Five things to check in Google Analytics every month

Google Analytics tracks the path a customer takes from their first visit to your site all the way through a purchase. If you own a small business, checking it monthly tells you what's working and what isn't. Here are five specific things to look at each month, and how to do it.

Make sure your data is actually flowing in

Before you can read any numbers, you need to verify that Google Analytics is collecting data from your website. Log into your account and find the Realtime report. This shows you visitors on your site right now. If you see activity there, your setup is working. If the Realtime report is blank, your Google tag—the code that feeds data to Analytics—either isn't installed or isn't installed correctly. Ask your web developer to check that the tag is pasted right after the opening head tag on every page of your site. Data can take up to 30 minutes to start flowing after installation.

Check where your traffic actually comes from

Most business owners guess wrong about this. You probably think your customers find you through Google search. Maybe they do. Maybe they don't. Look at your traffic sources each month—direct visits, search, social media, email, referrals from other sites. This tells you which marketing channels are actually bringing people to you. If you're spending money on Facebook ads but getting almost no traffic from Facebook, you have a real problem to solve. If you're getting steady traffic from a source you didn't even know about, that's worth doubling down on.

Track which pages people actually visit

Your homepage might get the most traffic, but your customers might be spending their time on a different page entirely. Look at your top pages each month. If people are landing on your homepage and leaving immediately, but staying on your services page or your contact page, that tells you something about what matters to them. If a page you thought was important gets almost no traffic, consider whether it's worth keeping or whether it needs to be rewritten.

Watch for the drop-off point

If you sell something online or ask people to fill out a form, Analytics can show you where customers abandon the process. Some visitors start your checkout but don't finish. Some click to your contact form but never submit it. These drop-off points are money on the table. When you spot one, ask yourself why. Is the form too long. Is the checkout confusing. Does something cost more than people expected. Fix the biggest leak first.

Set up goals so you know what success looks like

A goal in Analytics is any action that matters to your business—a purchase, a phone call, a form submission, a newsletter signup. Once you define your goals, Analytics tracks how many people complete them each month. Goals turn your Analytics data from interesting into actionable. You could have plenty of visitors a month, but if none of them call you or buy from you, those visitors aren't doing you any good.

Review your data at the same time each month

Pick the first Monday of each month, or whatever day works for you, and spend 20 minutes in Analytics. Look at the same reports each time. Over three or four months, patterns emerge. You'll see which seasons are busy, which marketing channels actually work for you, and which pages need attention. You'll also spot problems fast—a sudden drop in traffic, a page that stopped working, a form that broke. Monthly reviews take almost no time and catch real issues before they cost you money.

Sources

• Set up Analytics for a website - Google Analytics Help

They did the reporting. The writing and the opinions here are ours.