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Utilizing Google Analytics to Assess Performance, Set Goals and Gain Clients !

Google Analytics is an amazing tool and if you have not checked it out, I would highly recommend doing so.  You can sign up your website or blog to Google Analytics to find out statistics in terms of how many visitors you are getting and other extremely valuable information such as where they came from and how they interact with your site.   You can also gain insight in terms of the keywords that were used for visitors to find your site.  Best part about it is that it is free !

We just had a meeting with our marketing consultant who showed us the increase in traffic and hits with Google Analytics year over year.   It was great to see a HUGE increase in traffic with our main site The Somers Team .  I also signed up our blog Philadelphia Real Estate Blog and recently checked out its statistics as well.

What a great way to assess your business month to month, or even week to week.  I always find it interesting to see the week-to-week trends.  For example, for the first week of December versus the last week of November traffic on The Somers Team  was up 33.99 percent, from 509 visits to 682 visits.  My explanation here is pretty simple in that the last week of November traffic was down due to the Thanksgiving week in addition to things picking up the first week of December with mortgage rates being so low which was one of my thoughts for Are We The Pulse of Real Estate ?

In any event, another reason to use these reports is that they have become an integral part of our listing presentation.  It is pretty impressive I think in a buyers market to have internet marketing be a focal reason for a seller to list with you.  Well, in our local area, the sellers not only get the MLS, they get exposure on our individual sites, blog, etc...  These reports can be shown to validate traffic.  For example, The Somers Team generates approximately 600 visits per week and all of that traffic is looking at the individual listings in the specific areas that we market in !  No wonder our business has had a great year in 2008 - buyers are finding us easier and sellers crave and need the additional exposure. 

Lastly, with this tool, I am now paying more attentions to see where the visitors are coming from too.  Google Analytics will show you what referring sites brought the visitor to your site.  How amazing is this information ?  Thus, you can see if certain campaigns or specific marketing done on other sites generated the traffic that you were looking for to your site.  I will save this topic for a future blog post !

Do you use Google Analytics in your online marketing strategy ?  What works for you ?

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The Somers - Protecting and Growing Your Wealth

 

 

 

Philadelphia Real Estate - Chris and Stephanie Somers

The Philadelphia Real Estate Blog

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41 Comments on Utilizing Google Analytics to Assess Performance, Set Goals and Gain Clients !

DEC
10
2008
218,115 Points 4 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor

"Google Analytics is an amazing tool and if you have not checked it out, I would highly recommend doing so."   I agree.  I use it and love to see what is working and what is not.  Thank you for your post.....
7:04am • #1

I also agree completely.

I find it very interesting that many website owners are not aware of their traffic patterns or where the traffic actually comes from.

I have found that many of the site tools provided by website hosts are not nearly as accurate as analytics.

Another interesting point is understanding that statistics:

Many owners believe 'hits' = visitors.  This is not true and misleading.  Hits can mean different things to different statistical packages.

At least with analytics you can examine your site in depth and find out things like:

  • How long are visitors staying on the site (bounce rate)
  • Which pages are the most popular
  • Where are the visitors coming from

and so many more great statistics.
7:14am • #2
1,038,328 Points 26 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

Thanks for the tips. Wish you good luck in 2009.
7:23am • #3

Great idea to put it in part of the listing presentation!  I also like the bounce rate, you can tell if anyone is actually reading it.  Glad your site is doing so well.
7:40am • #4

Analytics is the best way to track whether all your online marketing efforts are working in my opinion.  So many people ignore these stats which are great for telling you what is working and what is not.
7:53am • #5
419,966 Points 71 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

Chris - I've checked out some of the features but will do so more today.  Thank gosh for posts like this to help this chap out:)
7:58am • #6
540,237 Points 12 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

I signed up for Google Analytics, but haven't implemented it yet. Thanks for the reminder.
7:59am • #7
5 Featured Posts

I am a new yser so thanks!
8:02am • #8
251,633 Points 2 Featured Posts Outside Blog

Chris, I do use it too, it is very helpful to understand who is going to your site, how often and how long they stay. You can also follow links to the site that are sending traffic to you to see where it is coming from.  
8:08am • #9
875,202 Points 35 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog

Chris, This IS a great tool.  I used to check it more often but haven't recently and it's a good reminder to get back and do that.  Thank you for sharing.
11:50am • #10
588,234 Points 80 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Hit Router Attended Rain Camp

Mark - Glad to hear you are using Google analytics well.

Jennifer - Great you are using it as well.  You are right - being able to analyze your site in depth is really important.  Why spend a lot of time and money on a site if you dont understand where the traffic is coming from ?  It is interesting that many business owners may not know where the traffic is coming from.  I think it is great to be able to assess what marketing is working and what is not as well for individual marketing campaigns.

