Every website needs to have an analytics package installed.  It is an SEO requirement of all the search engines and the data gives you information to improve your content and maximize the growth of your website.

What is Analytics

The gold standard is Google Analytics.  While it is free, you must start a Google account.  The easiest way is to simply start a GMail account.

With the same login information, you then create an analytics account.  Google gives some code to insert within your website to allow tracking to begin.

If you are lost at this point, you should best talk to your IT person or web developer for help.  Don’t worry, you only have to do this once.

Analytics tracks data on all kinds of topics;

• Website traffic – # of visitors
• Specific browser used
• Devices used (i.e. laptop, smart phone, desktop)
• Internet company
• IP address
• Geographic location of visitor
• Time spent on website
• Popular topics
• Etc.

Analytics Improves SEO

Having an analytics package installed on your website improves your overall SEO.  An analytics package is expected by the search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo all expect you to have an analytics code contained on your site).  Those having one rank better than those lacking a package.

Value to Your Practice

To keep your website fresh and interesting, you’ll want to publish articles that are interesting to your readers.

For instance, when I first started my clinical website, www.retinaeyedoctor.com, I assumed that writing about the 3 most popular retinal diseases would automatically attract lots of readers.

Analytics showed I was wrong.  For instance, analytics showed me that when I wrote articles on retinal detachments, my traffic soared.

Analytics data will keep your website topics fresh, interesting and relevant to your readers needs.

Just as important, with analytics, you can determine which browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome) is the most favorite of your readers.  You can also figure out which type of device is used most often to visit your site.

If most of your readers are using Chrome on a smart phone, you will want to ensure that your website is mobile responsive and performs, as you expect, on the Chrome browser.

Not every website looks and behaves the same across all the browsers.

The more traffic you build, the better your practice can grow.