I use Google Analytics for analyzing the traffic to this site. I thought you might be interested in how I use my site’s data to analyze and make improvements. So I am going to go over the reports custom segments, goals and strategies that I use for By Data Be Driven t0 figure out what you are doing.

First off I dig the Visitor Loyalty report. This report tells me average visits per visitor. If I can increase the amount of return visits I get per visitor I know I am doing something right.I also have a segment set up for all visits over two pages. I figure since most people will only look at one page, which is typical for a blog, those people who look at more than two have shown extra interest and I want to be able to segment those kinds of visitors to see where they come from, what they are looking at and what makes them bounce all in an effort to have more insight into how to capture more of those kinds of engaged visitors.

I also measure how long it has been since a visitor last visited my site using the Visitor Recency report. This report measures the gap between two visits from the same person, or in other words their commitment. My goal is to have as many people as possible visit my site at least once a week

The Length of Visit report gives me the distribution of time spent on the site. I don’t like average time on site because if my mom is on the site for 100 minuets (love you mom!) and everyone else is on for 15 seconds, that average is going to be very skewed. This report gives me a more accurate, sometimes depressing (as in 80% of traffic is less than 1 min), idea of how engaging my content is.

Depth of Visit shows me how many pages is consumed by each visit. This goes right along with Length of Visit and helps me feel less depressed if I can see that 50% off my visits look at multiple pages. So instead of my content being boring, maybe my visitors just have ADD.

I Segment by brand keywords. By Data Be Driven (what I consider my brand), is segmented against other keywords people use to find this site. Just in case someone hears about me and goes looking for me, I want to know about it. Are brand keyword users better visitors than other visitors? Under Traffic Sources > Keywords, I can compare at the amount of traffic coming from my brand words to all other keywords. I can also segment these visitors against all other visitors when it comes to bounce rate, page views/visit and any other metric.

I have multiple goals set up to measure events that I think are important, here they are:

Anyone who visits my affiliate store: I’ll be able to tell how many click-throughs I’m getting through my affiliate accounts but I think measuring how many people go to the store in the first place and then click through is an interesting metric. It gives me a funnel for store visits to clicks to sales.

Anyone who sends me an email through my contact page: You want to contact me?  Of course I’m going to record that as a goal. I have a thank you page where I record a goal every time I get an email sent to me through my contact page.

Any who subscribes to my RSS: I think someone subscribing to my posts is a big achievement. I want to know where/how often/why is recorded as a goal and anyone who leaves a comment is also a goal.

Comments: If you leave a comment, I record it as a goal met.

Now I just need more traffic.