Google Analytics: The Basics

@ d o m c u s h n an

THE BASICS

DOMINIC CUSHNAN


What is Google Analytics?

It is a free Web analytics service that provides statistics and basic analytical tools for search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing purposes. The service is available to anyone with a Google account. Its features include:> Data visualization tools

> Segmentation for analysis of subsets, such as conversions

> Custom reports

> Email-based sharing and communication

> Integration with other Google products, such as AdWords, Public Data Explorer and Website Optimizer


Google Analytics Quick Glossary> Dimensions - A dimension is a descriptive attribute or

characteristic of an object that can be given different values. Browser, Exit Page, Screens and Session Duration are all examples of dimensions that appear by default in Google Analytics.

> Metrics - Metrics are individual elements of a dimension that can be measured as a sum or a ratio. Screenviews, Pages/Session and Average Session Duration are examples of metrics in Google Analytics.

> Sessions - A session is the period of time a user is actively engaged with your website, app, etc., within a date range. All usage data (Screenviews, Events, Ecommerce, etc.) is associated with a session.


Google Analytics Quick Glossary> Users - Users who have had at least one session

within the selected date range. Includes both new and returning users.

> Pageviews - Pageviews means the total number of pages viewed. Repeated views of a single page are counted.

> Pages/Session - Pages/session (Average Page Depth) is the average number of pages viewed during a session. Repeated views of a single page are counted.

> Avg. Session Duration - The average length of a session.

> Bounce Rate - Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits (i.e., visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page without interacting with the page).


Google Analytics Quick Glossary> New Sessions - An estimate of the percentage of

first-time visits.> Goals - Goals let you measure how often users take or

complete specific actions on your website.> Conversions - Conversions are the number of times

goals have been completed on your website.> Campaigns - Campaigns (also known as custom

campaigns) allow you to add parameters to any URL from your website to collect more information about your referral traffic.

> Acquisition - Acquisition is how you acquire users.> Behavior - Behavior data helps you improve your

content.


Google Analytics Home If you have a lot of websites, you can use the search box

under the date range to search for a particular domain. If you

only want to view the domains that are most critical to your

business, you can mark them with a star and change the

Show settings to list only the starred websites.


Google Analytics Home You can use the date range to see your data over any specified

time period. You can also use it to compare the current time

period to a previous time period to see the change in sessions,

average session duration, bounce rate and goal conversion

rate.


Google Analytics Home Since the data for each website changes to reflect the

compared timeframes, it’s easy to see which of your websites

are getting more or less traffic and conversions.

To view more data about a particular website, just click on the corresponding link

and you’ll see the Google Analytics Reporting page.


Google Analytics Reporting

On the left sidebar, there is a search box

to help you find specific reports and a list

of links to important areas of your Google

Analytics.


DashboardsGoogle Analytics Reporting

Dashboards allow you to

create customized views of

your Google Analytics data

using widgets.

It’s a great way to see

specific subsets of data

without having to navigate

through your standard

reports.

You can add widgets to your

dashboards using the +Add

Widget button or by adding

widgets as you browse your

standard reports using the

Add to Dashboard link.


Shortcuts—links to your favorite Google Analytics reports.

Whenever you’re viewing a specific

piece of data in Google Analytics

that you want or need to revisit

often, click on the Shortcut link

above it. This places it in your

Shortcuts menu for future

reference.

ShortcutsGoogle Analytics Reporting


Intelligence Events are alerts you can set up within Google

Analytics that email you when a specific event occurs.

You can set up alerts for events like a dramatic change in

number of sessions, goal conversions or other metrics within a

daily, weekly or monthly timeframe.

Intelligence EventsGoogle Analytics Reporting


Real-Time data gives you

access to that data

instantly.

You can see current visitors’

pageviews, active pages,

locations and more.

Real-TimeGoogle Analytics Reporting


Google AnalyticsStandard Reporting Views

Each subsection of the main sidebar options offers a

standard report. When you’re viewing a standard report,

you will likely see the following: the report name (e.g.,

Language), the date selector and a standard toolbar with

options that allow you to customize the view, email the

report, export the report data to various spreadsheet

formats or PDF, add the report to your dashboard or

create a shortcut to the report.


