My latest analytics project came in the form of looking at the behavior of website traffic after users read blogging content. One feature of Google Analytics allows for the creation of goals.
With goals, we can do some cool things and that was the basis of this project.
For example, we can tell Google Analytics to track the percentage of users who are reading a blog and then go to the Contact Us page. That creates a goal. We can have it track the blogging traffic that goes to the Job Board. That creates another goal. You are allowed to create up to 20 goals.
The information that we get back from Google Analytics comes in the form of percentage.
Enough Background, What Did You Find?
In looking at 10 websites comprised of a variety of areas, industries and amount of monthly website traffic, we gathered data for nearly one million sessions (944,831 sessions to be exact). We wanted to look at how website traffic converted in number of different categories:
- New Website Traffic vs. Returning Website Traffic
- Organic, Referral, Direct and Social Traffic
- Desktop vs. Mobile/Tablet
The findings will come in a series of three blog posts, featuring really great infographics coming from our Creative department!
Let’s start with the analytics on the behavior of new website traffic compared to returning website traffic:
This one is pretty easy to see. Returning website traffic went from the blog page to one of the pages being tracked (Job Board, Contact Us, etc.) nearly twice as much. (It also confirms an earlier analytics study we did this year about the importance of returning traffic).
What does that mean?
It means staffing companies need to focus on ways to get users to come back to their website. If I were to tell you that I could give you Person A who would go from your blog to the Job Board 3 percent of the time or I could give you Person B who would go from your blog to the Job Board 6 percent of the time, I think the choice is easy.
The Takeaway: Don’t neglect returning website traffic! How do you get them back? E-mail newsletter, online advertising, quality job postings and a social media presence each help.
The Haley Marketing Group can help with any of those marketing strategies and matching them with the goals of your staffing or recruiting company.