You don’t have to be an expert to understand Google Analytics (Part I)

The beauty of Google Analytics is that it makes it easy to understand how your website is performing, collating information over time and presenting it in a multitude of reports that you can customise and drill down to provide all the detail you need.

Here are the essential parts of Google Analytics you need to focus on initially and what you’ll gain from them.

Who’s visiting my site?

The Audience Overview helps you answer questions such as:

• How many people visit my page?
• What time of day are they visiting?
• Where are they from?
• Which browser are they using to access my site?
• What type of device are they using?

How did they get to my site?

The Acquisition view shows you a traffic report. It shows where the majority of your traffic comes from: search engines, other sites, or different pages on your own site.

Where do they enter my site?

The Landing Pages report tells you where people enter your site. If the data shows visitors entering from your homepage, it may mean they’re finding you through a search engine or a bookmark. If any one page receives a lot of traffic, though, that could mean the content is a popular topic. Landing Pages can also track ad campaigns.

How many people are actively using my site?

The Active Users report allows you to select a date to see how many people have actively used your site within the subsequent 7, 14, or 30 days. This can help you understand if your website is holding people’s interest or if you need to rethink what you’re doing.

How much are my visitors really worth?

Let’s say you have 1,000 visitors a day. You’ll still be wondering what they’re really worth to your business. Fortunately, Google even has an answer for that question in the Lifetime Value reporting tool.

According to Google, “the report lets you understand how valuable different users are to your business based on lifetime performance across multiple sessions. For example, you can see lifetime value for users you acquired through email or paid search. With that information in hand, you can determine a profitable allocation of marketing resources to the acquisition of those users.”

What do my visitors search for before visiting?

The Keywords report is where you’ll find out which keywords were searched for on a search engine such as Google or Bing before someone visited your site, as well as how long they stayed (on average) on a particular page after searching for a keyword.

What are my conversion statistics?

Even everyone will agree that driving traffic to your website is important, those visits should be converting into potential or actual customers or your website isn’t really working for you. The Conversions report tracks things such as how many visitors signed up for your newsletter or who clicked on your shopping page.

How am I getting new customers?

To understand how you’re acquiring new customers, consult the Treemaps report. It graphically interprets incoming traffic across different channels so that you can quickly understand traffic trends.

How can identify similar groups of visitors?

Internet marketers always say segmentation is key to the success of marketing trends. The Cohort Analysis report helps to identify like-minded groups of visitors. Group users through a range of parameters, e.g. the date they first visited your site, then track their behaviour over time.

Originally published at PENNInk Productions.