If you're still reading, you are about to discover a powerful way to increase sales by "mining" your web site statistics for leads with Google Analytics.

As a web marketing professional, I'm often asked, "how can I tell who is looking at my web page?" The simple answer is - you can't. Of course, you can if they call or email you, make an online purchase or fill out a contact or registration form. But it always requires the visitor to tell you that they've been on your site.

Google Analytics changes the equation! If your customers are businesses large enough to own or lease their own networks and your product is expensive enough to warrant a little research and a cold call or two, Google Analytics will tell you plenty about your visitors - in some cases enough to enable you to contact them before they contact your competition!

How does it work? Simple. Sign up for a free Google Analytics account at http://analytics.google.com and put the Google tracking code on every page of your web site. The tracking code sends data about your visitors to Google. Google compiles the data into very useful reports and let's you view the reports for free (in exchange for your data, of course). What does Google get out of it? They know more about your visitors, which helps them sell advertising. What do you get out of it? With the right report, leads!

Which report? The one that shows you the name of the network your visitors are using to surf the web (called Service Provider). Most of the time, you'll see something useless like 'Road Runner', 'Time Warner Cable' or 'PPOX Pool' followed by unintelligible numbers. But sometimes - and this is important - you'll see the company name of a potential customer. Why? Because an IT guy at that company decided to name their network after the company.

Say you manufacture widgets and, while scanning your Google Analytics report, you see:

Service Provider: "WIDGET WORLD"

By itself, even a network named for a company tells you very little. Where are they located? Did they hit your site by accident? What if they have multiple locations? Who should you call and what will you say?

Here's the cool part. With a simple pull-down list next to the network name, you can bring up the keyword that they used to find you.

Keyword: "WIDGET MANUFACTURERS IN CALIFORNIA"

And the city where the network is located:

City: "SAN DIEGO"

Do you think Widget World in San Diego may be in the market for widgets or looking for a new source? You bet they are! Look them up and call their buyer!

Who can use this technique? Manufacturers, wholesalers, consultants, printers, web designer - really anyone who sells B2B. Who can't use this technique? Anyone who sells to consumers, since Google can't show you exactly who did the search (and, given their motto, "Don't be evil", they probably wouldn't tell you even if they could).

Using this technique, I have helped a sporting goods manufacturer find retail stores to carry their products and a commercial real estate company find new tenants for their office buildings. It really works!

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or if you would like help implementing Google Analytics on your web site. I also can help you with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising (yes, also using Google!)

Happy Hunting!

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