New Article on Using Google Analytics (GA) to Create a Positive User Experience

Do you want to measurably create a great user experience, but find GA intimidating? It doesn’t have to be.
SIA Team
August 20, 2021

If you’ve been paying attention to the staff at Google Search Central, you know that one of Google’s bigger aims is to encourage (and reward) webmasters for creating positive visitor experiences. 

Yesterday, on the Google Analytics Twitter channel, there was a tweet with a link to an article. 

The article, titled, How to Use Google Analytics to Create a Positive User Experience, touches on exactly that. It’s a good, introductory, and relatively short read on this topic. 

Below, I’ll relay some of my thoughts on UX (user experience).

Create a Good UX Because It’s the Right Thing to do

Aside from any rewards (though there can be positive benefits), taking a small step to ensure that others have a good, or better, experience just makes you feel good. 

UX Metrics Can Carry Over To SEO

Google often has search engine algorithm updates, and the two more recent, talked-about ones are the Core Web Vitals and Page Experience updates. 

Page Experience: that’s a fitting name. That’s because this update aims to quantify and measure UX, and the better the measured UX, then all things being equal, in the search results, Google will favour the page with the better UX. 

Bounce Rate Is a Tricky One, But Should Be Considered

Bounce rate has to do with the percentage or number of visitors that only visit one page. 

It’s often seen as a bad thing to have a high bounce rate, and I can see why that would be the case, but it’s not always so.

What if you have a web page that’s supposed to offer the definitive, final answer on something, and was so complete in it’s value that a visitor wouldn’t have to go to any other page? 

My concern here is that if Google sees such a page with a high bounce rate (although it’s a great, definitive page), it could make it seem that that page is not doing as well as others (even though it may be doing great).

Anyway, I’ll leave it to you to work with that. You can always link to other pages for your visitor to explore. 

Behavior Flow Is a Great Idea!

In previous news items, I’ve written about the buyer’s journey, which is basically a sequenced explanation of a person’s growing awareness of a problem that progresses until they’re a happy, word-of-mouth customer of yours. 

Well, Google Analytics has something that (sort of) mirrors that concept: the Behavior Flow report

Granted, the Behavior Flow report only covers the steps taken on your site (because that’s what GA measures), whereas the buyer’s journey is a bit broader in the sense that it encompasses the offline portions of the journey, as well. 

I hope I’ve given you a few glimpses of things you can do to create a positive user experience. 

Source: Google Analytics Twitter channel