CU-MCA-SEM-VI-Web optimization

Once you do all that, accept the Terms and Services in order to get your tracking ID. Figure 15.7 The tracking ID is a string of numbers that tells Google Analytics to send analytics data to you. It’s a number that looks like UA-000000-1. The first set of numbers (000000) is your personal account number and the second set (1) is the property number associated with your account. This is unique to your website and your personal data—so don’t share the tracking ID with anyone publicly. Once you have the tracking ID, it’s time to move onto the next step. Step 3: Set up analytics tag with Google Tag manager 201 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Figure 15.8 You will be taken to a page where you can create your new website tag. On it, you’ll see that you can customize two areas of your tag: Configuration. Where the data collected by the tag will go. Triggering. What type of data you want to collect? Figure 15.9 Click on the Tag Configuration button to choose the type of tag you want to create. You’ll want to choose the “Universal Analytics” option in order to create a tag for Google Analytics. 202 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Figure 15.10 Once you click on that, you’ll be able to choose the type of data you want to track. Do that and then go to “Google Analytics Setting” and choose “New Variable…” from the dropdown menu. Figure 15.11 You’ll then be taken to a new window where you’ll be able to enter in your Google Analytics tracking ID. This will send your website’s data straight into Google Analytics where you’ll be able to see it later. 203 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Figure 15.12 Once this is done, head to the “Triggering” section in order to select that data you want to send to Google Analytics. As with the “Configuration,” click on the Triggering button in order to be sent to the “Choose a trigger” page. From here, click on All pages so it sends data from all your web pages. Figure 15.13 When all is said and done, your new tag set up should look something like this: Figure 15.14 204 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Now simply click on Save and voila! You have a new Google Tag tracking and sending data to your Google Analytics page about your website! We’re not done yet, though. You still need to set up your goals — which brings us to… Step 4: Set up Google Analytics goals While you probably know the key performance indicators for your website and business, Google Analytics doesn’t. That’s why you need to tell Google what success looks like for your website. In order to do that, you need to set goals on your Google Analytics dashboard. Start by clicking on the Admin button on the bottom left corner. Figure 15.15 Once you do, you’ll be sent to another window where you’ll be able to find the “Goals” button. 205 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Figure 15.16 Click on that button and you’ll then be taken to the “Goals” dashboard where you’ll be able to create a new goal. Figure 15.17 From here, you’ll be able to look through different goal templates to see if one matches your intended goal. You’ll also need to choose the type of goal you want. They include:  Destination. E.g. if your goal was for your user to reach a specific web page.  Duration. E.g. if your goal was for users to spend a specific amount of time on you site.  Pages/Screens per session. E.g. if your goal was to have users go to a specific amount of pages.  Event. E.g. if your goal was to get users to play a video or click on a link. 206 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Figure 15.18 From there, you can get even more specific with your goals like choosing exactly how long users need to spend on your site in order to consider it a success. Once you’re done, save the goal and Google Analytics will start to track it for you! Figure 15.19 Step 5: Link to Google Search Console Google Search Console is a powerful tool to help marketers and webmasters gain invaluable search metrics and data. With it, you can do things like:  Check your site’s search crawl rate  See when Google analyzes your website  Find out what internal and external pages link to your website  Look at the keyword queries you rank for in search engine results To set it up, click on the gear icon in the lower left hand corner of the main dashboard. 207 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Figure 15.20 Then click on Property Settings in the middle column. Figure 15.21 Scroll down and click on Adjust search console. 