Website analytics can tell us a lot about our audience and how they interact with our site. Oftentimes, we rely heavily on these analytics for reporting. But what if I told you that Google Analytics provides data that can be used as a strategy tool?
Track Core Web Vitals
Google has verified that Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) are now part of the Page Experience ranking factor. These metrics together make up Core Web Vitals. To find the underperforming pages, use advanced filters to look for pages that fall under the “good” benchmark according to Google. Using this data, you can tackle Core Web Vitals head-on and keep a close eye on performance as you make changes.
Find and fix 404s
The easiest way I’ve found to identify these URLs is to navigate to a page I know doesn’t exist on my website. For example, you may type in example.com/roger-rocks, then, when the page loads a 404, grab the title tag. Now you can navigate to Google Analytics > Behavior > All Pages and toggle over to Page Title. Once here, do a search using the title tag of your 404 page.
Find & Capitalize on Easy Traffic Opportunities
Search Console is a great tool for SEOs, as it gives us insights into how we’re performing in the search engine result pages. The downfall of Search Console is that the filtering options make it tough to manipulate the data — this isn’t the case with Google Analytics.
So, if you go to Google Analytics > Acquisition > Search Console > Query, you can use the advanced search bar to help you find the data you want. In this case, let’s include Average Position less than 10, include Average Position greater than 3, and include CTR of less than 5%.
Track Your Changes
The only way to know what is affecting your traffic is to track your changes. If you update a page, fix a link, or add a new resource, it may be enough to change your rankings.
In Conclusion
Google Analytics is often used for reporting and tracking. But that same data should be used to put a strategy into action. By taking your analytics just a step further, you can unlock serious opportunities.
Do you need help? Do you want to integrate Google Analytics in your website?