When you see the graduate hat beneath the date selector

in the toolbar, you can click on it to learn more about the

data within that specific report (as shown below).



Under the toolbar menu, there are two options. All Sessions shows you

your data throughout Google Analytics as a whole, and +Add Segment

allows you to see your data based on certain criteria, such as direct traffic,

search traffic, mobile traffic and so forth.

On the +Add Segment

page, you can use the

+Create New

Segment option to

create your own criteria,

such as traffic from the

US or traffic that entered

your website on a

specific landing page.



Looking at All Sessions, you’ll see the data specific to the report

you’re viewing. Most reports start with an Explorer timeline

view.

At the top of the Explorer view is the option to switch between

Summary, Site Usage, Goal Sets, Ecommerce and

AdSense.



The Summary view is the default and shows the Acquisition,

Behavior and Conversions data for the data being reported. In

the example below, this would be the data for visitors who

speak a particular language.



If you have several goals set up for your website, use the

Conversions drop-down menu to change the data to a

different goal.



The Site Usage view shows you just the number of

sessions, pages/session, average session duration, percent

of new sessions and bounce rate for the data reported.

Basically, the Site Usage view is everything from the

Acquisition and Behavior portions of the table except new

users.

The Goal Sets view shows you the overall goal conversion

rate for goals within a set (you can have four goals per set),

per-session goal value and individual goal conversion rates

for each goal in a set. (We’ll talk about setting up goals

toward the end of this post.)



The Ecommerce view shows you revenue, transactions,

order value, ecommerce conversion rates and per-session

value for the data reported. In order to receive this data, you

need to have set your website up with ecommerce tracking,

which you can learn about in the Google Analytics Help

Center.

The AdSense view is for publishers who have Google

AdSense set up on their website. This shows you data for

AdSense revenue, ads clicked, page impressions, CTR and

eCPM for the data reported. To receive this data, you must

have your AdSense account linked to your Analytics account.



Beneath the Explorer view options is a drop-down for

Sessions vs. [Select a Metric]. Use these drop-downs

to see different data comparisons within your report, such

as Sessions vs. Bounce Rate.



To the right of these drop-downs, you can change your

data view to daily, weekly or monthly and change the

timeline to a more detailed chart or graph view.



In the table below your Explorer, there are a few more

viewing options. At the top left, you’ll see drop-downs to

add a secondary dimension.

For example, let’s assume you’re viewing the en-us

Language report (Audience > Geo > Language >

en-us) and want more detailed information about the top

sources of traffic for English – United States users.

Click on Secondary Dimension, choose Acquisition

from the menu and then choose Source. The table data

now shows you the data you want.





At the top right of the table,

you can change the view to

different charts and graphs.

For example, you can

change to the pie chart

view and see that most

users come to the site via

direct means (no referring

website, search engine or

social network) and speak

English – United States.



You can also click on the

Advanced link next to the

search box to filter specific

dimensions and languages

within the table.

For instance, you can show

only users who have a

Bounce Rate less than a

certain percentage to find

out which languages and

related traffic sources have

the lowest bounce rates.



At the bottom right of the table is a drop-down to show more rows. This allows

you to see more than the default top ten reported data types within your table.

Last but not least, within the table view, be sure to click on links within your

table. These allow you to drill down to particular subsets of data.

For example, if you are in the Location Report (under Audience in the left

sidebar), the table shows which countries the majority of your sessions are

happening in. If you click on United States, you’ll see the States breakdown of

your traffic. If you click on a state, you’ll get the top cities.

The same happens if you click on links within the table under the All Referrals

report. Instead of just seeing the domain that is sending you traffic, you can see

the pages within the domain sending you traffic.

This is great if you contribute to other blogs, for example, as it shows you which

of your posts are sending the most traffic your way.





