I just reviewed yesterday’s Google Analytics for Gibson’s website. We got seven hits: two from Montana, one from Florida, one from Georgia, and one each from England, India and Australia. Crikey!

I also learned that three of those hits were from search engines, two were “direct” and two were referred from other sites.

So… what does any of this info have to do with the price of tea in China? Did this generate any business?

Good questions! While the seven hits don’t appear to have generated any business, I did get something useful out of the info: I found out that one of the referrals came from a B2B website called openfos.com. I went there and was shocked–shocked!–to learn that our company’s info was out-of-date. Oh, the humanity!

I took a couple minutes and got us up-to-date. I also updated our keywords. The next person who finds us via openfos.com will have correct and fresh information.

Do you use Google Analytics, or some other kind of analytic tool? If not, I strongly recommend it. Your website’s front end is great info for your customers–but the back-end analytics numbers are great info for you! They may not provide you with shocking news on a daily basis, but over time they will reveal who is visiting your site, how they are getting there and what they are viewing once there. VALUABLE.