Google Analytics - Care to Share Results?

[Fairy Cardmaker]

So, we are at the end of 2010.  I thought I would share my Google Analytics (GA) Results and what it means to me in hopes that you will share yours and we can try to figure out with each other where we need to focus in 2011.  I am no GA expert.  (Feel free to correct me if at any point I spew misinformation!)

From what I believe, GA is a trend analysis tool.  I would not put much stock in the face value of the figures, but I would put stock in the trend analysis - meaning, relationships between figures and also how figures change over time.  (See, even for figures that are wrong, if they are consistently wrong in the same way all the time, then the trend of change over time can still be valuable.)

So, here's what I'm looking at and I will compare this to 2011's results as 2011 progresses to see if I am improving my analytics or not.

First, on the dashboard of your iCraft store report, there is a date range in the top right corner.  That date range is a drop down.  Choose the drop down and type in the calendar year range for 2010 and hit apply.

Now you are seeing your stats for 2010.  Here are mine and what they mean to me:

VISITS
Visits: 4,005
Page Views: 8,424
Bounce Rate: 66.62% (people who landed on your shop and immediately left)

Ew - that's an ugly bounce rate.  I can see from my referring traffic that my Project Wonderful ads are definitely bringing me traffic.  However, since my bounce rate is high, maybe it's not the right traffic.  Maybe I'm not reaching the right demographic.

What does this mean?  In 2011, I must bring my bounce rate down by:
- refining my ads - maybe they are not representative of my shop
- changing my ads - maybe they are not targetted enough.  Maybe I should make an ad for bookmark cards that is different from my ad for wedding cards that is different from... you get the picture and then put each ad on a correspondingly more targetting site.
- continue searching for new blogs to advertise on - maybe I'm not not reaching the right audience

TRAFFIC
New Visits: 72.78% - I expected this. iCraft as a whole is still trying to build web presence.
Referring Sites: 30.93%
Search Engines: 55.40%
Direct Traffic: 13.52%
Other: 0.15%

Ok, maybe my high bounce rate is from search engines.  I seem to be getting decent traffic from Search Engines, but my shop isn't holding that interest once the person clicks and I'm not gaining the sale.

What does this mean?  In 2011, I must bring my bounce rate down by:
- improving my pictures - maybe my shop is "ugly" once they click here from a google search
- finding a way to better organize my shop - maybe they can't find what they were looking for because my listings are organized in no particular order (iCraft, some help here would be nice)

TRENDS
Sales on iCraft: 8 orders (these I counted from my iCraft account)
Visits to sales ratio: 4,005/8 = 501

This is the number I want to watch over time.  That's A LOT of visits to get a sale.  Looking at my trend of daily visits, I get about 10 visits a day per GA (4,005/365).  To get 501 visits, that's 50 days.  50 days for 1 sale. 

Items listed in 2010: 74  (I had to guestimate this one.  I'm going to keep a monthly total in 2011)
Listed to Sold ratio: 74/8 = 9

This is another one for me to watch.  I have to list roughly 9 things to get 1 sale.  Being as I list 1 or 2 things a week (yes, I'm slooOOOooOooW), that's about 1 sale every other month.  Yicky.

So, in 2011, I have to LIST MORE.

SUMMARY - MY ACTION PLAN
- refine ads
- find more targetted advertising
- improve photos
- improve shop organization
- try to list more

If I do these things, my bounce rate should come down and my visits to sales ratio should improve.

What are your results???  What are you going to do about it?

[PillowThrowDecor]

Wow! Excellent job analyzing your data and reporting it here for all of us.  I'll check mine and get back.

Cheers
Christine

very good analysis of your Google stats. Topically click to action percentages are 1-2%. Click to sale can be even lower. What amount of contacts do you get from the site?
The contact list you create can be worth more than the direct sales. When I first started as a SEO I marketed for my own art web site. People who contacted me were added to my mailing list and I updated them whenever new art was added or updates were made. I kept them excited about my gallery and built trust with them. So they might not have brought anything at first but over time the list began looking more and more like a client list. Also, once someone makes a purchase it usually means they might will be a long term client. If they liked the artwork enough to buy it for themselves, they will be probably willing to buy it for gifts for others or to decorate other areas of their home or office. If you get 9 clients a year that is excellent because next year it will be 18 and so forth. It doesn't take many clients to create a stable business. It sounds like icraft has put you on the road to doing so.
I like the ideas you came up with to increase your conversions.

You should also consider ways to drive more people to your icraft pages:
1) link your page on other sites
2) mention it on Twitter...tweet out about new products
3) mention it on Facebook
4) create a youtube video of your crafts and use annotations to link it to your icraft page
5) put a link to it on business cards
6) tell people about icraft that you meet
7) your the web address in your email signature

If all the crafters take this approach imagine the number of people that could be driven to the site and imagine all the potential new clients.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Thanks for those comments.  "Conversions", yes that's the techy word I needed!

People who contacted me were added to my mailing list and I updated them whenever new art was added or updates were made. I kept them excited about my gallery and built trust with them. So they might not have brought anything at first but over time the list began looking more and more like a client list.

This is where I fail.  I keep thinking I will make a newsletter of some kind, but every site I've looked at I can't figure it out.  My emails link to my blog which links to my shop(s).  That's the best way I can encourage people who contact me to keep up to date on shop happenings.  I would feel awkward about email updates - UNLESS - I could make them fancy pretty newsletters like iCraft has been sending.  (Tutorial please!)

[iCraft Admin]

Hmm... I wonder how we could help you with the Newsletters, Fairy Cardmaker.

