Interpreting Analytics to Improve Your Law Firm Website

Date: July 11, 2024

Analytics play a crucial role in any business, but they’re especially important for understanding your law firm’s website. Analytics help you determine the impact of your digital marketing efforts and can guide you in proving ROI for specific campaigns. This allows you to make better marketing decisions based on data instead of gut instinct. 

Analytics Tools Your Law Firm Needs to Be Utilizing 

There are a variety of analytics tools available, both paid and free, but there are two tools in particular your law firm should be utilizing no matter what. Let’s dive in! 

Google Analytics (GA4) 

GA4 is designed to measure how your website performs across various channels such as Organic Search, Paid Search, Social Media, Email, and more. GA4 is critical in helping law firms better understand how users interact with their digital presence, regardless of the platform, revealing a gold mine of information that can guide your marketing strategy, content creation, and overall brand building.

Google Search Console (GSC) 

Google Search Console (GSC) measures your website’s organic search performance on Google search results. Google Search Console paints a clear picture of how your website is performing organically. 

Because we’re a law firm lead generation agency that specializes in SEO, Google Search Console happens to be one of our favorite tools at 9Sail. 

Key Analytics Terms to Understand

To interpret your law firm’s website analytics, you need to understand what the tools are actually measuring.  

GA4 Terms to Know 

Google Analytics had a major upgrade recently in which the whole user interface changed, along with much of the key terminology many of us marketers came to know. Now there are a handful of new terms that you should be familiar with to better interpret your law firm’s website analytics. Here are some of the most important terms you should know. 

  • Users
    • Total Users – The number of unique users who triggered any event in the specified date range.
    • New Users – The number of new unique users who logged the first_open or first_visit event in the specified date range.
    • Active users (Also known as Users in reports) – The number of unique users who engaged with your site in the specified date range. Any user who has an engaged session or when Analytics collects: the first_visit event or engagement_time_msec parameter from a website the first_open event or engagement_time_msec parameter from an Android app the first_open or user_engagement event from an iOS app.
    • Returning users – The number of unique users who initiated at least one previous session, regardless of whether or not the previous session was an engaged session, in the specified date range.
  • Sessions – A session initiates when a user views a page or screen and no session is currently active, for example, their previous session has timed out. By default, a session ends or times out after 30 minutes of user inactivity. There is no limit to how long a session can last.
    • Engaged Sessions – An engaged session is a session that lasts longer than 10 seconds, has key events, or has at least 2 pageviews or screenviews.
  • Event – An event allows you to measure a specific interaction or occurrence on your website.
    • Key Event – An event that measures an action that’s particularly important to the success of your business. For example, these can include phone calls or contact form submissions. 

Search Console Terms to Know 

Google Search Console is much less complex than GA4 and provides a great visual representation of how your website is performing for Google organic search results. Below are a few key terms to know when interpreting the data using Search Console. 

  • Clicks – A click is counted anytime someone clicks through to your website from Google search results. 
  • Impressions – Impressions are counted anytime your website appears within Google search results. This could be on page one or page 10– it is simply any time you showed up regardless of position. 
  • Queries – Queries are questions or terms that users have typed into Google and your firm’s website showed up on the search results page. 

How Often Should You Check Your Analytics Accounts? 

Monitoring your analytics accounts is incredibly important, especially if you’re investing in digital marketing services such as SEO. That’s because things in the digital world, particularly with SEO, are constantly evolving as Google releases algorithm updates without warning multiple times a year. Because of that, it’s important to keep your finger on the pulse of how your website is performing and if there are any improvements or issues that need to be addressed. 

For example, at 9Sail, we check out clients’ analytics accounts a minimum of once a week, but typically more. Additionally, we report on analytics monthly to review performance and assess success. 

What to Look For When Interpreting Your Analytics Data?

There are some important metrics or indicators you should keep an eye on when trying to interpret your analytics data. Let’s take a look at some of those indicators for both GA4 and Search Console. 

GA4 Metrics 

GA4 has many valuable reports that you can dive into and discover various insights. Some of the reports I recommend reviewing are the following: 

  • Real-Time Report – This report shows website activity in real time by showing user activity that took place within the last 30 minutes. This report also helps you see that the code is triggering correctly. If you show up in the real-time report then you know that the system is tracking users properly. 
  • Traffic Acquisition Report – This report can help you understand what channels your users are coming from while also allowing you to see how your campaigns are stacking up against each other, and what’s driving leads.
  • Events Report – This report helps you see the events that are triggering on your website. More specifically in this report, you can see and track your key events, which can help when you are conducting an ROI or ROO analysis. 

Search Console Metrics  

As mentioned before, Search Console provides excellent visuals, so interpreting your data is much easier at first glance. Some metrics or indicators to keep an eye on include the following:

  • An Abrupt Drop in Clicks and/or Impressions
    • An abrupt drop in clicks and/or impressions should indicate a cause for concern. For example, this could show that your website was negatively impacted by a recent Google Algorithm update, or maybe a popular piece(s) of content has lost traction. There are many possibilities, but it is something that should catch your eye and prompt you to investigate further. 
  • A Steady Increase in Clicks and/or Impressions
    • The inverse of what we just previously discussed is a steady or rapid increase in your clicks and/or impressions. This indicates that something is working well and you’ll want to dive in to see what that was to see if it can be replicated to reap additional benefits. 

Need Help Deciphering Your Analytics? 

If you’re struggling with deciphering your law firm’s analytics, 9Sail is here to help. We can help set your analytics accounts up accurately so you can have a full understanding of how your website is performing. Contact us today to get a conversation started!