Website Analytics Made Simple

How Small Businesses, Personal Brands, and Content Creators Can Use Data to Grow

What is Website Analytics

...and Why It Matters

Running a small business website, building a personal brand, or growing a content site means wearing a lot of hats, and let’s be honest, web analytics tools usually isn’t the first one you reach for. 

That’s why this article breaks it down simply: what tools to set up, which key metrics to pay attention to, and how to actually use them.

Think of it like cooking, you wouldn’t serve a meal without tasting it first, right? Website analytics is that taste test. Without it, you’re guessing whether website visitors like what they see, if your messaging connects, or if your checkout process even makes sense. With it, you can spot where small changes can make a big difference over time — saving you money, time, and a ton  of frustration.

If you’ve already read the foundation strategy article on Marketing Analytics, you’ve seen the bigger picture of how data management and marketing efforts fits into your business. In this article, we’ll zoom in on website analytics specifically, with real-world examples you can use to move your business, brand, or content site forward.

Get More Out of Your Website with Analytics

Many small business owners shy away from analytics. It’s hard enough to get a website up and running, and the world of data analytics can feel overly technical. The thing is, website analytics are a powerful tool to figure out valuable insights on if your website is truly working the way you want it to. 

Here’s what website analytics helps you do:

• Make better business decisions - backed by data, not guesswork.

• Increase conversions - more sales, sign-ups, or bookings.

• Understand your target audience - who they are, what they want, how they behave.

• Improve the customer experience - make your site easier and more enjoyable to use.

• Save time and money by focusing on what’s actually working.

Let’s set you up for success so you are able to collect the data points you will need to enhance your website and make data-driven decisions. 

Getting Started: The Essential Tools

The good news is it is easier to get started than you think. The first step is just setting up your website analytics tools. These are the two must-have tools:

1. Google Analytics (free) – the gold standard for tracking website activity and customer behavior. This one is a bit more technical to understand, but you will want to set this up when your website goes live, or while reading this article.

2. Your website’s built-in analytics – most platforms (Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, WordPress) have a dashboard that displays key metrics. These are usually more user friendly, especially for the all-in-one platforms.

   
   

Pro Tip: Set these up as soon as your website goes live. Analytics can’t go back in time, you can only track historical data from the date your tracking begins. The earlier you start your data collection, the better. Even if you don’t have a lot of time for analytics right now, ensure that these data points will be there when you are ready to use them. 

There are countless website analytics tools available, but it’s best to start with the essentials. Once you’re comfortable with the basics, you can explore the best tools for more advanced tracking and deeper insights into your site’s performance.

What to Track: The Simple Website Analytics Checklist

The list below is your cheat sheet for getting started. These are the most important website metrics — because they give you the clearest picture of how well your website is working at every stage of the funnel. Instead of drowning in dozens of numbers, start here. Once you understand these basics, you’ll have a strong foundation for using website analytics to guide smarter marketing decisions and drive real growth.

Your website metrics don’t exist in isolation, they tie directly into your marketing funnel. As we covered in the Marketing Analytics article, using analytics helps you pinpoint exactly where things are breaking down, so you can fix the real problem instead of guessing. At the top of the funnel, the goal is to attract visitors. In the middle, it’s about engaging them. And at the bottom, it’s about converting them into customers or loyal fans.

1. Traffic – Top of Funnel (Visibility & Awareness)

• What it is: Customer acquisition. How many people visit your site and where they come from (Google, social media, ads, referrals).

• Why it matters: Helps you understand your website traffic sources, measure visibility, and identify which marketing campaigns bring in the most qualified visitors.

• What to track:

  • Users / New Users - How many people, or new people (unique visitors) are coming to your site.

  • Sessions - How many visits your site has

  • Pageviews - The number of pages that are getting viewed on your site. (Can be total or looked at on individual pages)

  • Traffic Sources - Where your visitors are finding you: organic search, paid ads, social media, referrals, or direct links.

2. User Behavior – Middle of Funnel (Engagement & Trust)

• What it is: What visitors do once they land on your site (pages viewed, time spent, bounce rate).

• Why it matters: Reveals behavior patterns that show whether your site engages users or drives them away. It will highlight where to make improvements to encourage visitors to stay longer on your website and move them toward your desired actions. 

• What to track:

  • Pages per Session - How many pages people are visiting when they are on your site. 

  • Average Session Duration - How long someone is spending on your site. 

  • Time on Page - How long a user is spending on a particular page

  • Bounce Rate - How many people are coming to your site, but are leaving right away before they even begin to explore it. Typically they are only going to one page, and not engaging with anything on your site (watch out for a high bounce rate). 

  • Engaged Sessions - In Google Analytics this is the number of sessions where people did take some action, on your site for a certain amount of time, clicked to other pages, watched content. 

  • Page views - Looking to see which pages have the highest visit rate compared to others. 

  • Top Landing Pages - What pages people are entering your site on. 

  • Exit Pages - What are the last pages people go to before they leave your site. 

  • Customer Journey / Flow reports - A deeper look into the path of pages users take as they go through your site.

3. Conversions – Bottom of Funnel (Conversions & Revenue)

• What it is: The actions you want people to take, such as purchases, filling in a form, sign-ups, etc.

• Why it matters: This is the metric that ties directly to your goals including revenue for eCommerce sites.

• What to track:

  • Conversion Rates - Percentage of visitors who complete an action.

  • Conversions/Goal Completions/Event Tracking - The number of conversions or goals that have been completed. You can set goals to be any desired action - filling in forms, downloads, sign-ups or purchases. 

