This afternoon I had the opportunity of presenting to The Mid-Atlantic InnKeeper Trade Show & Conference about how to use Google Analytics to gain major website insight and be able to make improvements based on the data. But during our Q&A a common theme emerged: Keeping up with Google Analytics is HARD! The number of updates to Google Analytics over the past year has made it next to impossible for small business owners to keep up with Google Analytics AND run their business.
I feel their pain. Even as a marketing consultant focused on Google Analytics, it can be tough to keep up with the rapid-fire changes. Google’s own product team confirmed more than 70 updates in the past year alone. 70! While I LOVE the recent improvements Google has made, it does make it pretty tough for someone not in the trenches on a daily basis to keep up.
Custom Analytics Dashboards To The Rescue
I talked with an InnKeeper at the conference to find out what was important to measure and gained access to their GA Profile so I could create a few dashboards to share. And while these dashboards are intended for the Bed & Breakfast industry they might be helpful to your business as well. Or at the very least provide a template you can work from to customize to your business. While this is far from a solution for the B&B crowd, it at least provides some quick and easy insight.
Here are links to the two Google Analytics dashboards I created today. Just click on the links below after logging into your Google Analytics account and these dashboards will populate into your Google Analytics profile.
B&B Overview Dashboard
B&B Content Dashboard
I hope you find these dashboards helpful. It’s difficult to customize these for all the bed and breakfast’s out there that need help, but I think this is a good start to understanding your website data and gaining some true insight to improve your business.
