5 tools to help you monitor your web presence and increase traffic

Whether you work for a nonprofit, or a growing, local business, you need tools to measure your impact and increase awareness of your mission. Here are 5 free resources that will help you grow your business.

Your business is running smoothly, but you're not content to just coast along. You want to constantly improve and find new, better ways to engage your audience and find new customers.

Whether you want to measure your existing website efforts, run A/B tests to compare different versions of a page, or get a first hand look at how people are interacting with your website, there are FREE tools and resources available to businesses, churches and nonprofits like yours to help you grow your web presence and measure results. All it takes is a little bit of time to set them up, and you'll be well on your way leveraging technology to reach more people.

1. Google Analytics

Peter Drucker, a well-known management expert once said that "What gets measured, gets managed." To know if your organization is being successful at its goals, you must measure the results.

Google Analytics is an industry leading tool to help you gather information on how people are using your website and gives you actionable reports and insights to help you as you grow. Use the information to discover which pages are the most popular, see where your visitors are dropping off, find out which channels are the most effective at driving visitors to your website, and a whole lot more!

Signing up is free, and implementation is as simple as adding a script to your website. If you use a popular platform like Wordpress, Squarespace, and others, there are plenty of plugins and tutorials to help you integrate with Google Analytics like a pro. There is also a corresponding mobile app to help you view information and recommendations on the go.

2. Google Webmaster Tools

Your website is one of the primary ways people will interact with your organization before ever deciding to get involved or donate. Knowing how those people are getting your site and understand key items to improve your website performance is crucial if you want to make it better.

With Google Webmaster Tools, you can track your site's search performance with Google Search Console and gain access to webmaster resources like site usability issues, sitemap statistics, and more.

Integrating is simple and only requires a script to be placed on your site. If you already integrate with Google Analytics, you'll be able to simply connect your account to gain access to value data like search terms people use to find your site, and how that information changes over time.

Get Started with Google Webmaster Tools to understand your search traffic and gain access to resources that help you build a high quality website.

3. Hotjar

Hotjar is an analytics platform that provides visual insight into how people are interacting with your website. Record heat maps, actual video of user interactions, conversion funnels, and more to help you better understand your users' intent.

Additionally, you can leverage Hotjar as a tool to capture website feedback, run polls, or send out surveys. Implementation only requires a few minutes, and you'll be able to use their free version to capture up to 3 unique heat maps.

From there, analyze which sections your users are interacting with the most, see how far they're scrolling down the page, and take action to convert more of your users to fans of your mission.

Learn more and see a complete list of features at hotjar.com.

4. Google Optimize

You've got so. many. ideas. But how do you know which ones are the best? How do you know which ones will resonate with your users, and lead to better engagement with your nonprofit? Enter Google Optimize.

Google Optimize is a free tool that empowers you to easily run tests on your website’s content to learn what works best for your visitors, including A/B, multivariate, and redirect tests. Additionally, it allows you to create tailored experiences to reach the right audience.

With their robust visual editor and Experiment tracking, you'll be running A/B and Multivariate tests like a pro, giving you rich insights into which ideas and content resonate most with your users. With tight integration with Google Analytics, you'll be able to start experimenting in no time.

How does it work?

Let's say you have an idea for a tagline for the home page of your business: "The best hair salon in Raleigh" But, you've been exploring the idea of changing it up to something like "At our salon, we don't just style hair—we help you become your best self."

Google Optimize allows you to make a new version of your home page, and edit content directly on the page, then it will create an experiment that shows the new version to 50% of your visitors, and the old version to the remaining 50% of users. From there, you set a goal of what determines success: increased time on the page, increased average sessions, a lower bounce rate, or something else entirely. You let the experiment run for at least two weeks, then Google Optimize will automatically track the results and calculate the winner based on the criteria you set.

Once you determine a winner, you can leverage data to decide which tagline is the best! From there, you can increase the complexity of your experiments, and allow data to have a seat at the table as you improve your website.

Learn more about Google Optimize and get started today.

5. Google Data Studio

Google Data Studio is a robust data visualization app that allows you to unlock the power of your data with interactive dashboards and engaging reports that inspire smarter business decisions. It’s both easy and free!

Connect data sources like Google Analytics, custom Google Spreadsheets, and even your own databases to unlock the power of visualized reporting. Spot trends faster and make complex data easy to understand by executives and employees to guide planning and foster action.

Let your data have a seat at the table:

• Unite your data in one place. Easily connect your data from spreadsheets, Analytics, Google Ads, Google BigQuery and more.

• Explore the data. Transform your raw data into the metrics and dimensions needed to create easy-to-understand reports and dashboards — no code or queries required.

• Tell impactful stories. Create and share engaging reports and visualizations that tell the story for you.

• Empower your teams. Arm people with the knowledge of your marketing data so they can focus more on what matters.

If you've already signed up for any of the Google products previously listed, you'll be able to quickly access Google Data Studio using your existing account. With tools like this available, you'll be empowered with data to make better decisions and guide your business or nonprofit strategy into the future.

I hope this list made you aware of some of the amazing free tools & resources available to businesses and nonprofits to help your company succeed online.

If you need help or guidance in implementing these tools or simply want advice relating to web strategy, process, or technology, let me know! I'm available for consulting to help you reach more people and grow your business.