A Guide to Understanding

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How to access, schedule,

and interpret reports for your website.

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Dashboard

It is important to note that all reports can be adjusted to reflect any date range you like. At the top right

of your screen you will see the currently selected date range. In this image, the range is set as

September 5th – October 5th. To alter this range, select the dropdown arrow near the date.

The Dashboard contains a snapshot view of several reports. You can customize which snapshots appear

here by simply selecting the Add to Dashboard button at the top of any report.

With most of these reports you can toggle between graph styles to get the best visual representation of

the information. Just look for this box:

At the top left is your main reports menu. By default,

you will automatically be on the ‘Dashboard.’ To get

to another screen, simply choose the appropriate tab.

Visitors

This tab has some of the most useful information. It allows you to gather information about how

many people are coming to your site, how long they’re staying, and even where they are located!

Benchmarking is a separate service which allows you to compare your site to with similar industry sites.

In order to do so, you would first need to give permission to share your information with Google and

anyone who requests the same service.

Map Overlay allows you to see where in the country (or world!) people are accessing your site from. You

can zoom in to a specific area and discover where the majority of your page views are coming from.

Below you will see the report of North Dakota views; the bigger the circle, the more page views.

You can click on any circle, or the

information below the map, to learn

more about these statistics.

You can use this to track the success

of an ad campaign in a specific region

or to gather more information about

your online customers.

New vs. Returning allows you to differentiate between first time visitors and those who have been to

your site before. This helps you to define where your repeat visits are coming from, as well as track the

average time each group spends on your site. As you see below, this feature also charts the percentages

for new vs. returning visitors.

Languages indicates whether you are getting a large amount of visitors from foreign areas (i.e. fr

indicates visits from France, while .com indicates US visitors). If you notice a high percentage of visitors

who speak a language other than English, you may want to consider offering a translated version of your

site for their convenience.

Visitor Trending provides a graphic representation of information already seen elsewhere; namely it

shows visits, pages/visit, avg. time on site, % new visits, and bounce rate.

Visitor Loyalty provides some great statistical information. Here you can find out how many return

visitors you have, how long they are staying at your site, and how ‘deep’ they are going into your site

(how many pages they click through after the initial landing page).

Browser Capabilities informs you of what internet browsers people are using to access your site. This

can be very helpful in determining how to design specific content, and allows you to more accurately

test newly designed information. Below you can see that the vast majority of our visitors are using

Internet Explorer. This tells me to be certain that the site’s pages are displayed well when being viewed

in this browser. I also see that I need to test for accessibility within Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.

Pages/Visit allows you to see how

many individual pages the average

user clicks through. It is safe to

assume that a higher number

equates to a more engaged visitor

Similarly, Avg. Time on Site is a

good indicator of how valuable the

average visitor finds your content. A

higher number is a good indicator

that your content is useful; a really

high number may indicate that your

navigation is cumbersome!

Bounce Rate: The percentage

of single-page visits (the

person left your site from the

entrance page). This can

indicate that your site was not

what the visitor was looking

for, or that the content/design

did not encourage them to

stick around.

The Site Usage information appears on each page, and

may reflect slightly different information depending on

which report you are viewing. For an overall Site Usage

report, refer to the Dashboard.

Operating Systems tells you whether people are using a Windows, Mac, or another operating

system. This helps not only in designing content, but by analyzing this information about your site

visitors and online customers you can determine a bit more about their personality and habits. For

example, if you had a large percentage of people accessing your site via Android or Blackberry, you may

deduce that they are fairly tech savvy and are up to date on the latest trends.

Screen Colors and Screen Resolutions can provide important information for your site designer. This

allows you to ensure that the majority of your viewers are able to interact with your content without an

issue by designing your pages to fit within their technological parameters.

Network Properties can tell you what network provider people are using for their internet service (such

as Consolidated or Quest) as well as their connection speeds. While knowing the connection speed can

help you in deciding how complex to make your pages, knowing the service provider may help indicate

appropriate places to advertise. Assuming that most people get their cable service and internet service

together, you can determine appropriate cable providers with which to place advertising!

Mobile tells you what mobile devices people are using to access your site (such as an internet-enabled

cellphone, or Ipad) as well as their service provider (Altell, Verizon, etc.)

Traffic Sources

The information gained from this tab allows you to track how people are getting to your site. Knowing

what keywords people are searching for, which sites refer to your own, and whether ad campaigns such

as Google AdWords are effective can be a great help in steering your online marketing efforts.

Overview gives a brief snapshot of traffic source information. From this screen you can track

percentages for how people find you online, see what keywords people use when finding you through

search engines, and track which search engines are being used the most. This can be helpful in deciding

where to place online ads.

