Today’s post is all about helping you to utilize the Google Analytics tool to make the most out of your online presence. The idea of analyzing campground website data might seem like overkill to some of you, but it can have surprising results when done correctly.
The truth is that anyone can make a website, but not many people can make a successful one. Simply creating a business website and occasionally updating a business Facebook page isn’t enough to get you noticed by new customers.
While word-of-mouth referrals and sound business practices are undoubtedly valuable ways to bolster your business presence, RV Parks can no longer get by with the “less is more” marketing strategies that may have worked in the past.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a program that allows you to track useful information about your campground’s website design in a simple, easy-to-understand way. It’s an excellent resource for understanding how your online presence is helping to generate leads or drive customers to you.
Once you get a feel for how Analytics works, you can also integrate things like a Google Adwords account in with it to see all of your online marketing data in one place.
What Can It Tell Me About My RV Park?
The information you’ll receive from Analytics is always measured in terms of dimensions and metrics. If you’re not sure what that means, don’t worry. We’re going to define both of those terms so that you can get useful information from your account instead of confusing jargon.
When you’re looking at dimensions, this is talking about specific attributes of your data. This includes things like the cities where your site traffic is originating from or specific social media platforms.
Other dimensions could include:
– Visitors
– Browser preferences
– Keyword searches
– Pages
Metrics are more specific measures. They’re sets of numbers that correspond to these dimensions. For example, if “site visitors” is the dimension you want to know more about, you could look at more specific metrics such as the exact number of new visits, how long visitors spend on your site and which city those visitors are from.
Other essential metrics are things like:
– How long visitors spend on individual pages of your site
– What percentage of traffic were new visits
– How many people clicked through a specific ad to get to your page
Another great thing about this tool is that Google offers a lot of learning materials for Analytics users. There are online forums for peer-to-peer questions, video tutorials for things like generating reports and detailed text guides to help with account management.
What Numbers Should I Look For?
These reports can be as advanced and detailed as you’d like, but Analytics can also be configured to give you more straightforward reports that only show metrics for the data that you think is most important. It can be overwhelming to try to sift through a large spreadsheet report full of unfamiliar acronyms and complicated figures, so this section will highlight a few critical measurements that you’ll want to pay attention to when you’re pulling up reports.
Some of the most important information to look for is:
– The number of people visiting your site
– Geographic locations of visitors
– Which websites and advertisements drive traffic to your site
– Which pages of your website visitors are most interested in
– What types of content are most popular with your visitors
There are dozens of other data points that this tool can measure and analyze for you, but these are usually the most relevant ones for campground owners. You can play around with the layout of your reports as well so that you’re able to view them in an easy-to-read format. Most metrics can be seen with graphs and charts that give you clear explanations of the numbers in your report.
How Can Google Analytics Improve My Campground Marketing?
The internet has had a significant influence on things like consumer choice. Now, if potential customers don’t have access to the information about your business that they need, they will click out of your site and go to a competitor. Using a tool like Analytics can help prevent this because you can see clear numbers that show where your online presence needs improvement. Maybe your site isn’t up to date, or people aren’t using the search terms you expected to find your business. Knowing this information can help you make small adjustments that will lead to more traffic and repeat business.
Another aspect of your marketing strategy that can benefit from this tool is your online advertising. You can pay to promote specific posts on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and you might also have paid advertisements on Google search pages or relevant websites. Most businesses don’t have a huge marketing budget, so it’s always important to get the most return out of every advertising dollar.
Analytics can track how different forms of marketing are working for you. It can show you how many clicks your ads are getting and whether or not a specific style of ad is getting the traffic you want. It can also break down monthly or weekly data ranges, so you can see if there are peak times you should choose to boost advertisement posts on social media or certain days of the week that your Google links see more traffic.
If you’re trying to expand your RV Park‘s reach beyond just local customers, you can also see important data points like which cities are seeing your ads, whether customers are searching for you on desktop or mobile and even which languages they’re searching in.
All of these small pieces of information can paint a more specific picture of what your consumer reach looks like, and this means that you can take the guesswork out marketing to better fit with your overall strategy. When you have this level of information, you can know exactly which areas need improvement and which ones are successful, and this saves you time, money and frustration.
Better Information Means Better Service
Even though it might seem overwhelming initially, the fact is that access to this kind of data is a powerful tool for campground owners. By understanding this information, you can prevent problems, respond to what your customers want and understand which marketing tactics are getting you the results you need.