And the best thing about Google Analytics (GA) is that it is FREE!

If you're paying for any kind of advertising, for example, Google AdWords, banner ads, or e-mail marketing, it's important to know what's working and what's not. Fortunately, analytics programs have built in ad tracking capabilities.

You can start using Google Analytics to drive traffic to your web site. Here are 15 tips to jumpstart your online business:

1. Online Documentation – Read www.google.com/analytics/



2. Page Tags - Tag all your pages with the GA Tracking Code that Google gives you when you sign up.



3. E-commerce Sites - If you have any secure payment pages on your site, you need to use the secure code for them.



4. Test Profile - Create a test profile in addition to your "real" profile. That way, you can test new features. When you are sure they work, move them over into your real profile.



5. Funnels - Use sales funnels (tools that allow you to observe the online sales process) for defined movement in the site -- like through a shopping cart, or from a sign-up page to the "Thank you" page.



6. Special Profiles - Create special profiles for important campaigns (like paid search or organic search). That way, you can apply all of the GA tools focusing a specific campaign.



7. Autotag Google AdWords - If you use Google AdWords, make sure that your AdWords talk to your Analytics.



8. Tag Other Campaigns - Be sure to tag all your other campaigns, too – like your Yahoo and MSN paid search, your banner ads, your email marketing.



9. Analyze your data - Use all that hard work to figure out where you are getting your best traffic from, to learn where individuals are leaving your shopping cart, and to learn which keywords are working for you.



10. Insite Search - Find out how your visitors search your site, what they look for, and where they end up.



11. Benchmarking - Find out whether your site usage metrics underperform or outperform those of your industry vertical.



12. Trend and Date Slider - Compare time periods and select date ranges without losing sight of long term trends.



13. Site Overlay - See traffic and conversion information for every link as you browse your site.



14. Email reports - Schedule or send ad-hoc personalized report emails that contain exactly the information you want to share.



15. GeoTargeting- Find out where your visitors come from and identify your most lucrative geographic markets.

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