Direct Traffic shows statistics specifically for those who visit your site by directly typing in your URL or

using a bookmark they have made.

Referring Sites not only shows which sites link to yours, but which referring sites people are actually

using to find you. This information allows you to gauge the potential for partnerships between sites,

Here we see what words visitors have searched for when coming to our

site via search engines such as Google. This tells you about the content

that people are hoping to find at your site, and also helps choose

appropriate keywords when advertising online.

If you are getting a large number of visits for a particular keyword, you may

not need to create an AdWord for this instance. For example, it would not

be helpful to create an AdWord campaign for ‘Dickinson, ND’ because this

search is already driving traffic to the site.

When people type in

your URL directly

Traffic linked from other sites,

such as a Facebook page or blog

Knowing which search

engines your site visitors

and online customers are

using allows you to target

them more directly by

placing ads on the most

popular search engines

gives you helpful information regarding advertising opportunities, and can show the effectiveness of

your own referring sites such as a Google Places listing or Facebook Page.

AdWords Campaigns applies if you have already created a campaign. How do the people referred from

your AdWords Campaigns compare to the "average" visitor to your site? This report includes all visits

from AdWords. Click an AdWords Campaign in the table to see its component Ad Groups and Keywords.

The "Clicks" tab displays the AdWords cost, impression, and ROI data useful for monitoring the

profitability of your AdWords Campaigns and keywords.

Keywords shows the words people are typing into search engines prior to coming to your site. In the

below example, we see that the majority of people coming to www.DickinsonND.com through a search

engine arrive here after searching for “Dickinson, ND.”

Content

This tab gives valuable information about how visitors interact with your web content. Particularly

important is the analysis of which web pages are visited most, how long people view these pages, and

Top Content shows you which pages are used most. Knowing which pages visitors and online customers

use most lets you know what content is most useful to them.

Top Landing Pages records which pages of your site people are coming to first when they visit. Because

of search engines and links from outside sites, the first page people see may not be your home page. In

the example below, we learn that many people first land on the real estate page versus the homepage.

Top Exit Pages works similar to the above report. Here you learn which page people are on when they

decide to leave your site. While this may appear unhelpful, it can help you to discern if any of your

content is prompting people to go elsewhere. In on online retail environment, you’ll want to pay

particular attention to whether people are sticking around through the checkout process or not. If they

leave, maybe it is too cumbersome or confusing!

Site Overlay is a really neat feature of Google Analytics. Choose this option to open up a new browser

window with your site. You’ll notice that over each area a visitor can click on you will see a percentage

bar. Navigate through your site and note where most people go when visiting. This information can also

be helpful in determining if your navigation is straightforward or needs to be made easier for your end

user to get around.

Site Search is an additional feature you can install on your website. Similar to using a search engine,

customers can search your site for specific content. If you enable this feature and add a search tool to

your site, you can easily keep track of the keywords people are searching for on your site. Note that you

cannot track every search; you need to enter in specific queries you wish Google Analytics to track, such

as a product name or specific page.

Goals

This tab allows non-ecommerce sites to track specific actions, such as event registrations or downloads.

Once you have set your goals, you'll be able to see conversion rates and the monetary value of the traffic you receive. You can also define a "funnel path" for each goal. A funnel path is the path you want visitors to take to reach a goal. Defining a funnel path allows you to monitor how frequently visitors who begin a conversion process actually complete it.

Examples of goals include:

"Thank you for registering" pages receipts flight itinerary confirmations "Download completed" page

Sites that are ecommerce sites have the opportunity to track desired actions (customer purchases) simply by tracking their sales. The Goals feature of Google Analytics allows other sites to define goals for their non-paying visitors!

Keeping Up With Reports

Despite the wealth of information available to marketers and website content managers in Google

Analytics, it can be easy to forget to view reports regularly. Thankfully, you can set automatic emails to

be sent to as many addressees as you like with a PDF report!

While on the Dashboard tab, select the Email button (see below).

Once selected, you will see a new screen. To set up an automatic email, choose the Schedule tab. This

allows you to designate email addresses to send to, and a subject line and body to the automatic email,

and choose from daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly reports.

Obviously the PDF report will not have all of the interactive features you will find online, it will provide a

regular snapshot of your website’s performance. Use this information to determine any necessary

changes in content and marketing practices, as well as track the effectiveness of current campaigns.

Good luck!

If you find you need additional assistance in getting the most out of Google Analytics, or to

learn more about new features, visit http://www.google.com/support/analytics/?hl=en