Read Part One if you missed it >

Read Part Two if you missed it >

1. Logging in to Google Analytics and Basic Info

Log in to Google Analytics here, using the gmail address and password you or your developer used to set up the analytics account and then click on the name of your site to begin to delve into the wealth of information now available to you.

Basic info will be presented when you click in. This info related to the last month, you’ll see the dates for the data shown in the top right hand corner and you can click on this to adjust to give you information for different time periods as well as to compare one time frame to another.

Below, you’ll be shown the number of visits for this time period, the number of unique visitors, the number of pages on your site viewed, average number of pages viewed per visit, average duration of visits, the bounce rate and the percentage of new visitors. This offer a good overall idea of the traffic on your site, how relevant it is to visitors that find it and how deeply they’re engaging with your content.

2. Where are your website visitors?

It can be helpful to know where your website visitors are coming from. Perhaps you’ve been getting a lot of traffic from the UK or US but you don’t offer shipping of your products to these territories. If you’ve a high volume of traffic coming from there, this might be a good indicator that it will benefit your business to serve these countries better or make it more obvious that you ship to them. It also might indicate that it’s necessary to offer a local version of your site for these countries with content written in their language to help build trust in your brand or product and make what you’re selling clear and compelling.

On the right hand side, click on ‘Geo’ listed below ‘Audience’ and then select ‘Location’ to see how many visitors are coming to your site from which countries.

3. What are your visitors interested in?

Also under ‘Audience’ in your left hand sidebar is a section called ‘Visitor Flow’. This will show you the pages of your site that a visitor first landed on, and the pages they clicked through, on your website, after viewing the initial page they came across. This can give you a good idea of the information people are interested in or details they’re trying to find out. It might indicate that you need to make your contact details easier to find or that you need to simplify something like a shopping cart process if you’re running an ecommerce store.

4. Organic SEO

Organic SEO is a process whereby you use the words or phrases people will be typing into Google to find services or products like yours. For example, if you sell designer shoes for women, you’ll probably incorporate these words and variations of them in the text, images and videos etc. on your site. This use of relevant words helps Google to know what your website is about. To check what your site is appearing in search results for, click on ‘Acquisition’, select ‘Keywords’ and then click on ‘Organic’ to see how traffic is coming across your site in search engines like Google at the moment.

You’ll have accessed similar information within your Webmaster Tools account but as this data can vary between these two tools, it’s good to check up on both. Are your surprised at the words and phrases people are searching and arriving at your website for? Are they bringing in relevant traffic? If not, make a plan for how to incorporate more phrases and words into your site that will make it obvious, but not overly so, to Google what you provide or offer. If you use the same phrase too many times however, Google may decide you’re ‘spammy’, so keep changing it up.

5. Explore

Don’t be afraid to click in and out of the various other sections too. If you know your business well and want to understand more about your audience, you’ll have an idea of the sort of information, unique to your business, that will help you plan ahead better, increase traffic and increase sales or leads.

Analytics doesn’t control or manage any parts of your site, so you don’t have to be worried about impacting your website by clicking on the wrong things. Be curious, explore and find out what’s going to most benefit you.

Let us know what you find most useful about Google Analytics in the comments below. Did it help you generate more sales or encourage you to translate your website into the language of a top visiting country? Let us know more and good luck with your exploration!

Of their most used tools is Google Maps and search engine/smart phone users are making use of this more and more frequently to find out everything from where a businesses is located to reading reviews and checking opening hours. It’s also a good way to let Google now where you are. The closer a smartphone user is to your location, the more likely you are to show up in the ‘Business results’ on a Google search and also on a maps search for services or products.

What’s more is it’s easy to do. And if you have more than one premises, nationally or internationally, you can set your location at each of these places. Do you have a collection point for products you ship abroad for customers? By utilising that address, you can put yourself on the map there too and help boost your international rankings.

How To Put Your Business on the Map in 2014

1. Firstly you’ll need a Google account or gmail address, if you haven’t got one already. You can sign up here.

2. Next, go to Google Places/Businesses here and sign in using your gmail address and password.

3. You’ll be taken to the page shown below. Read and agree to the terms and conditions to continue.

4.  Next, search for your business to see if it’s already listed.

5. If your business is not listed, click on ‘No, these are not my business’ to continue. If your business is listed, click into it to claim it and add to/edit information already there.