Google Analytics Customization

The benefit of using a

Custom Google Analytics

report is that you can see

an exact portion of your

Google Analytics data and

have it emailed regularly to

contacts you choose.

You can create new reports

on your own, organize them

by category and import

reports from the Google

Analytics Solutions

Gallery.


Google Analytics Admin This is where you manage all of the settings for your

website within Google Analytics.

There are two things you should start using right now (if

you aren’t already) to truly get value from your Google

Analytics: Goals and Custom Campaigns.


GoalsGoogle Analytics Admin

In the Google Analytics Admin menu under View, you have the

option to set up goals for your website.

Google Analytics Goals, help you track the data related to a

user completing a specific action on your website.

The simplest goal type is the Destination goal. This type of goal

allows you to say that when a user reaches a specific page on

your website, a specific goal has been completed.


Example 1: If you have a mailing list, create a custom

page on your website that thanks users for subscribing

after they submit their information. Then set up that page

as a destination goal called Mailing List (or something you

will easily recognize as a mailing list conversion).

Example 2: If you have a contact form on your website

that you use to capture leads for your business, create a

custom page on your website that thanks users for

submitting their contact information. Then set up that

page as a destination goal called Contact Form (or

something you will easily recognize as a contact form

conversion).



Example 3: If you have a shopping cart on your website

to sell products, you likely have an order confirmation or

thank-you page that users land on once they’ve

successfully completed an order. Set up this page as a

destination called Shopping Cart (or something you will

easily recognize as a shopping cart conversion).

If there are specific pages that shoppers land on

throughout the shopping cart process, you can turn on

the Funnel option and include those pages as well. This

allows you to track which pages in your funnel get the

most abandons so you can optimize your shopping cart

for more sales.



To set up a destination goal, click on Goals from the

Admin panel, then click on the +New Goal button.



Name your goal and choose Destination as the type,

then click Next Step.



Enter your goal details. If your thank-you page is always

http://domain.com/thank-you/, enter /thank-you/ as the web

page URL and leave the drop-down set to Equals To.

If your thank-you

page URL has

appended tracking

information added to

it, then change the

drop-down to Begins

With and enter

/thank-you/ as the

web page URL.



To find out if your new goal is working, you need to

submit your opt-in form, contact form or make a

purchase in your shopping cart.

The two optional items in your goal details are Value and

Funnel. If you know a specific value for each goal

completion (e.g., the average order through your

shopping cart is $10), then you can add that as a value.

Otherwise, leave it blank.

If you have a shopping cart with specific pages that a

user will visit throughout the process of purchasing a

product, you can add them under Funnel.





You can view your sales funnel(s) in the standard

Funnel Visualization report.



Once you’re finished filling out the form, you can click the

Verify this Goal link before saving your goal. If any

users have completed the goal in the past seven days,

you should get confirmation that your goal is set up

correctly.

By setting up a Destination goal, you can measure ROI

using your Google Analytics. You’ll be able to see which

traffic sources and social networks send the most users to

your website who complete a goal. You’ll be able to see

which countries users who convert live in, and much

more.



Custom campaigns track visitors from specific traffic

sources. Campaigns are set up using UTM parameters

appended to the end of a URL a visitor would click on.

Google Analytics requires three parameters to track

campaigns: the campaign medium (utm_medium), the

campaign/traffic source (utm_source) and campaign

name (utm_campaign).

For example, you can create a campaign to track traffic

from a link shared through the Buffer app on Twitter.com,

which is social media. In this case, social is your medium;

twitter.com is your source; and buffer is your campaign

name.

Custom CampaignsGoogle Analytics Admin


When someone clicks on a link shared by the Buffer app,

they’ll see the following URL in their browser address bar:

http://iqtell.com/2014/02/are-we-managing-our-to-do-lists-

all-wrong/?

utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_cam

paign=buffer

That link tells Google Analytics that someone completed

your campaign parameters. You can see the results in the

first entry in the Campaigns report.





When you click on buffer (the campaign name) in the

above example, you can see the source and medium.


Technology

Google Analytics: The Basics