Guest post by Liz Lockard, a self-confessed Google Analytics geek who loves helping small businesses get more out of their marketing data.

Do you have a website for your private practice? If so, you can’t pass up the best free marketing insights tool for your business - Google Analytics.

If you don’t already have it installed, go do that first (check out my mini Google Analytics setup tutorial for that).

Sure Google Analytics can tell me about my website, you say, but what can it tell me about my practice?

Here’s just three things you can learn about your practice from Google Analytics.

1) Where in the world are your prospects from?

Google Analytics can tell you exactly where every visitor to your website is visiting from. When logged in, just head to Standard Reporting - Audience - Demographics - Location.

You’ll get a map that looks a lot like this one:

You can view as top-level as on what continent and as specific as in which city your visitors are located. What could that mean for your practice? If you were considering expanding your practice into a neighboring state, Google Analytics can help guide that decision by giving you data on which state sends your site the most visitors, or which state sends you the most engaged visitors. City-wise it could help you target local in-state marketing efforts.

2) What is your most popular content?

Do you have a blog or host other articles on your site? If so, Google Analytics can tell you exactly which page or post is getting the most visits. Simply head to Standard Reporting - Content - Site Content - All Pages.

You’ll get a list that looks like this one:

You can see exactly which pieces of content on your site are most popular by visits, time on site, and a whole host of other metrics.

What could this mean for your practice? Your most popular content is a great indicator of what your audience finds most interest and what will be popular in the future. You could develop a follow up piece or similar pieces of content for future blog posts or articles. You could extend the topic into your weekly newsletter, or use the topic in other marketing channels.

3) Which referral source is sending the most traffic?

If you’ve ever pursued a specific marketing channel only to wonder if those new patients or newsletter sign ups actually came from there or somewhere else, you’ll understand the importance of this Google Analytics capability. Simply head to Standard Reporting - Traffic Sources - Sources - All Traffic.

You’ll get a list that looks like this one:

You can see exactly which traffic source is sending you the most traffic (or most engaged) - whether that’s search traffic, email marketing traffic, social media traffic, or other sites you’ve written for or advertised with.

What could this mean for your practice? You can finally stop wondering what’s working! And finally start making data-backed decisions for your marketing efforts and budget. If you didn’t see a single click-through on an ad you ran for 3 months on a popular site - pull it! If you saw a lot of engaged visitors coming from a guest post you wrote for another site, consider writing for them again! This is one of my favorite insights from Google Analytics - being able to actually evaluate marketing efforts.

(bonus points if you measure this traffic based on conversion - but that requires that you have goals set up)

What Do You Think?

Do you have Google Analytics set up for your site? Ever use it to pull insights for your business? Did you find this article helpful? Let me know in the comments!

About The Author:

Liz Lockard is a self-confessed Google Analytics geek who loves helping small businesses get more out of their marketing data. If you enjoyed this article and are interested in more ways of how you can use Google Analytics to up your marketing game, you can sign up for more free training and get on the first-to-know list for her upcoming course Google Analytics: The Missing Manual here. Follow her on Twitter @lizlockard.

How my guest blog post landed a feature spot on Yahoo! front page and 5 things that you can learn from my experience.

Last week I received an email from Anne Krueger, the Editorial Director at Sharecare, letting me know that my Sharecare guest post Empathy: The Secret Sauce To A Happy Marriage was being featured on Yahoo front page in the #1 slot!

By the end of last week my article was featured again on Yahoo! front page as "Popular This Week." As of today, the article has had 6.8K Facebook shares and 468 retweets on Twitter. Yes, I am basking in the glow of guest post heaven.

So, how did this happen? Last Dec. Sharecare (an interactive social media health Q & A platform founded by Dr. Oz, WebMD's founder Jeff Arnold, and Discovery Communications) named me the #1 online influencer making a difference for depression online. They determine the online influencers by calculating influence "including disease-area relevance and online syndication, presence and reach" throughout the past year and "across multiple online channels, including Twitter, blogs, forums, mainstream news and video." (Sharecare)

At the time I was blogging regularly on JulieHanks.com, WasatchFamilyTherapy.com, PsychCentral.com, also contributing to local NBC affiliate KSL.com, regularly going news interviews, and actively sharing content on several social media platforms.

After being named the top depression influencer I got acquainted with some of the folks at Sharecare, including their always delightful and witty Sharecare editorial director Anne Kreuger. I asked Anne if I could start submitting guest blog posts on mental health and relationship topics that might helpful to their readers. Anne has generously published several of my articles on Sharecare's main blog, one of which ended up on Yahoo last week.

What can you learn from my accidental trip to guest blog heaven? Here are 5 things I did right that landed me on Yahoo! front page last week -- my guest blog heaven.

Tip #1 Publish killer content on your own website

Create great content on your own website to prove to "big shots" that you can deliver a good guest post for their readers. Post new content at least once a week on your own blog about your specialty areas and topics of interest to your ideal clients.

Tips #2 Tweet, post, like, & share every day

Share your blog content and other relevant articles on multiple social media channels to build your social media following and reputation as an expert. I share my articles, Q&A's, and website links daily on Twitter, Facebook profile, Facebook pages, Youtube, iTunes podcast, Pinterest, Google+, StumbleUpon, Ning, and LinkedIn.

I've learned that social media sharing is more than just broadcasting information into cyberspace. It's about having meaningful conversations online. I ask questions, respond, and genuinely care about making a difference for good in their lives of anyone who follows me online. Follower engagement (comments, shares, retweets) was a big factor in getting recognized by Sharecare. It still blows my mind.

Tip #3 Create win-win relationships

Consider how you can provide value to the site that you're pitching to, not just how they can provide exposure for you and your practice. Do your research on the website's readership before you pitch a guest post so you can provide something worthwhile to their readers. Nurture those relationships as you would other important professional relationships through an occasional email, tweet or phone call.

Tip #4 Pitch BIG

When you pitch a guest blog post to another site make sure they are A LOT bigger than your own website. Target high traffic sites and appeal to your ideal clients, particularly in your geographic area. You can find out how the site ranks by searching Alexa.com. Remember, that on Alexa a lower score mean a higher traffic and the more desirable it will be to guest post there. You provide excellent content for them and they provide you with additional visibility and visits to your practice website.

Tip #5 Promote the heck out of your guest post

When you land a guest blog on a big website share it everywhere -- social media, newsletters, websites, email, and press releases. By directing more traffic to the site that publishes your guest post you demonstrate your value and your influence. This increases the likelihood that you will able to continue to guest posting for them, which helps drive traffic to your website.

Tip #5 Think long term growth

Did being featured on Yahoo front page directly impact my practice last week? No. We haven't had thousands of phone call for new clients this week at Wasatch Family Therapy. Though this blog post had thousands, maybe millions of hits, it hasn't, and won't translate immediately into growth of my practice. What it does do is add credibility to me as an expert, add more value to my article, and demonstrate that my guest blogs appeals to a wide audience. All of those things are valuable exposure that will help open up additional opportunities over time.

Now, here's what I did wrong. There's NO LINK to my website on the Yahoo article. When this article posted on Sharecare it was accompanied by my author bio which linked to my websites. So, from now on I'm going to request a link at the end of each guest blog article in the text area, and not in a separate author bio. I guess something had to bring me back to earth.

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