The five things worth looking at in your analytics

Analytics tools present hundreds of numbers, most of which exist for large organisations with staff to interpret them. For a business owner, five views answer nearly every question worth asking.

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Look at five things: how many enquiries and calls the site produced, which pages produced them, where those visitors came from, which pages people arrive on, and how the last few months compare with the same period last year. Everything else is detail that rarely changes a decision.

One: what the site produced

Start with outcomes rather than visits. How many form submissions and how many taps on the phone number, this month and last. If those are not being recorded, that is the first job, because everything else is guesswork until it is done.

This single view answers the question that matters most, and it is the one most reports bury behind a chart of sessions.

Two: which pages produced them

The next view is which pages the visitor was on when they acted. This regularly surprises owners, because the page carrying the business is often not the homepage and not the one anybody has been polishing.

Once you know, the decision about where to spend attention becomes obvious. Deepen the pages that produce enquiries before touching the ones that merely receive visits.

Three: where those visitors came from

Sources tell you which of your efforts is bringing people who act, rather than merely people. A modest number of visitors from a source that produces enquiries is worth far more than a flood from one that never does.

Expect a large unattributed share, and treat it as a measurement gap rather than a result. That is what the question you ask customers is for.

Four: which pages people arrive on

Entrance pages tell you where your front door actually is, which is usually not where you think. Search sends people deep into the site, onto pages that may not have been reviewed for a long time.

Any page that is a common entrance deserves the same care as the homepage: a clear opening, evidence, and an obvious next step.

  • List your top entrance pages.
  • Open each one as a stranger would, on a phone.
  • Check it explains itself without the homepage's help.
  • Make sure each has a next step.

Five: the comparison that keeps you honest

Compare the last few months with the same months last year, not with last month. Nearly every business has a rhythm, and comparing August with July tells you about summer rather than about your website.

Where you have made changes, keep a dated note beside this comparison. It is the difference between a report that explains something and a report that merely describes it.

The numbers that mislead

A few figures reliably produce wrong conclusions in small businesses, and it is safer to ignore them than to interpret them badly.

  • Bounce rate: a satisfied visitor and a disappointed one look identical.
  • Average time on page: inflated by open tabs and abandoned devices.
  • Percentages built on small counts: three to five looks dramatic and means little.
  • Rankings for terms nobody searches with intent to buy.
  • Real-time views, which are entertaining and never actionable.

How Licheo reports

Our monthly report is a few lines of plain language covering enquiries, calls, the pages behind them, and what changed on the site, with every figure traceable to a real source.

Where a number is not available or too small to support a conclusion, we say so rather than presenting it anyway with a confident tone.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of Website ROI. The other parts:

Questions people ask

What should I actually look at in Google Analytics?
Five things: enquiries and calls produced, which pages produced them, where those visitors came from, which pages people arrive on, and a comparison with the same period last year. The rest rarely changes a decision.
Why is bounce rate not useful?
Because a visitor who found what they needed immediately and one who recoiled instantly look identical. Treat it as a prompt to go and look at the page rather than as a verdict.
Should I compare this month with last month?
Compare with the same month last year where seasons matter. Month-to-month comparisons mostly measure the calendar, which is why they produce so many confident and wrong conclusions.
What if my numbers are too small to read?
Stop reading percentages and switch to counts, then lean on watching real people use the site and on the questions your enquiries keep asking. At small volumes those tell you more than any report.
How often should I look at analytics?
Monthly for the record and quarterly for conclusions. Checking daily produces reactions to noise, and reacting to noise usually makes things worse rather than better.

Get a report you can actually use

A few lines of plain language each month, every figure traceable to a source, and an honest blank where a number is not available.

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