be consistent on the format you select. As you can see, I prefer all lower case characters and I remove all of the white spaces.

Use this Google Analytics Help Page on setting up event tracking.

Now that that is done, you can see not only basic visitor information but how people interact with your calls to action. I always recommend you test different content, their position on each page and select those actions that engage your visitors and remove those actions that steal attention away from your primary goals.

Content experiments help you to increase conversion rates on your calls to action. Something as simple as the language used on a button can actually double the number of appointment requests for a client’s business.

For this example, I was testing the button copy for Water Testing. Which version do you think doubled my client’s requests for a water test?

In the same experiment we are testing different offers and various button colors. Google’s content experiments [Video] allow us to split the website traffic into equal parts and even test multiple elements on a single page as long as we have set up our event tracking and goals correctly.

Some of the elements we can measure are:

• Headlines and supporting text
• Images and Icons
• Calls to Action
• Offers
• Page Layout
• Colors

Each experiment should measure specific goals. The new events that we are now tracking will help with the goals we establish for our content experiments. In addition to Event Goals, we should be measuring visitor behavior goals like bounce rates, times on the page and the number of pages per visit.

Don’t rely on faith based decisions. Visitor data should be what you use to improve website conversion rates. The reporting is very easy to understand and does not lie.

So yes, a well thought out SEO program will drive traffic to your website. Once you have these new visitors checking you out, let’s get more of these visitors buying your products, requesting appointments and taking some positive actions that lead to increased revenue for your business.

Let us know what you have done to improve website conversions in our comments below.