Google analytics has been updated recently and some of the metrics have been renamed but it still provides much of the same data. In this post I am going to explain what the Google analytics traffic acquisition actually mean and how they may be beneficial.
Breaking down your traffic acquisition sources and numbers can help you see how well your online marketing strategy is performing.
To find these number log in to your analytics account and go to reporting. Select the site you wish to look at in the drop down.
On the left hand side menu you will see a link called “Acquisition” click here and select Overview.
On the page you will now see some of these metrics displayed depending on where you have acquired traffic from
Organic Search:
This is the number of non-paid visitors to your site from most search engines. Google tracks organic traffic from most of the major search engines like: Bing, yahoo and Ask. Some search engines have to be added manually.
Direct:
Traffic from users who have directly typed your web address into the address bar of their browser window or have your website bookmarked.
Referral:
This is traffic from other websites that link to your site. If a user clicks a link to your site from any other website this will count as referral traffic.
Email:
Traffic directly from links within emails.
Social:
The number of users who land on your website from social media sites like Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.
On the dashboard we are also given information about how traffic from these different sources are behaving.
Under the “Behaviour” box we can see Avg. pages per visit, Avg. visit duration and Bounce rate by default. If you click on one of these tabs at the top we can see how traffic from these different sources are reacting.
If you have your conversions set up in analytics we can also see what traffic sources have the best and worst conversion rates. We can also see the paths a user takes before he or she makes a conversion. (More on this in another post)
This type of data is extremely valuable especially if you notice large irregularities between traffic sources. Traffic sources that have higher conversion rates can vary depending on the space you are in. By collecting your own data in this way you are able to concentrate your SEO and internet marketing efforts more effectively.
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