6. Add all of the details you are happy to display publicly, and submit.

7. You’ll then be told the address will need to be verified. Google do this by posting out a pin number you to activate your online business listing. This can take up to two weeks. In the mean time, you can still click through to edit the information that will be shown when the pin arrives and you can activate it.

8. Add your details. Make sure to describe your business clearly in the description section. Use language and terms that your potential customers understand and are likely to type when searching for a business like yours. You can also add photos and opening hours. Adding opening hours is incredibly important as it’s one of the top things people search for in relation to businesses! Especially shops and services that require a physical visit.

9. In one to two weeks when your pin arrives, log back in, using the same steps at the beginning. Your details will all be saved, but you can now use the ‘Verify’ option and pin to make your listing go live. It can take some time for Google to review and it begin to appear, but it’s worth it.

10. If you have other business locations, you can add these too, within the same Google account/gmail address, as long as you can verify each by receiving post at that address.

Top Tip: If you’re listing your business in non English speaking countries, make sure you have your description and business details translated professionally. If a web user is searching for a business in a hurry, they will be more inclined to click on one they can actually understand!

Google’s ‘Venice’ update in 2012 went ahead slightly unnoticed and definitely not as talked about as many of their other updates. The change to the search engine’s algorithm affected many local businesses but there are a few easy steps you can take to help keep you ‘findable’ for local searches.

1. Create Local pages

If your business operates in a few different locations or serves different areas where people may be using search engines to find what you’re providing, it’s a good idea to create web pages that cater to each of these places specifically. Make sure to include the area name in easy-to-see spots, such as the page URL, title, in body copy and in a tag. But of course, make sure you don’t go overboard.

2. Make Your Local Pages Unique

It’s not a great idea to post duplicate content on each of these pages; changing only the place name. Try to vary it and keep the various information you wish to include specific, unique and relevant to that area. For example, include a quote from the manager of each specific branch, add information about the team and other local information; such as parking availability, how to find you and specific services this branch or office may offer that differs from other branches/offices.

3. Include a Map

If you’re using the latest version of WordPress, posts will allow you to pick your location. This is a great addition for your blog. If you operate in different areas and your company has a blog, make sure you request that your web developer updates your WordPress version correctly so that you can take advantage of this and start posting ‘for’ or ‘from’ the different places your services are on offer.

You can also include Google maps on the unique, local pages you’ve created. Embedding these is relatively easy to do and helps Google to recognise the different places your business serves.

4. Translate Pages for Local Languages

Rather than targeting different areas within the same country, you may be targeting different countries, territories or indeed just different nationalities who may be searching in their own native tongue. Having your website, or some web pages, professionally translated into local languages is another great way to let Google and your audience know that your relevant to them and boost your international SEO. It’s also excellent customer service; which most people will know creates not just customers, but loyal returning customers.

Overall, Google’s updates will always be brought in to make the search experience better for the user; you can’t go wrong if you are catering to their needs. Consider your local audience and what would be helpful to them and consider how difficult it would be for you to search for a product in a different language than you normally communicate through. Have a brainstorm with your colleagues and you may even come up with more ideas than we’ve listed here. As long as it’s customer focussed, it’s going to benefit you through search or through customer interaction.

Enquire about Website Translation >

Their online, instant translation application ‘Google Translate’ offers some quick convenience for less important translations on-the-go, but they’ve now specifically advised that this isn’t good enough for professional translation needs; such as App language translation and business website translation.

One of their most recent announcements tackled the subject of translation for App development directly. They’re offering a professional translations service to Android developers to make sure applications on offer are available and understood by a greater audience. While we would advise shopping locally for your professional translation services, some of the stats they revealed just how necessary translation is for the web and for apps. The global audience is there, you just need to tap into it.

Google claims that over 1.5 million new Android phones and tablets around the world are turned on for the first time every day.

“Each newly activated Android device is an opportunity for you as a developer to gain a new user, but frequently, that user speaks a different language from you.”

- Google’s Android Developer Blog

According to the blog post, a game developer used professional translation services along with local marketing campaigns and the results showed that a whopping 80% of installs were non-English speakers. I would deduce that if your company can target a global audience, similar could be said for your website – if you get the translation right.

Enquire about professional translation in Dublin >

Google have had their European headquarters in Dublin since 2003 and just launched their  plans to open an digital innovation centre, ‘The Foundry’, in Dublin’s Docklands.