September 2016 - Broadly – Get better online reviews

Web Analytics: Mobile Devices

In recent posts, we discussed the importance of tracking both organic traffic and the most visited pages on your business’ website using web analytics. The type of mobile devices matter in today’s economy. These are the devices that your visitors are using when they are reading online reviews and decide on purchasing a service. It’s crucial to be aware of how your prospective clients are interacting with your business’s website.

Here are three data points that deserve your attention:

Mobile Device Info

With Google’s web analytics you can find a list of the most common mobile devices used by your website’s visitors. Here’s an example:

Does your business’s site cater to people who use these devices? Does it look as good on an Android device as it does on other devices? If your website design isn’t mobile-responsive, it’s time to upgrade your design.

Sessions and % New Sessions

It’s one thing to know that people are visiting your business’s website from a mobile device. It’s another thing entirely to understand how many are visiting your website on a mobile device, and how often.

In this example, Apple iPhone users make up more than one-third of all mobile visitors to a site:

Keep tabs on both the number of sessions and new sessions, by device, as this can help you create a more targeted marketing plan going forward.

Bounce Rate, Pages per Session, and Average Session Duration

This is all about the behavior of your site’s visitors using mobile devices. Here’s an example that corresponds with the two examples above:

With this data in hand, you can compare the numbers to traditional desktop visitors. Is the bounce rate higher or lower? What about the average session duration?

Keep this in mind: mobile devices now account for 56 of traffic to top websites. For this reason, your business website’s mobile experience must be on par with its desktop experience.

Conclusion

There is no two ways about it: the more people that visit your business’s website, the greater chance you have of earning more customers. Make sure your business’s website is as appealing to visitors on mobile devices to maximize your chances of success.

Need help with your website and customer feedback strategy? Get in touch with us to learn how Broadly will build your business a stellar website and help you stand out online.

Web Analytics: Customer Reviews and Engagement

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear “web analytics”? You may think organic traffic and customer engagement on your business’s website. However, you don’t want to overlook off-site metrics, such as the number of visitors and the number of customer reviews on your Google and Yelp pages. These metrics are extremely important in the world of local businesses.

Here are three reasons to play close attention:

To Find Out What You’re Doing Right

What do your customers like best about your business? In what areas have you excelled in the past?

By staying current with Google and Yelp reviews, you’ll gain an understanding of what your customers like best. Subsequently, you can focus on providing more of the same.

To Find Out Where You Can Improve

No matter how hard you try to satisfy your customers, it’s likely that someday you’ll receive a bad online review. This isn’t the end of the world. Instead, consider this an opportunity to learn something.

Ask yourself:

Why did the customer leave a less-than-stellar review?
Could you or your team have done anything differently in this situation?
Which steps can you take to prevent similar reviews in the future?

A bad review never feels good, but it can work in your favor if you turn the situation into a positive.

To Improve the Customer Experience

You know that your customers are leaving online reviews via websites such as Google and Yelp… but what are you doing to interact with them?

It’s a good start to review each and every piece of feedback, so that you can learn what you are doing well and see where you can improve (see above). However, you can take this one step further by interacting with your customers.

When customers write good reviews for your business, thank them and encourage them to return. Conversely, if you come across negative reviews, reach out to the customers in an attempt to make things right.

Conclusion

There is more to web analytics than the number of visitors to your website, top pages, and referral sources. Local businesses can learn a lot and gain organic traffic by staying in touch with online reviews and customer engagement on their Google and Yelp pages.

Tip: Publishing online reviews on your website is a great way to share content with your audience and improve your search engine ranking. Learn how Broadly can help you generate more positive reviews and attract more new customers.