Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a web analytics service that provides statistics and basic analytical tools for search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing purposes. The service is part of the Google Marketing Platform and is available for free to anyone with a Google account.
Every time a user visits a webpage, the tracking code will collect pseudonymous information about how that user interacted with the page. For the Google Store, the measurement code could show how many users visited a page that sells drinkware versus a page that sells houseware.
Google Analytics includes features that can help users identify trends and patterns in how visitors engage with their websites. Features enable data collection, analysis, monitoring, visualization, reporting and integration with other applications. These features include:
: Data visualization and monitoring tools, including dashboards, scorecards and motion charts that display changes in data over time;
: Data filtering, manipulation and funnel analysis;
: Data collection application program interfaces (APIs);
: Predictive analytics, intelligence and anomaly detection;
: Segmentation for analysis of subsets, such as conversions;
: Custom reports for advertising, acquisition, audience behavior and conversion;
: Email-based sharing and communication; and integration with other products, including Google Ads, Google Data Studio, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Google AdSense, Google Optimize 360, Google Search Ads 360, Google Display & Video 360, Google Ad Manager and Google Search Console.
Within the Google Analytics dashboard, users can save profiles for multiple websites and either see details for default categories or select custom metrics to display for each site. Available categories for tracking include content overview, keywords, referring sites, visitor’s overview, map overlay and traffic sources overview.
The dashboard can be viewed on the Google Analytics site and is available through a widget or a plugin for embedding into other sites. Customized Google Analytics dashboards are also available from independent vendors.
Important metrics
A metric is a standard of quantitative measurement. Google Analytics enables users to track up to 200 different metrics to measure how their websites are performing. While some metrics may be more valuable to certain businesses than others, these are some of the most popular metrics:
: Users. A user is a unique or new visitor to the website.
: Bounce rate. The percentage of visitors who viewed only a single page. These visitors only triggered a single request to the Google Analytics server.
: Sessions. The group of visitor interactions that happen in a 30-minute window of activity.
: Average session duration. How long on average each visitor stays on the site.
: Percentage of new sessions. The percentage of website visits that are first-time visits.
: Pages per session. The average number of page views per each session.
: Goal completions. The number of times visitors complete a specified, desirable action. This is also known as a conversion.
: Page views. Total number of pages viewed.
Conclusion
I’ve covered a lot of content in this Short Cut. From tracking across multiple domains to filters, I’ve tried to explain how the Google Analytics system works and the pitfalls to avoid. The goal is to help you get Google Analytics set up correctly for your web site and your business needs.
Remember, getting Google Analytics configured correctly is vital to performing good analysis. Take the time to review the necessary sections of this Short Cut before, during, and after your installation. And don’t be afraid to try something new. If you understand how Google Analytics works, you can use the system in new and creative way.
If you take one thing away from the Short Cut, I hope it is a realization that you can do a lot of things with Google Analytics. Your data needs will drive your configuration, and the information in this Short Cut will help you get it right.
