Google Analytics is a powerful tool that provides valuable insights into website traffic and user behaviour. However, it can be overwhelming to navigate for those who are new to it.
Goals allow you to track specific user actions on your website, such as form submissions or product purchases. By setting up goals in Google Analytics, you gain a better understanding of how users interact with your site and measure the success of your marketing campaigns.
Custom dashboards enable you to create a personalized view of your website’s data. You can choose which metrics and dimensions to display, making it easier to access the data that matters most to you. Custom dashboards are particularly useful if you’re responsible for multiple websites or need to keep a close eye on specific metrics.
Custom reports enable you to dive deeper into your website’s data and analyze specific aspects of user behaviour. You can create custom reports based on metrics such as traffic sources, content performance, and user behaviour, giving you greater flexibility and control over your data analysis.
Segmentation allows you to break down your website’s data into smaller, more manageable groups. By segmenting your data, you can gain insights into specific user groups and their behaviour. You can segment your data by demographic, behaviour, device type, and many other factors.
Annotations allow you to add notes to your Google Analytics data, providing context for specific events or changes. For example, you might add an annotation to note when you launched a new marketing campaign or made changes to your website. Annotations make it easier to understand trends and changes in your data.
Alerts notify you when something significant happens on your website, such as a sudden spike in traffic or a drop in conversions. Setting up alerts allows you to quickly respond to any issues and ensure that your website is performing as expected.
Regularly reviewing your Google Analytics data is essential to understanding how your website is performing and identifying opportunities for improvement. Make it a habit to review your data at least once a week, paying particular attention to metrics such as traffic sources, bounce rate, and conversion rate.
A session is the period of time a user is actively engaged with your website, app, etc. Essentially, it is the number of visitors, new or returning, that visit your site.
Users are those who have had at least one session within the selected date range, including both new and returning users.
Pageviews are the total number of pages viewed. Repeated views of a single page are counted.
Pages / Sessions is the average number of pages viewed during a session. Repeated views of a single page are counted.
Average Session Duration is the average length of a session. Bounce Rate: Bounce Rate is the percentage of single-page visits where the person left your site from the entrance page without interacting with the page. The bounce rate is deprecated with the latest version of GA.
New Session is an estimate of the percentage of first-time visits.
Understanding the age and gender structure of your audience allows you to precisely tailor your content and advertising. This includes the graphics, language, and technical sophistication you use on your website and the unique content and placement of your ads.
Interests give you the framework for expanding your advertising into relevant markets (Affinity Categories) and focusing your advertising only on the users who indicate the prospect of a purchase (In-Market Segments, Other Categories).
Affinity Categories classify users in terms of lifestyle, such as sports fans or cooking enthusiasts. Other Categories provide a more focused view of your users, including specific interests like “Foodies” under Affinity Categories and “Recipes/Cuisines/Asian” under Other Categories.
Tracking responses from users to whom you provide advertising in different language versions and understanding the traffic from users outside of those target locations is crucial. For example, you might be advertising in English and Spanish but also attracting high-conversion users who speak French and German. This indicates an opportunity to localize your ads to those languages and locations.
Google Analytics helps you keep track of how many times a user visits your site. Count of Sessions lets you see that count for each individual user, and this count is accumulated each time the user visits. It is beneficial in defining segments to understand who your most loyal users are.
Google Analytics allows you to track the engagement of your visitors, i.e., how long they stay on your site.
The Technology reports in Google Analytics are essential when making changes to your site that may work differently in individual browsers, operating systems, and screen sizes. Understanding the different technologies users engage with to reach and consume your content will help you improve current versions while planning upcoming changes.
The Devices report shows a breakdown of mobile site traffic based on device brand and model used over a certain period of time. For example, understanding that Apple users make up almost 70% of mobile web traffic can influence your mobile optimization strategy.
Use conversion funnels to track the path users take from entering your website to completing a specific goal, such as a purchase or sign-up. Analyzing conversion funnels helps you identify areas where users drop off, allowing you to optimize those steps and improve your overall conversion rate.
Understand the impact of different marketing channels on your conversions by utilizing multi-channel attribution. Google Analytics offers various attribution models to help you determine how each channel contributes to your sales or conversions. This insight is valuable for allocating your marketing budget effectively.
The Behavior Flow report provides a visual representation of how users navigate through your website. This report helps you identify popular paths users take and areas where they encounter roadblocks or exit the site. Understanding user behaviour flow can guide you in optimizing your website’s navigation and content layout.
Google Analytics offers real-time data, allowing you to monitor visitor activity on your website as it happens. Real-time analytics are particularly useful during live events, product launches, or time-sensitive promotions. It helps you assess the immediate impact of your marketing efforts.
If your website has a search function, enabling site search tracking in Google Analytics provides insights into what users are searching for on your site. Understanding user search queries can help you identify popular topics, products, or services, enabling you to tailor your content and offerings accordingly.
Compare your website’s performance against industry benchmarks provided by Google Analytics. Benchmarking allows you to gauge your website’s performance relative to similar websites and identify areas where you can improve.
If you run an e-commerce website, consider implementing Enhanced e-commerce tracking. This feature provides in-depth insights into user behaviour during the entire shopping process, from product views to checkout and beyond. Understanding customer behaviour in your online store can lead to valuable improvements in your sales funnel.
Take advantage of custom dimensions and metrics to track specific data points unique to your business. For example, you can create a custom dimension to track the membership level of your users or a custom metric to measure the time spent on a particular page.
The User Explorer report allows you to analyze individual user behaviour on your website. By anonymizing user data, Google Analytics lets you see how specific users interact with your site over multiple sessions. This level of detail can help you identify user preferences and pain points, allowing for personalized marketing strategies.
Cohort analysis groups users based on shared characteristics, such as acquisition date or behaviour during their first visit. It allows you to track how different cohorts perform over time, providing insights into user retention and engagement.
If you have additional data from external sources, consider using data import to enrich your Google Analytics reports. For example, you can import CRM data to match customer IDs and track user behaviour across multiple touchpoints.
By implementing these additional strategies and utilizing the various features of Google Analytics, you can gain deeper insights into your website’s performance, user behaviour, and marketing efforts. This information empowers you to make data-driven decisions that will ultimately improve your online presence and business success.
By Iñaki Castellet Hernández
By Conor McCaffrey