Analysing and Presenting Referring Site Stats in Google Analytics

Continuing our collaboration with Branch Out Internet Marketing on extracting, compiling and understanding website statistics, this month we look at which Referring sites are bringing you the most traffic and the most business. It is not always whom you expect. This series of newsletter spreadsheet tips comes with a free download, the Google Analytics Spreadsheet Tool. Remember to scan it just in case.

Clients often ask about paying for listings on other websites. There are many things to consider before you enter into this type of agreement. It would take too long to cover them all now but please contact Working Data or Kate if you would like guidance. If you do decide to go ahead and pay for placement on another site, it is really important that you monitor the results. If the links are not bringing enough traffic, or the visitors are not staying for long on your site, it is time to go back to the site owner and discuss your position. Even if you are not paying for your referrals, it is useful to know which sites are bringing you the most traffic and which visitors like your site enough to visit lots of pages. You can then try to boost your site activity by looking for similar sites where you could also get links. So that’s why monitoring your referrals matters; now here’s how you do it…

Preparing Website Statistics from Google Analytics for presentation.

Step 1: Extract the data from Google Analytics.

Log in to your Google Analytics account and bring up the dashboard. See Spreadsheet Data 1.

Spreadsheet Data 1

Click on Traffic Sources, then Referring Sites, as in Spreadsheet Data 2.

Spreadsheet Data 2

Now we set the date range. We will look at data concerning Referrer Sites on a quarterly basis. In this example, we will use the 1st of July to the 30th of September, 2007. See Spreadsheet Data 3.

Spreadsheet Data 3

Below the timeline, we now click on the tab named Goal Conversion, as in Spreadsheet Data 4.

Spreadsheet Data 4

We want to sort the results by Goal Conversion Rate. Click on Goal Conversion Rate, so that the arrow is pointing downwards, as in Spreadsheet Data 5. This means that the results are sorted in descending order and we will have the highest results at the top.

Spreadsheet Data 5

At the bottom of the screen, click on the pull-down menu for 'Show Rows', and select 25, as in Spreadsheet Data 5b.

Spreadsheet Data 5b

We are now ready to export the data. Below the title of the graph, click on "Export". This will open a small sub-menu, select "CSV". See Spreadsheet Data 6.

Spreadsheet Data 6

A dialogue box will open asking if you want to open or download. Open in Excel. See Spreadsheet Data 7.

Spreadsheet Data 7

The downloaded data will open in a spreadsheet, as in Spreadsheet Data 8.

Spreadsheet Data 8

Scroll down the screen, beyond the single column of data, until you get to the table of data, see Spreadsheet Data 9. This is the data we will copy and paste into our Google Analytics Spreadsheet Tool.

Spreadsheet Data 9

Copy the data from the first two rows, named 'Source' and 'Visits', as in Spreadsheet Data 10.

Spreadsheet Data 10

Now we turn to the Spreadsheet Tool. In the tab named 'referrer_data', go to the 1st Quarter and paste the data into the first two columns, also named 'Source' and 'Visits' as in Spreadsheet Data 11.

Spreadsheet Data 11

Go back to the spreadsheet with the Google Analytics data and copy the data for two of your goals. In this example, we have selected 'Goal 2' and 'Goal 3', as in Spreadsheet Data 12.

Spreadsheet Data 12

Paste these into the columns marked 'goal 1' and 'goal 2' in the Spreadsheet Tool. The titles 'goal 1' and 'goal 2' can be changed in the Spreadsheet Tool to their proper names. We are using the names 'goal 1' and 'goal 2' here as an example.

Spreadsheet Data 13

Go back to the Google Analytics spreadsheet and copy the data from the column named 'Goal Conversion Rate', as in Spreadsheet Data 14.

Spreadsheet Data 14

Paste this into the column with the same name in the Spreadsheet Tool, as in Spreadsheet Data 15.

Spreadsheet Data 15

In the final step, go back to the Google Analytics spreadsheet and copy the data from the four columns named 'Pages/Visit', 'Avg. Time on Site', '% New Visits' and 'Bounce Rate', as in Spreadsheet Data 16.

Spreadsheet Data 16.

Paste this into the remaining four columns, of the same name, in the Spreadsheet Tool, as in Spreadsheet Data 17.

Spreadsheet Data 17

That completes all the work required for the 1st Quarter results. Repeat the above steps for the remaining three quarters, pasting the data into the relevant section in the 'referrer_data' worksheet. All your data has been automatically converted into graph form.

Step 2: Interpreting the graphs.

Kate Barlow, of Branch Out will now take you through the Quarterly graphs and explain their signifance to your website, and ultimately your business.

Visits by Referrer - (ref_q1_visits for 1st Quarter), Spreadsheet Data 18.

We often get excited about seeing lots of visitors from our referring sites but, on its own, this is not a very meaningful. The important thing is to find out whether or not these are the right visitors. Are they ones who will become your profitable customers? For those people who track goals and conversions on their sites, contact Working Data or Branch Out and we will be happy to advise you on the best way to analyse this information.

If you do not use goals on your website, typically because you offer a service and do not have online sales, we suggest that the number of pages visited and the time people spend on your site give a very good measure of their interest in your site. Your ideal referrer is one who sends lots of traffic and all the visitors spend a long time looking at lots of pages on your site.

Spreadsheet Data 18

Average Time on Site by Referrer - (ref_q1_avg_time for 1st Quarter), Spreadsheet Data 19.

Spreadsheet Data 19

In reality, sometimes people do not look at lots of pages even if they spend a lot of time on your site. If this is what you notice on your site, you should probably investigate which pages they are visiting and consider what type of content you offer your visitors on those pages. If your most popular pages are content-rich and long, you might find that people only look at a couple of pages but the information grabs their attention and they spend a considerable amount of time examining it. If this is the case, it is a good indication that they like what they are seeing. What you need to do is make sure that these pages contain a clear "call to action" to encourage people to print the page, email to a friend or contact you for more information.

% New Visits by Referrer - (ref_q1_new_visits for 1st Quarter), Spreadsheet Data 20.

The number of visits by referrer is worth examining as it may help you to identify undesirable inbound links. For example, if you find you get visitors from a site which is unknown to you, it makes sense to have a look at it and ensure that it is a site which supports your brand and is aimed at your target market. If you don’t like the site, contact the site owner and ask him/her to remove the link. It is your right to have the link taken down so don’t be put off by someone who says that it can’t be done.

Spreadsheet Data 20

Bounce Rate by Referrer - (ref_q1_bounce for 1st Quarter), Spreadsheet Data 21.

When a visitor comes to your site and then leaves without visiting any other pages, it suggests that your content did not ‘grab’ their attention. If your bounce rate is above 25%, it is worth reviewing a couple of things. The first question to ask is: ‘Is it likely that the referring site is sending me the right sort of traffic?’ (the right sort of traffic usually being your potential customers). If you are confident that the answer is yes, ask yourself ‘Does the page they first see when they get to the site appeal to them?’ Be honest with yourself and be critical too. If the content is right, do you have enough calls to action? If the content does not appeal to them, you either need to update the content on that page or consider whether a different page on the site would be more interesting to the visitors sent by that referrer. If your bounce rates are reasonably good for your other referring sites, it suggests that either the referrer is sending the wrong people or you need to send the traffic to a different page on the site – or even create a new page for that particular audience.

Spreadsheet Data 21

There are many things to consider when you review how effective your referring sites are and we have only covered the broadest and most common issues in this newsletter. We hope this will give you a good starting point for identifying your top referrer and for making any changes that you need to make your referrals more valuable to your business. For further information or a more detailed analysis, please contact Kate or Franc.

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