Can Google Analytics Help optimizing websites for mobile phones?
Just to clarify this piece is not about apps. It is about your website on mobile phones and in this article we will discuss:
– Is your current website working on mobile phones. How does the hits and bounces look?
– Choose how to act to problems- may be you need an app or a more responsive website?
– Compare with performance on PC
You can analyse and learn all this in Google Analytics – a free tool made available by Google that we and our clients extensively use and find it very useful.
Why Mobile?
Ø Mobile data traffic has grown 4,000-fold over the past 10 years and almost 400-million-fold over the past 15 years.
Ø More than half a billion (563 million) mobile devices and connections were added in 2015.
Ø Average smartphone usage grew 43 percent in 2015.
Ø Global mobile data traffic grew 74 percent in 2015.
Bottom line : People going mobile and business should tap the market. Question is how? If you are already there with mobile websites and app- know HOW good they are. Let Google Analytics Help.
On Google Analytics
When you are on your Google Analytics reporting screen the number you see are not from mobile visitors – they are from every where – all devices a users can use to visit your website namely PC, Tablets, Mobile phones etc etc.
You need to see just mobile traffic and here’s what you should do.
1. Find this section on top of your screen and click ‘Add Segment’
2. Next you will reach. Here, check the box beside ‘mobile traffic’ and uncheck ‘All Traffic’. This means you will see only mobile traffic and not all traffic. Well you may also see all traffic but I’d suggest we start with this..
3. Then click on Apply and you are done.
This piece of act will show numbers on your Google Analytics reports representing visitors using their mobile phone to view your website.
Mobile Traffic
To view and analyse traffic to your mobile website find the report on the left hand panel of Google Analytics Reporting . Find Acquisition and overview below it. Click on overview and you will find a report that looks like this. Use this to understand:
A. Source of traffic and breakup by sources
C. Number of visitors each day of last month
D. Bounce rate from each source
Mobile Devices Used
Know your traffic to various types of mobile devices . Each device is different – screen size, resolution play a major part in user experience. Is your website doing a good job in all these devices? Is these any one that you need to check how your website looks on it. To view the report on the left hand panel find Audience near the top and then Mobile. Click on it to explain and then click on Devices. Here you can understand:
A. Sessions by Device type B . New user per device type
C. Bounce rate(users leaving from page1) D.The most important devices for traffic
Check the Speed and User experience rating
Speed of your website on mobile phones is highlight important . People on mobile phone have been found to be far less patient than on PC and so there is a 50% chance of visitors moving on if your web page does not load within 10 seconds. So this is pretty important. To view the report find Behavior, choose Site Speed , expand it and click on Speed Suggestions. Here you will know
A. Number of Page views for each page B. Average Load Time (Time take for page load)
C. What you could do to improve speed D. Score that tells to what extent it can improve
Also try viewing your website on https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/. Feed in your website, let it analyse and then view the tab called Mobile
Compare with PCA comparison with PC traffic is interesting because it brings out where you stand as mobile website in comparison with others. For this go back to this screen , then check ‘All Traffic’, check Mobile and Tablet and un-check Mobile. As of this date there is no separate segment called PC traffic , but this should bring out the different very visually. Now go back to all the reports discussed so far and view the difference.