208 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Figure 15.22 Here you’ll be able to start the process of adding your website to Google Search Console. Figure 15.23 Click on the Add button and you’ll be redirected to this page. At the bottom, click on the Add a site to Search Console button. Figure 15.24 From here, you’ll be able to add a new website to Google Search Console. Enter in your website’s name and click Add. 209 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Figure 15.25 Follow the directions to add the HTML code to your site. Once you’re done with that, click on “Save” and you should be taken back to Google Analytics! Your data won’t appear right away—so be sure to check back later to see your Google Search Console data. 15.3 BASICS OF GOOGLE ANALYTICS Google Analytics is the premier analytics platform for tracking site or app performance. It is part of a range of tools provided by Google that include Google Search Console and Google Tag Manager. The platform provides you with a full picture of how your site is performing. It collects a vast amount of data and processes it intelligently. It then generates reports to display that data to you. Those reports are what you can use to gain critical insight into your site and the people who visit it Figure 15.26 210 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Data Collection: The first element of Google Analytics is data collection. The platform can gather a broad range of data about your site and how visitors use it. The exact nature of the data collected will be discussed in depth later. It includes, most notably:  How many visitors your pages get.  Where visitors come to your pages from.  How those visitors progress through your site.  What visitors do on your pages.  How visitors interact with elements on your pages.  How long visitors spend on your pages.  At what stage of a visit users leave your site. Google Analytics uses a simple JavaScript code to gather all this data. You get that code when you set up Analytics for your website, as will be explained later. The code is added to every page and puts a cookie in the browser of each site visitor. The cookie then sends a hit to your Google Analytics that reports each interaction the user has with your site. Which Kinds of Hits Does Google Analytics Track? 1. Pageview Hit — A hit that is sent each time someone visits one of your pages. It contains information like what device and browser visitors are using. You can also find out which of your pages they visit. 2. Event Hit — A hit sent when a visitor does something on your site. They might, for instance, fill in a form, click a link or play a video. 3. Transaction/Ecommerce Hit — A hit sent when a site visitor buys something. Information such as which pages the visitor went to before buying can be contained in these hits. More straightforward insights, such as which products they bought or how much they spent, are also provided. Data Processing: Google Analytics doesn’t present you with the raw data the platform collects. It first processes data and then generates reports. The first stage of data processing is the separation of data by users and sessions.  User Data — This is data on different, distinct visitors to your site. Google Analytics creates a unique, random user ID for each new visitor to your site. If the same user revisits your website in the future, Analytics recognizes the user ID. They will then be logged as a ‘returning’ visitor; this only works if they visit using the same device. The process can be subverted if they clear your cookie from their browser cache.  Session Data — A session is a period of time that a user spends on your site. It begins with a pageview hit when the user first visits the website, and it continues until they 211 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

ultimately leave the site. During each session, Analytics collects a host of different types of session data. What are Dimensions and Metrics in Google Analytics?  Dimensions — these are basic attributes of the collected data. ‘Country,’ for example, is a dimension that may be provided for user data. It would tell you which countries site users come from.  Metrics — These are quantitative measurements; they tell you the number of something. The ‘Sessions’ metric, for example, tells you how many sessions took place on your site over a period of time. Google Analytics creates a range of default reports. We will look at many of them in-depth later. You can also create custom reports that combine different dimensions and metrics. Not all dimensions and metrics can be combined into reports. They each have what is known as a ‘scope’ — that is the level at which their data is collected. The different scopes are ‘user- level,’ ‘session-level,’ and ‘hit-level.’ Only the dimensions and metrics of the same scope can be combined. 15.4VISITORS REPORTS The Visitor Report gives an overview of your website in terms of the people visiting your site: Figure 15.27 212 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

In this report, you’ll be able to drill down and find out more about your audience like:  Demographics.  Interests.  Location.  Behavior.  Technology. Using this data, you can better understand your audience and then make informed decisions about your website. 15.5 GEOGRAPHIC REPORTS The geography report in Google Analytics tells you who are the visitors coming to your website. But more importantly, where are they coming from. The geographical location of your visitors can be analysed at different levels. The most common being country. You can drill down further into states, regions/areas, and even cities. For those with visitors from the United States, you can analyse by the Designated Marketing Area (DMA) as well. This report is fairly accurate for location targeting. Google has a strong repository of IP addresses, and can link them to locations quite precisely. And much like other elements within the audience report, the geography report of Google Analytics doesn't change too frequently. You don't need to check on them too often. 