The Clinic Marketing Podcast - Local SEO & Healthcare Online Marketing Tips for Clinic Owners & Wellness Providers

Google Analytics Giving You a Headache? Try This Easier Website Traffic Tracker | Ep. 142

• Darcy Sullivan

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If Google Analytics (GA4) leaves you feeling confused, but you still want to know which marketing efforts are actually working, this episode is for you. I am walking you through a simple “analytics stack” for clinics where GA4 stays in place behind the scenes, and Clicky becomes your clear, real-time dashboard for quick decisions that lead to more booked appointments.

You will hear what Clicky is, how it pairs with GA4, and which six numbers to check each week so your team can spot trends, fix issues fast, and keep your website and marketing moving in the right direction. I also explain how to set Clicky up in just a few minutes and how to turn the data into practical next steps, even if you are not a numbers person.

Webpage, blog post, & shownotes: https://propelyourcompany.com/simple-website-traffic-tracker/

>> Get Started with Clicky - https://clicky.com/66422350 

We are affiliates for Clicky because we genuinely use and recommend it for clinics. There is a free plan you can start with, and on the episode blog and show notes page, you will find screenshots, step-by-step setup visuals, and more.

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SPEAKER_00:

Today's episode is inspired by a lot of feedback that I've gotten recently from people who feel overwhelmed when they look at Google Analytics. And maybe you can relate. You open up Google Analytics and you're like, ooh, I don't know exactly what I'm looking at. Or you feel like you're drinking water from a fire hose. Well, if that is you, today's episode is for you. Because the first step when it comes to improving your appearance online is getting found online. But knowing what's working is the win. So if Google Analytics makes you feel lost, today I have a simple fix. I want you to keep your Google Analytics in place and add Clicky as your easy real-time dashboard so you can see what's happening and act fast. Now, before we dive in, I think it's important to note that we are an affiliate of Clicky. And this is because we genuinely use it and recommend it to people that we work with. If you choose to use our link, we may earn commission. Clicky has both a free plan and a paid plan. So I suggest that you start with the free plan and upgrade only if you need more. Now, you will find the show notes and the web page slash blog post associated with this episode. If you go to that link, you will see tons of screenshots so that you can get an idea and a feel for what the clicky dashboard looks like. And you can follow along visually. Welcome to the Clinic Marketing Podcast. Rankings matter, but decisions move the needle. In this episode, you'll learn why I recommend a simple analytics stack. Keep Google Analytics as a system for you to record everything that's going on your website, but also layer in Clicky. For a clean, easy to understand real-time view, your team will actually check. In today's episode, I'll show you exactly which numbers to monitor, how to set up Clicky in minutes, and what to do when those numbers change. Again, in the show notes, we'll include tons of screenshots and more to get you started. Listen, I love Google Analytics. But the thing with Google Analytics is it is so powerful. The interface, the terminology, and the report structure can be overwhelming for some people. If you hop in for a quick answer, you end up clicking around sometimes without finding the clarity that you need. And if that sounds familiar to you, you're not broken. It's just a complex tool. Now we are not suggesting that you get rid of Google Analytics by any means. What we are suggesting is you layer on an additional resource that will help you when it comes to looking and seeing what's happening now, and is easy enough to use so that you don't feel like you need a training in how to use an analytics system. It's a simple dashboard that when you log in, you know exactly what's going on. Clicky is a lightweight analytics tool with real-time data and a clean interface. In one glance, you can see today's and the last seven days history of your visitors, your top traffic sources. One thing that I love about this is you can see directly are they coming from Google? Are they coming from emails? Are they coming from AI sources? Are they coming from Instagram or Facebook? This is a little different than Google Analytics, where you have to click through a number of things and then it says they're coming from social media. And then from there, you have to include parameters to determine are they coming from Instagram or are they coming from Facebook? This just tells you when you look at the main page. You also get device mix, you get locations, and you can set up goals or actions. Now, if you're running a website and you're a clinic and you have your booking system in place where they click book now on your website, and technically they leave your website to go book that appointment because you're using a system and that's just the way it's set up. You can also view that information through links. You'll be able to see, okay, they clicked on that link to leave your website to book the appointment. So it really makes tracking easier. And if you want to visualize as we're talking through this, please be sure to open up the episode's blog and show notes page where I've included tons of screenshots to walk you through what it looks like when you set up Clicky. And to be very clear, there's a free version. So you can get started with this free version and see if you feel like it helps you or your team members just by looking at by looking at a simple, simple dashboard. So here are some numbers that I suggest that you look at and monitor. These would be your visitors. Are you trending up or down or flat? Spikes happen often when they're tied to review burst or you're doing a marketing push. You want to look at your top sources. Usually these are Google, right? But if you start to see a dip week over week, whether it's related to your leads that are coming in from Google or one of your social media sources that you rely on heavily, you'll want to look at that and make some determination about how to push up a spike if you feel like things are going down. You also want to look at your top pages. Which pages are the most viewed? And you want to ensure that those pages have clear calls to action. It's also nice to take a look at devices to see what percentage of people are visiting you from mobile versus desktop. And also location highlights. Are visitors mostly in your service area? If not, it might be time to send some more local signals. And we have a lot of episodes geared towards local SEO. We'll also link a couple of those in the show notes. But be sure to take a look at that as well, along with your goals and your actions, the clicks. What are people doing? Are they booking an appointment when visiting your website? We want to keep our benchmarks practical. So during an active promotion, you might see a lift, maybe a 5 to 10% lift in your weekly website traffic. But we also want to see like what content is really driving website traffic. And you'll be able to see this at a quick glance by looking at Clicky. The setup is easy. You can just create a Clicky account, install the tracking code, and this comes very easy as a plug-in if you're using WordPress for other builders. There are other ways that you can easily set up Clicky. And again, you can visit the website by finding out details for all of those. And really share the access. So if you have a front desk or an office manager, have them log in weekly and see what's going on with your website traffic. Simply pick a plan. Again, you can start with the free, or if you want more information, or if you feel like you like it after using the free plan for a couple weeks, you can move up to one of the paid plan options. I do recommend the PayPlans. They are amazing personally as a business. We use the PayPlan. I know a ton of other companies that use it too and really find it just easy to use. I wanted to introduce you to this tool because I've had a lot of people ask about Google Analytics, what they should be looking at, what their numbers should look like. My biggest takeaway for this episode for you is to visit the episode show notes and simply just give it a try. Try clicky for a week or two, look at the numbers, and I feel like you are going to appreciate it. It's definitely come in handy for a lot of people that we work with that feel overwhelmed by Google Analytics. And again, you can look at the screenshots on the show notes and set it up, give it a couple weeks, let me know what you think. And if you found this episode helpful and you want more information about specific tools, you know, we don't really dive into specific tools too much on these episodes, but if you feel like this is a value and you're interested in more content like this, please let me know. And again, visit the show notes and download clicky, give it a try for a couple weeks and let me know what you think.

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Darcy Sullivan

Host