  • Total Sales - For online store transaction sites 

  • Revenue per Visitor / Average Order Value - for eCommerce transaction sites, helps assess profitability of your marketing efforts.

4. Content Performance – Middle of Funnel (Engagement & Trust)

• What it is: Which blog posts, product pages, or videos get the most attention.

• Why it matters: Helps you double down on what works and improve or cut what doesn’t.

• What to track:

  • Top Pages/Pageviews - Your most visited pages 

  • Exit Pages - What are the last pages people go to before they leave your site. 

  • Video Views & Average Watch Time - How long people are viewing your content. 

  • Event Tracking - The number of desired actions your visitors are completing. You will set these yourself, and they can include anything such as button clicks, downloads, or content interactions.

  • Scroll Depth - How far down on a page do people view through (you may have to add another tool or app to your website to see this metric, beyond inclusive analytics platforms, such as Crazy Egg)

5. Devices & Demographics – All Funnel Stages

• What it is: How people view your site (desktop vs. mobile) and who they are (location, age, interests).

• Why it matters: Helps you better tailor your site to your audience. For example, if most of your audience is mobile, your site needs to be mobile-first.

• What to track:

  • Device Breakdown - What devices are people using to view your site, desktop, mobile or table.

  • Browser & Operating System - What platforms are users on, including iOS, Android, etc.

  • Geographic Location - Where are people when they view your site

  • Age / Gender

  • Interests - Aids you in getting to know your customers better (when available in tools like Google Analytics)

Gain valuable information about who visits your site and from where.

6. SEO & Website Health – Top of Funnel (Visibility & Awareness)

• What it is: How well your site ranks on Google, how fast it loads, and if it’s optimized.

• Why it matters: Better SEO = more free traffic and a smoother user experience.

• What to track:

  • Organic Search Traffic - In Traffic Sources, are users finding you through organic search. 

  • Keyword Rankings - Where does your site rank for the top search keywords or phrase you have identified for your site.

  • Click-Through Rate (CTR) - From your search results, how many people are actually clicking on your site. 

  • Bounce Rate - How many people are coming to your site, but are leaving right away before they even begin to explore it.

  • Page Speed / Core Web Vitals - Ensuring your page is loading and running fast enough to support excellent user experience. This is a best practice for Search Engine Optimization. 

  • Backlinks – The number and quality of other websites linking to your site, helping drive traffic and boost your credibility with search engines.

How to Use Analytics to Improve Your Website

Now let’s get to the good stuff. Analytics isn’t just about collecting numbers — it’s about using them to make meaningful changes. Each of these data points will tell a story over time.

That’s why I’ve created a follow-up article: How to Use Analytics to Improve Your Website. In it, we’ll walk through real-world examples of what to do when you see common patterns like:

• Low traffic

• High bounce rates

• Weak conversions

• Underperforming content

• Mobile vs. desktop performance issues

You’ll learn how to troubleshoot each one and make small, practical changes that can lead to big improvements over time.

Check out the full article here: How to Use Analytics to Improve Your Website

Measuring Success (Without the Overwhelm)

The aim is to start out small with the right metrics and then add more over time. This is true whether you are just starting out or refining how you measure your website’s performance. Let’s go through the steps that are going to get you started on setting your own website analytics system. 

Step 1: Set up your analytics platforms. 

This is the first thing you need to do, even if you are not ready to dive into your actual analytics. Unfortunately analytics tools cannot backtrack, so you will only be able to see the data that they have tracked since they were set up. So do yourself a very big favor and start collecting your valuable data today. 

Step 2: Pick Metrics

If you are new to marketing analytics start with 2-3 different metrics (traffic and conversions are an excelent choice). If you have more experience then choose the ones that answer the questions you currently have about your business. There is no need to track all of them, many of the metrics offered in your tools will not be applicable for your site. These serve many different types of sites, spend your time on the ones that will help you actually move the needle on your business or brand. 

Step 3: Set up your timing

Make a plan on when you will track your data points. If you are just starting out I recommend every two weeks. You will want to gain enough real-time data points over a time frame in order to make educated decisions. 

Step 4: Establish your benchmarks and evaluate the results over time

Start by recording the current value of each data point—this gives you your benchmark. Then, track the same data at the timeframes you set in Step 3. Compare the numbers and watch how they shift over time. Don’t just rely on a single number; look for consistency, trends, or patterns that reveal what’s really working (and what’s not). I recommend looking at how things change over at least two months before determining if there is a pattern or not. 

Step 5: Change One Thing at a Time

When you spot an area to improve, it’s tempting to make big overhauling changes (we’ve all been there). But resist the urge—too much all at once makes it impossible to know what actually worked. So do yourself a favor - make a small change - test, tweak and repeat. This way, you’ll clearly see what’s moving the needle and avoid wasted effort and money.

Try it now: Go through steps 1-3 and then create your benchmarks from step 4. If you have already set up your analytics at least a few months ago then you can complete step 4 and have data points to start looking at patterns. Once step 4 is completed, choose one item to tweak, test and then analyze its results. 

Next Steps 

Your website analytics is something that will build and change overtime to fit your business’ needs. You do not need to know everything all at once, go slow. Overtime you will see how your analytics will tell you the story of what is working and what is not working on your website. 

Make small improvements, test and analyze them and you’ll be on your way to a smarter, more successful website.

Ready to put your analytics to work? Let’s start using your analytics to make real changes. Dive into this next article: How to Use Analytics to Improve Your Website