15.6 TRAFFIC SOURCES REPORTS Start by jumping into my favorite report: the source/medium report. From the Google Analytics home screen, go to Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium in the left navigation. 213 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Figure 15.26 The source/medium report tells you where your website traffic is coming from and the amount of traffic you’re getting from these different traffic sources. It also shows your engagement metrics, and ultimately, the results of all of that engagement. 214 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Figure 15.27 15.7 KEYWORDS REPORTS Keywords are vital when it comes to getting ranked on Google, and getting found by your audience. When you can see what search terms are sending you the most organic traffic, you’ll gain insight about your site’s ranking and performance on search engines. You can also check to see if your SEO efforts are paying off by comparing your targeted keywords with the actual keywords your site is bringing in traffic for. If your site’s top Google search keywords match with your targeted keywords, it’s a good indication that your SEO strategies are working. If they don’t match, you can get ideas for how to improve and make your site more SEO-friendly. Or, you can find new keywords for your website that’ll give you fresh content ideas. By creating more useful, high quality content around a keyword your site is already seeing a high rank and traffic for, you can further boost your search engine rankings and organic traffic. How to See the Google Analytics Keywords for Your Site? You can’t use Google Analytics itself for keyword rankings, as it doesn’t show any of that data for privacy reasons. If you do look up keyword reports in analytics, you’ll just see not provided. 215 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Instead of Google Analytics, Google Search Console is the best tool to use to view the search terms/queries people are using on Google to find your website. It’s free and pretty easy to use! Google Search Console is an online marketing tool offered by Google that allows you to monitor and view your site’s performance in Google search results. In addition, it can help you identify crawl errors, site speed issues, and other technical website problems. Let’s look a methods you can use to view your Search Console data: Use your Search Console account to log in and view the Queries reports there First, you’ll need to go to Search Console and sign in with your account. Then click on Search results in the menu on your left. Here you can see a graphical representation of your total clicks, impressions, average click-through rate (CTR), and position. Refer Figure 15.28 Figure 15.28 Now, scroll down and you’ll see the Queries table. It shows the top Google search keywords that people use to find your website. You can also click over to Pages, Countries, Devices, Search Appearance, or Dates to see your search data in different ways. Refer Figure 15.29 216 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Figure 15.29 Summary of above steps are as follows: 1. Connect your Google Search Console account to Google Analytics 2. In Google Analytics, navigate to Acquisition » Search Console » Queries. 3. Sort your keywords by clicks, impressions, click-through rate, or average position by clicking on the headings. 4. Navigate to the Acquisition » Search Console » Landing Pages report and click on one of your URLs to see what users were searching on Google to find that page. 5. Alternately, install the Monster Insights plugin to see your top 50 search terms any time within your WordPress dashboard, and click the button at the bottom of the report to go directly to the corresponding Google Analytics report. 15.8YOUR GOALS AND CONVERSIONS Goals in Google Analytics allow you to track specific user interactions on your site. These user interactions can be anything including form submissions, product purchases, collection of leads, and more. When a website visitor performs the specific action that you’ve defined as a goal, Analytics records that as a conversion. You can check out our detailed guide about the difference between Google Analytics goals and events. How Do You Set Up Goals in Google Analytics? Once you know how to add Google Analytics to WordPress, you can set up goals in Google Analytics by following these steps: 217 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Step 1. Sign in to your Google Analytics account and select the website for which you’d like to create a new goal. Refer figure 15.30 Figure 15.30 Step 2. In the left panel, click Admin and in the View column, click Goals. Refer figure 15.31 Figure 15.31 Step 3. To create a new goal, click the +New Goal button. Refer figure 15.32 218 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Figure 15.32 You’ll see four goal types in Google Analytics. They are:  Destination: You can choose this goal type if you want to treat a pageview or screen view as a conversion.  