Gita - You are welcome regarding the tips.

Lauren - Glad this can help you in regards to adding another important piece to a listing presentation.

Jason - Am happy that we can be of help !  I am just learning all of this myself so the blog might not be as technical as many other bloggers but it is great to know some of the basics !
12:17pm • #11
781,924 Points 71 Featured Posts Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Good work guys it is really important to keep track of your web stats.
12:57pm • #12

I have analytics for my website but not for my blogs.. I think I need to add that! Great post!
1:08pm • #13
385,813 Points 25 Featured Posts Outside Blog

Hi Sommers team.  I have GA set up for my blog, but does not seem to be working the last few weeks.  Have you experienced any problems recently?

Ken
1:32pm • #14
153,791 Points 4 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Called Shot Master

Great post...real life testimonials and ways of usage are always great to share.  And I think that your team is very smart for "proving" their internet marketing capabilities by providing the Analytics reports!
1:45pm • #15

Great info! I use Google Analytics as well in monitoring traffic on my website. Although, I never thought about using it in my listing presentation or with my blog. That's a great idea!
2:09pm • #16
Outside Blog

Good post.  I like the "Site Overlay" feature which is often overlooked.  It's an easy way to see click patterns.  It also allows you to improve "Call to Action" items and drive your traffic and improve your leads.  Below is a link to a post we had on "Call to Action".

http://activerain.com/blogsview/430527/Call-to-Action-What-is-It-Why-Your-Website-Needs-It-and-How-to-Check-It

Real Estate Agent Websites
2:32pm • #17
140,359 Points Outside Blog

Thanks for posting this information.  GA is great tool, it can really be useful.
2:48pm • #18
733,769 Points 231 Featured Posts Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Christopher & Stephanie....  you are absoutley right on this... this is a great program. There are several out there...  if you don't keep track of your traffic and in how people find you, how do you grow that part of your business...  nice job here.

jeff belonger
3:15pm • #19
1,064,316 Points 156 Featured Posts Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Christopher and Stephanie, great advice. If you can measure something you can make adjustments.
3:32pm • #20
754,282 Points 7 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Called Shot Master

I have signed up for the google analytics, but haven't done much with it. But, since reading your post, I'm going to the site tonight.  Thanks!
4:38pm • #21
160,384 Points Outside Blog Hit Router

Christopher and Stephanie:

I used Google analytics and found that it does not get info on visits from people not allowing active x automatically.

You should use you server log, down load it, get a program like weblogexpert and you will see alot more hits.  About 2x as much. It does about the same as Google but uses the recorded log which is accurately reflecting activity.

Richard
4:54pm • #22
288,572 Points 38 Featured Posts Outside Blog

You guys come back, and hit the ground running huh?  I'll try and check this out tonight - my website is in need uf updates...
5:56pm • #23
865,599 Points 50 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Hit Router Attended Rain Camp

I have and use Google Analytics, but changed over to Clicky for most of my information.  It is an easier interface for me, and until I got over 3 sites I was quite happy on the free plan.  I went to pro to monitor more sites, and really like the ability to track an individual IP and see what they are doing... even live. 

*This is an affiliate link, if you don't want to use it, you can go to getclicky.com and look at it that way...  I'm not hawking the product, I just think it works well.
8:06pm • #24
226,285 Points 10 Featured Posts Outside Blog Hit Router

Sommers Team  - Google Analytics is AWESOME!  I love to monitor statistics...
8:15pm • #25
2 Featured Posts

I use google analytics for my websites as well. The part that I like the best is that you can see where your traffic is coming from, ie google searches,  keywords, direct traffic or referrals from sites such as AR.  I know there's a lot more you can do with it although I  haven't quite figured it out yet.

Oh, and with 600 visits per week, I'd be bragging about that it my listing presentations too!

Michelle
9:53pm • #26
DEC
11
2008
507,615 Points 9 Featured Posts Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Christopher and Stephanie- I signed up for Statcounter.com last month. I am definitely going to sign up with Google Analytics. It seems to be a great tool. Thanks for sharing. Great post.
1:59am • #27
1,009,760 Points 36 Featured Posts Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

I am in desparate need of this information. I have analytics, but I think that Google analytics would give me more information.
2:05am • #28

Excellent post!  I have used Google Analytics for a couple years and find the info valuable.  I also would recommend the use of Google Trends to ascertain which keywords you should be targeting.
9:41am • #29
811,199 Points 91 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

I actually found when I used it -I lost web position.   That simple.  People must realize that the search engines make money primarily by people that pay them.  I removed the analytics, and and webmaster tools and I am back on top.    There is a big price for FREE!
10:06am • #30

We started using it a few months ago and love it as well.  One of the best features is the 'conversion' option.  The system will keep track of how many times a visitor does something specific.  Here is how it helped us:

We had a huge bounce rate on our map page and wanted to know why.  We found that the largest search term bringing visitors to that page was 'suburbs'.  Since this page had no information about suburbs just a map, we decided to add a link at the top of the page to our actual 'suburbs page' and then use the conversion feature to see how many visitors clicked through.  Within a week we had over 70 visitors to the map page, click thru to the suburbs page.  This proved that what they were actually looking for, was descriptions of suburbs and not a map of the suburbs.  We then watched the 'bounce' rate on the suburbs page to see if it increased by a similar number just to confirm our conclusion. 

