We talk to clients all the time who have a website but have no idea how visitors see the site or if it brings them any business. Many have a website just because they think they should, which means they probably have a pretty bad website. But if you are not using any type of Analytics program how can you know?
We general use Google Analytics on our websites because it is a free program and a very powerful program. With Google Analytics I can tell clients what part of the country visitors came to their site ffrom, how long they stayed, how many pages they viewed and that is just the basics. I can track what keyword brought a person to a website and how they reacted once they were there, did they fill out a contact form or watch a video we wanted them to watch?
If you are using Pay Per Click Marketing or do any type of E-Commerce on your site it is imperative that you have Analytics installed on your site. The actual installation of an Analytics program is not too difficult and many websites that are built on platforms like WordPress or Drupal will have plugins that can install the code for you. The tracking starts almost instantly and you are able to start realizing if your site is working or not.
Having a website without Google Analytics integration is almost comparable to having a Facebook page but having no fans or never posting anything, in my opinion. Yes, you’re taking that first step but are making no effort to improve or grow. So, I agree that businesses should use Google Analytics to know how their site visitors are interacting with their content – and where they need to improve or tweak things!