Duration: You can measure user engagement by treating time spent on a page as a conversion.  Pages/Screens per session: This is another way to measure user engagement. You can measure the number of page views per session as a conversion.  Event: You can treat user interaction like button click, video play, form submission, eBook download as a conversion. 15.9SUMMARY  Google Analytics is a free web analytics service offered by Google. It helps website and app owners (both organisations and individuals) track and report on all kinds of data from their users. Google purchased the web statistics analysis company Urchin in 2005, forming Google Analytics shortly after. Since its launch, it’s grown to become the most widely used web analytics software on the internet.  With Google Analytics, you can gain an understanding of what your marketing activity should be, how your campaigns are performing, and what your customers tend to respond to. The tool gives you the chance to get detailed layers of information related to your online channels. You can then plan and adjust your approach and understand if it’s working and what needs changing.  Google Search Console is a powerful tool to help marketers and webmasters gain invaluable search metrics and data.  Google Analytics is the premier analytics platform for tracking site or app performance. It is part of a range of tools provided by Google that include Google Search Console and Google Tag Manager.  The first element of Google Analytics is data collection. The platform can gather a broad range of data about your site and how visitors use it 219 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

15.10 KEYWORD  Unique ― being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.  Demographic- is - the statistical characteristics of human populations (such as age or income) used especially to identify markets.  Tag Manager- is a tag management system (TMS) that allows you to quickly and easily update measurement codes and related code fragments collectively known as tags on your website or mobile app  URL:A URL is nothing more than the address of a given unique resource on the Web.  Triggering:causing a particular action, process, or situation to happen. 15.11LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. Define Google Analytics. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2. List the type of data that can be achieved using google analytics. ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 15.12UNIT END QUESTIONS A. Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. Explain data collection. 2. Which Kinds of Hits Does Google Analytics Track? 3. What are Dimensions and Metrics in Google Analytics? 4. Explain the process to generate visitor report. 5. Explain geographic report. Long Questions 1. State the process of installing google analytics. 2. How to See the Google Analytics Keywords for Your Site? 3. How Do You Set Up Goals in Google Analytics? 4. What is google analytics and why it is useful? B. Multiple Choice Questions 220 1. Google Tag Manager is a ______management. a. free tag CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

b. paid tag c. complex d. advertisement 2. The tracking ID is a string of __________that tells Google Analytics to send analytics data to you. a. Character b. Number c. Alphanumeric character d. Special character 3. Google Analytics is the premier analytics platform for tracking ________ a. app data b. user performance c. app performance d. user data 4. The first element of Google Analytics is a. planning b. organizing c. procurement d. data collection 5. Google Analytics uses a simple JavaScript code to gather all this data procurement a. True b. False Answers 221 1-a, 2-b, 3-c. 4-d, 5-a 15.13REFERENCES References book CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Jerri Ledford, “Search Engine Optimization”, Wiley Publishing Inc.  S.S. Niranga, “Mobile Web Performance Optimization”, PACKT Publishing Textbook references  Danny Dover, “Search Engine Optimization Secrets”, Wiley Publishing Inc.  Bruce Clay, “Search Engine Optimization AA-In-One for Dummies A Wiley Brand”, John Wiley & Sons.  Aaron Matthew Wall, “Search Engine Optimization”, http://www.seobook.com/seo- tools.pdf  H.J. Bernardin, Human Resource Management, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi, 2004. Website  https://www.umassmed.edu/globalassets/it/web-services/google-analytics/google- analytics-user-guide.pdf  https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//grants/education/Go ogle_Analytics_Training.pdf  https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/#/p287091400/reports/reportinghub  Internet Basics: What is the Internet? (gcfglobal.org)  https://www.semrush.com/blog/black-hat- seo/?kw=&cmp=IN_SRCH_DSA_Blog_Core_BU_EN&label=dsa_pagefeed&Netwo rk=g&Device=c&utm_content=515715717309&kwid=aud-422673590326:dsa- 1053501806627&cmpid=11773572684&agpid=115407097598&BU=Core&extid=20 3745429736&adpos=&gclid=Cj0KCQjww4OMBhCUARIsAILndv6WsS0Lw7OOG vi5TA6yAGFZNZNRGP44MNM3cnYj70oeQ3LiFot_Hn4aAt4aEALw_wcB 222 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)