Getting the best out of Google Analytics - Quadra Digital

Getting the best out of Google AnalyticsCallum Alexandre - Quadra Digital

16.09.15

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Digital AnalyticsWhy is it important?

Web Analytics can help with:» Measuring success» Understanding which parts of your site are performing» Understanding which parts of your site are causing problems» Identifying problems with the user journey» Understanding how, where and when users land on the site – and why

they leave

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half’

- John Wanamaker, pioneer of marketing

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Digital AnalyticsWhy is it important?

Unconfigured Web Analytics cannot help with:» Identifying your Key Performance Indicators» Creating new, relevant content» Directly increasing your rank within search results» Understanding why users land on the site» Providing a full, accurate picture of your site without any customisation

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Top 5 Google Analytics tweaks5 common issues with quick fixes

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Quick Fix #1Internal Traffic Exclusion

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What does it solve?Some of the traffic reported by analytics comes from internal users, which will skew your data and cause inaccuracies in your reports.

Sessions excluding traffic from Internal IP

All Sessions (no filters)

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How it works

» Session data is received» Session is compared to a list of blocking criteria. » If the session matches one or more of these criteria, the traffic is

excluded from reports» If the session does not match any of the criteria, the traffic is added to

the report as normal.

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Implementation

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Quick Fix #2Spam & Ghost Referral Exclusion

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Quick Fix #2Spam Exclusion What does it solve?

Without filtering, Google Analytics accounts are susceptible to false data from spammers. Fake visits will cause a surge in user numbers, skewing your average session duration, bounce rate and pages per session.

Unfiltered Data Filtered Data

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Quick Fix #2Spam Exclusion How it works

» Servers and automated tools “ping” random Analytics accounts by imitating a legitimate hit (making it difficult to prevent). As the pageviews are not actually occurring, you may see visits to strange Hostnames or non-existant pages.

» Google receives the hit and records it in Analytics. Most “ghost” referrals are attempts to get a user to go to the referring site (which is typically a low quality ad farm or phishing site).

» In the same way that Internal Users can be filtered by IP and ISP, ghost referrals can be filtered out via Source or via Hostname.

» Source filtering removes all sessions that were referred by known bots, in the form of a blacklist.

» Hostname filtering removes all sessions that do NOT have the correct hostname (for example, yoursite.com, www.yoursite.com or store.yoursite.com)

» Keep in mind that no filter is 100% effective – once a method for blocking spam becomes popular, spammers will alter the way that they send data to Google. It is important to review the account regularly and make sure that all data is relevant.

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Quick Fix #2Spam Exclusion Implementation

Note – Do not use the “Referral Exclusion” function for this. It is not the correct tool for this job, and will cause spam referrals to register as direct traffic, making it more difficult to identify and remove spam traffic.

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Quick Fix #3Site Search Tracking

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What does it solve?Users searching your site are looking for content or services. Reviewing these searches can provide valuable insights for content creation and deep linking. With the increase in (not provided) search terms from the major search engines, these insights have never been more valuable, however many businesses still do not track them.

Site Search Terms

Organic Search Terms

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How it works

» Site Search is set up on the site by your web developer(s).» When a user searches your site, a page is returned with one or more

parameters, which will vary depending on your setup. » Google Analytics Site Search can be configured to recognise this page as

the search page, and understand what the added parameters mean (such as the search term, filters selected and so on).

» That’s it. Seriously. Now you know what people are searching for on your site. Easy, right?

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Implementation

Second Parameter

Search IdentifierSecond value

Search Term

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Quick Fix #4Custom Alerts

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Quick Fix #4Custom Alerts What does it solve?

Alerts can be triggered when certain criteria are met, such as when a goal is completed or when the number of users receiving a 404 response increases by 5% over the course of a week. Due to the flexibility of this tool, it can be used for anything from an ecommerce order notification to a traffic level indicator.

Oversensitivity issue fixed on the 23rd of August.

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Quick Fix #4Custom Alerts How it works

» Session data is compared on a weekly, monthly or daily basis.» Alerts are configured using a set of conditions, as shown below. If the

conditions are met, an alert is sent to the relevant email address.

» Alerts are configured in the Admin menu, under View>Custom Alerts» Alerts fire on a rolling basis, meaning that rules that fire too little or too

often will need adjusting, to ensure that any alerts received are relevant and actionable.

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Quick Fix #5Goal Funnels

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Quick Fix #5Goal Funnels What does it solve?

Once you know what you want users to do and you have your goals set up accordingly, goal funnels provide information about where users convert from, and which pages they visit on their way to do so. If large numbers of users act in an unexpected way, it can be a sign that your user journey is broken.

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Quick Fix #5Goal Funnels How it works

» Users are tracked as they move through the site» A funnel entry page is selected, all users that land on this page are

considered “in the funnel”» Pages after the entry page are identified as steps towards your goal» Users are tracked moving between these pages – a user that follows all of

the steps will convert, users that drop out are recorded against their last completed step.

» Using the Goal Funnel report, it is possible to find out where users are going when they leave the funnel. Large numbers of users leaving a particular step is a sign that there may be a problem with your path.

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Quick Fix #5Goal Funnels Implementation

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Thank you

T: +44 (0) 1534 491096E:[email protected]

QUADRA Digital22 Hill Street,St. Helier,Jersey,JE2 4UA

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[email protected]@Quadra_Digital

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Getting the best out of Google Analytics - Quadra Digital