1 | Google Analytics Reference Guide | Central Michigan University

Google Analytics Reference Guide Updated: December 2017

Process for Gaining Access to Google Analytics

1. You will need to create a generic department email, such as cmich_ucomm@gmail.com. This can be

done by going to http://www.google.com/analytics and clicking on the Create an account button at

the top right.

2. Once a departmental email address has been created, your department will need to send that email

address to Blaine Bendele in University Communications at bende1bm@cmich.edu.

3. Your account will be given user access to the appropriate CMU profile. Only one department email

address will be given access to each profile.

4. Once your account has been given access to your CMU profile, you can share this account with anyone

in your department who you would want to have access to your site analytics.

Common Terms

Sessions

Sessions are the individual periods of time that visitors spend on your site. A session is ended either after 30

minutes of inactivity or if the user leaves your site for more than 30 minutes (if a user leaves your site and

returns within 30 minutes, this is counted as part of the original session).

Pageviews

This is the number of times users view a page on your site. This covers all page views; if a user refreshes the

page, or navigates away from the page and returns, these are all counted as additional page views.

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Unique Pageviews

The unique pageview number counts all the times the page was viewed in an individual session as a single

event. Whether a visitor viewed the page once in their visit or five times, the number of unique pageviews will

be recorded as just one.

Users

When a user visits your site for the first time, a new session and user are both recorded. If the same user

returns to the site after their initial visit, only a new session is added.

Google Analytics is able to recognize whether a user has been to the site before through the use of cookies.

This means that if a user deletes their cookies or accesses the site through a different browser or machine,

they may be mistakenly added as a new user. For this reason, Google Analytics tends to place more

prominence on the sessions data.

New vs. Returning Visitors

New visitors are users that have not visited your site before the time period specified, while returning visitors

will have made at least one visit to your site previously.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is given as a percentage and represents the number of visits that users leave your site after just

one page - regardless of how they got to your site or how long they stayed on that page.

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Useful Reports

Real-time Section

This section allows you to monitor activity on your site as it happens. The reports are

updated continuously and each interaction with your site is reported seconds after it

occurs. For example, you can see how many people are on your site right now and

which pages or events they're interacting with.

Audience Section

This section contains everything you need to know about your visitors and how they

view your site including where they are, which browser is being used, what operating

system they are using, how long they are on site, how often they are on site and more!

This section also includes many new and beta reports that Google rolls out on a

constant basis.

Acquisition Section

This section contains reports about how visitors got to your site. Whether a visitor

came from a Google search, Facebook or an ad campaign, all of that data will be

shown in this report.

Behavior Section

This section contains reports about the pages of your website. Within the Behavior

section in Google Analytics you can find out how many times your pages have been

visited, how long do visitors stay on your site, the bounce rate and the flow of traffic

to a certain page on your site.

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Advanced Segments

Advanced Segments give a user the ability to separate and analyze specific kinds of traffic. For example, you

might create a segment that only includes visits from people external to the CMU campus. You can then

browse through your Analytics reports, viewing data only for this segment or even comparing it with data

from all visits.

Google Analytics gives you the option to create your own segments or select from many predefined segments.

To apply a segment, click on the Advanced Segments button right below the report title at the top of the page.

Then select the segment(s) you want to apply to your data.

The following steps will show you how to create your own advanced segments.

Setting up a segment for Internal CMU Audience Only

1. Once you are signed into your profile, click on the Add Segment button.

2. Click on New Segment button at the top left of the drop-down panel.

3. Type in the Segment Name of what you want to call this segment (ex. Internal CMU Audience

Only).

4. Click on Conditions in the left navigation of panel.

5. Make sure the dropdowns next to Filter are set to Sessions and Include.

6. In the first drop down menu, select Service Provider.

7. The second drop down box you can leave as Contains.

8. In the last text box, enter central michigan university. Your panel should look like the following:

9. Once you have all this information entered, click on the blue Save button.

10. When you save the Advanced Segment, it will immediately be applied to your data.

11. If you would like to not have the Advanced Segment applied anymore, click on the down arrow to

the right of the custom segment you want to remove. Then, select Remove from the dropdown list

that appears.

Setting up a segment for External CMU Audience Only

1. Once you are signed into your profile, click on the Add Segment button.

2. Click on New Segment button at the top left of the drop-down panel.

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3. Type in the Segment Name of what you want to call this segment (ex. External CMU Audience

Only).

4. Click on Conditions in the left navigation of panel.

5. Make sure the dropdowns next to Filter are set to Sessions and Exclude.

6. In the first drop down menu, select Service Provider.

7. The second drop down box you can leave as Contains.

8. In the last text box, enter central michigan university. Your panel should look like the following:

9. Once you have all this information entered, click on the blue Save button.

10. When you save the Advanced Segment, it will immediately be applied to your data.

11. If you would like to not have the Advanced Segment applied anymore, click on the down arrow to

the right of the custom segment you want to remove. Then, select Remove from the dropdown list

that appears.

Questions?

If you have any further questions, please visit http://support.google.com/analytics/ or contact Blaine Bendele

in University Communications at bende1bm@cmich.edu.