This can be used to analyze all of your pages and determine whether or not the visitor is getting what he is looking for.  We have also created new pages based on search terms that I never would have thought of.

Jolynne Ash, Broker Owner  DreamStreet Real Estate, Portland OR

www.jolynne.com
10:34am • #31
484,107 Points 28 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Called Shot Master

OMG - so much good information. How long have you been using this? I'm going to sign up today!!
1:06pm • #32
1 Featured Post

Thank you so much for the valuable information.  I was not aware of this feature, but will now certainly check it out.

Thanks Again !
1:26pm • #33
591,941 Points 22 Featured Posts Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp

Great reminder. I've slipped a few positions in my SEO endeavors. And I have Google Analytics setup on everything. How silly of me to not use this powerful tool!
1:53pm • #34

I had no idea!! Thanks so much for sharing this information.  I will be checking out the feature and making it work for my business!
2:52pm • #35
550,841 Points 22 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

So is Jim saying he lost SEO after using Analytics?  I've used it and think it's great, but if others have found it harmful in someway, geez I would like to know honestly.  I'll stay clear of it for sure.

I've noticed that the best traffic comes from AR!
4:57pm • #36
DEC
12
2008

GREAT info, I started looking into it and beleive I "struck gold". This was a great post and you sharing in the information is even greater!
1:38pm • #37
DEC
13
2008
588,234 Points 80 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Hit Router Attended Rain Camp

Michael and Perrin - You are welcome !  I am glad this could help.

Mary - Glad you are using it - it is a great tool.

Carol - A reminder is always a good thing.  There are many things on the web we want to implement as well, but somethings just go to the backburner sometimes.

Bill - Coming from you, we appreciate it !  Thanks.

Sonja - Blog traffic is interesting to look at too.  Am just starting to get more acclaimated ourselves with that one.

Ken  - Have not had any problems to date other than the learning curve ! : )

Christine - Yes, it is a great marketing tool as well to show validation of what you are saying during a listing presentation versus "fluff".  LOL

Olena - Yes, I think it is a great idea to incorporate some of this data in your listing presentations.  Is professional and shows you know your stuff and your market !

Ultra agent - thanks for sharing the link and the article.  Will look into that feature.

Jeff - thanks ! We appreciate it.  You are right that this info helps you to know your business.  It is great to be able to assess traffic patterns and know if your marketing and advertising is working !

 
6:44am • #38
588,234 Points 80 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Hit Router Attended Rain Camp

Gary - absolutely, measuring is key.

Rebecca - glad this post was an inspiration.  Let us know how you make out !

Richard - will take a look into that... is hard for us since we are playing catch up with all the technology and there is only so much time in the day.  Did not know that the analytics might not pick up some hits.  Is still very useful for basic analysis though.

Steve - we just keep moving foward !

Lane - wow ! that sounds like quite a tool - will check that out too ! 

Debbie - glad you like it too !  Since I was a kid, I have always been into stats as well !

Michelle - It is great, isnt it ?  The info has been very helpful to us and yes, we are proud of our current stats but look foward to growing it !

Lanre - Glad this could help !

Christine - yes, you should definitely check it out !

Kris - the keyword info is extremely valuable as well !

Jeff - I was not aware of that, that is interesting.  Will ask our web person what she thinks.  I know we have gone way up on the web position.

 
8:28pm • #39
DEC
14
2008
811,199 Points 91 Featured Posts Outside Blog Called Shot Master

Yes I am saying I lost position after using anylitics.  A noticable measured drop in SEO.
11:38am • #40
APR
23

Christopher,

Here is a free tool that will take your Google analytics stats and compare them to other real estate sites so you can see if you are above or below the benchmarks.  It is free and kind of addictive.  Would love to hear what you think about it!  Trent 

http://www.blizzardtracker.com
Trent
3:06pm • #42

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Christopher and Stephanie Somers - Realtors - Philadelphia Real Estate

Philadelphia, PA

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Realtor / Owner - RE/MAX Access

Address: 1033 N 2nd St, 5th Floor, Philadelphia, PA, 19123

Office Phone: (215) 400-2620

Cell Phone: (267) 987-4443

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