Maybe we could build a few templates for you to choose from and a way to manage your contact list? All you'd have to do is to specify product numbers for products you want to showcase in your newsletter, add your copy, choose mailing list and click send. This could be a new service we offer to iCraft Creators. Not sure how fast we can do it, but just a thought...

Here is another option http://www.mailchimp.com/pricing They allow up to 1000 subscribers and 6000 emails per month for free - Perfect for individuals who don't deal with volume.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Sure, that sounds awesome.  I could see a handful of templates (2 or 3) going up in the resource room (https://icraftgifts.com/banners-widgets.php) where you have that awesome blog widget.

I think it would get a lot of use.

[PetiteTuques]

I'd be interested in a newsletter as well. I haven't checked my google analytics yet- I'm afraid to. When I get a chance I'll see...

[Fairy Cardmaker]

This is the one I've had bookmarked for over a year.... 
Mail Chimp
http://www.mailchimp.com/

Anyone use them before?

*cough* my stats are lonely....

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I just upated my stats from GA for January 2011.  Not encouraging.
 

February is not looking better just because I anticipate not having any time to create this month.

SIGH

[Craft Boutique]

Hmmm, I didn't check my stats in months. That's great Fairy Cardmaker that you are at least checking yours. It's better to know than not to know. Yes, Jan and Feb are probably the slowest months, as people are recovering from holiday shopping... Well, I know I am. Ha ha.... 

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Thanks for the encouragement, Craft Boutique.  Thanks also to everyone for all the suggestions in this thread!

I should mention, the reason I will have little creation time to list new stuff in Feb is that I am working on a custom order which I got through iCraft.  (It's my biggest one to date in my 3-years of commercial cardmaking!)  So... I will stop whining (a little).  Hee hee.

[Craft Boutique]

Oh that's a wonderful news, Fairy Cardmaker! I am happy for you. 

[PetiteTuques]

I have a bit of time, so here are my stats for 2010.

VISITS
Visits:     2,292
Page Views: 4,761
Bounce Rate: 63.74% (people who landed on your shop and immediately left)

The one I noticed right away was that on May 27, 2010 I got the most views, 130 and that was when I had a review on My Give Away Today.com. No other day has come close to that.

TRAFFIC
New Visits: 50.48%
Referring Sites: 54.80%
Search Engines: 11.30%
Direct Traffic: 33.33%
Other: 0.57%

I think this is telling me that my SEO is not working, but hopefully that will change- with iCraft's help
I have links up everywhere it seems, I have communities that I belong to, so I'm thinking that is why my referring sites is so much higher than anything else.

TRENDS
Sales on iCraft: 24 orders
Visits to sales ratio: 2,292/24 = 95.5

I get about 6 visits per day, using 2,292/365... not high at all.. something is wrong there.

I'm going to guess that I listed all my products in 2010, since I had opened my shop late 2009.

Listed to Sold ratio: 66/24 = 2.75

That looks good, but most of the people I get sales from are people I KNOW. I've made connections, so people trust me, but not the people are browsing the site everyday. I know that shoppers like to buy from people that are known, that are referred, so maybe my online presence isn't high enough yet.

This is worst time of year for me, right after Christmas. so I either have to advertise like crazy, or tweak my  product line. I've decided to tweak my product line. I'm going to bring in more cotton hats, and booties.. maybe some other things...

I expect to have slow sales for next couple of months, unless I bring in something else, and I find that hard to do, because I love my hats, and wanted to stay with that one product.

So we'll see.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

Excellent reflection, Petite Tuques.  I hope it has helped you to solidify your goals for 2011.

If I may...

Visits:     2,292
TRAFFIC
New Visits: 50.48%
Referring Sites: 54.80%
Search Engines: 11.30%

That looks good, but most of the people I get sales from are people I KNOW.

... so I either have to advertise like crazy, or tweak my  product line. I've decided to tweak my product line. I'm going to bring in more cotton hats, and booties.. maybe some other things...

You need more visits!  I think that you need to work on advertising more than product line.  Having a desirable product sure ranks number one, but if no one knows you're there, who's going to buy it?

Referring Sites: 54.80%
Listed to Sold ratio: 66/24 = 2.75
The one I noticed right away was that on May 27, 2010 I got the most views, 130 and that was when I had a review on My Give Away Today.com. No other day has come close to that.

I agree with your assessment that you've built a small but loyal following.  Working on advertising can expand that following and it sounds like the best advertising for you has been word of mouth from people you know.  Leverage your current success!  I think a newsletter would rock for you!  Subscribers can share your newsletter by just forwarding it on.  Especially if you are committed to expanding the product line, then you can announce new launches in the newsletter.  Or if you do another scheduled giveaway, you could announce that too.

Yes, blogs are good for announcements, but you are asking the buyer to come to you.  A newsletter makes you go to them - right to their inbox.  It's effortless for them!  (And those who don't want to be spammed by newsletters simply choose not to subscribe!)

Just my thoughts.  I'm no expert!  I'm just struggling along with everyone else!  I think I will look further in to this newsletter thing too in 2011 (maybe summer/fall, before holidays).

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I have updated my stats.  Looking at my results for Jan 1 - Feb 28, my visits are headed in the right direction!  My views to sales ratio is also, since I had one sale out of the blue on iCraft.  The person bought a newer listing and, with it, one of the very first cards I ever listed on iCraft 3 years ago!

I attribute the improvements to my new lightbox.  I have been working hard on improving pictures (slowly but surely getting there).  I'm happy to announce that my bounce rate has dropped by almost 4% in just these two months!!  Yay!

Play along tracking your stats too - even if privately.  If you track privately, drop us a line to give us a thumbs up or thumbs down message to let us know how it's going for you!

I'd love to hear your story.