Improve your Site with Web Design Statistics from Google Analytics
March 24, 2007 | Comments (3) | Filed under: Web Design
When designing a new site, it’s important to know your target audience. Unfortunately, with a lot of blogs out there, that might be easier said then done. While it’s always best to think about your niche in advance, some sites start with one idea in mind, but over time evolve into something totally different. That’s the fast moving nature of the web, and it’s pretty hard to avoid.
Every so often, a friend of mine will ask me for advice on setting up a new site, and one of the most important tips I usually relay is to become best friends with Google Analytics. Just in case you’re unfamiliar with Google Analytics, it’s a powerful toolset that allows you to track many statistics about the users that visit your site. It’s dead simple to integrate, and if you’re using WordPress like we are, all your need is a simple plugin to get up and running.
Once it’s installed, Google Analytics tracks almost anything you can think of about users who visit your site. For a new site, one of your best friends is the data tracked under the area titled “Web Design Statistics.” These statistics track everything you need to know about visitors to your site and how they view your content. For example, one of the most important sections is “Screen Resolutions.” In this area, you can see what screen resolution most visitors to your site are using. If your site is designed for 1024×768 resolution, but 55% of visitors are using 800×600, then you can be sure they aren’t getting the full experience your site has to offer. Here is an example of the resolutions Bookmark Bliss visitors have had over the past 3 weeks…
As you can see, less than 1% of our visitors have a resolution that is lower than 1024×768, so our site design has been optimized to reflect that. There are many more statistics that can really help you to tailor your site to the users who visit it. Everything from whether or not they have Flash installed to browser version to connection speed. By really looking into the fine details of these statistics, you can ensure that most visitors are getting the ideal experience you designed your site to provide.
At the end of the day, if you want to be competitive in online business, you need to know who your customers are and how they visualize your site. Google Analytics Web Design Parameters can help you mine as much information as you can and if you play a smart game, you can use those stats to really optimize your site to take full advantage. It’s the next best thing to actually visiting your user’s homes and checking out their computers one by one…
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3 people have left comments
Its a great tool.. i have been using it.
I’ve been using Google Analytics for a couple of weeks and only recently discovered the screen resolution stats (Guess I wasn’t paying too close attention in the beginning). I’ve noticed the same trend…nothing lower than 1024×768. Looks like I can, at some point, break out of the 800×600 limitation. Nice.