Web Analytics with Google

Web Analytics withGoogle

Review website content and use | Web Analytics  Introduction  to  web  analytics  The  hard  work  is  done:  your  design  is  online  for  everybody  to  see  and  it’s  looking  great.  But  just  how  effective  is  your  website?  How  many  people  are  visiting  it?    Who  are  they  and  how  have  they  got  there?  Do  they  like  what  they  are  seeing?  What  should  you  do  to  make  their  experience  even  better?     All  these  questions  can  be   answered  by  analysing  the  web   traffic  that  your  site  is  generating.         Web  analytics  can  help  you   measure,  collect,  analyse  and   report  web  data  in  order  to   understand  and  improve  your   website’s  usage.     In  this  course  we  will  be  using   Google  Analytics  to  do  this.   Google  Analytics  provides  a  very  effective  yet  simple  way  of  tracking  users’  interactions  with  your  website.  By  just  inserting  a  few  lines  of  JavaScript  code  into  your  web  pages  you  will  be  able  to  start  tracking  and  monitoring  your  website’s  usage.  You  will  also  be  able  to  generate  reports  based  on  the  data  collected.  Working  with  Google  Analytics  –  a  few  definitions  Data  Segmentation  One  of  the  fundamental  techniques  used  in  web  analysis  is  the  segmentation  of  data.  Data  segmentation  means  the  separation  of  data  into  different  categories.  For  example  a  Google  Analytics  report  might  segment  data  by  date  and  time  so  you  can  see  how  many  people  have  visited  your  website  on  certain  days  of  the  week.    You  can  also  segment  your  data  by:   • Device  (desktop,  tablet,  mobile  phones,  etc.)   • Geography  (to  locate  users  on  the  map  and  evaluate  their  interaction  with   your  website)   • Visitor  characteristics  (first-­‐time  or  repeat  visitor)  Conversion  and  Conversion  Attribution  A  conversion  occurs  when  a  website  visitor  performs  an  action  on  the  website  that  is  desired  and  important  to  your  business  (i.e.  buying  a  product,  signing  up  for  a  newsletter,  becoming  a  member,  etc.)  To  converse  effectively  with  your  audience  and  entice  further  engagement  with  your  business  it  is  important  to  understand  how  a  particular  conversion  occurred  or  what  it  can  be  attributed  to.      ALIA_PD_Sep2014_v1 2  

Review website content and use | Web Analytics  Example  of  a  trail  that  leads  to  a  conversion:  A  customer  finds  your  website  by  clicking  your  AdWords  ads.  (AdWords  ads  are  the  first  few  sponsored  links  that  appear  under  a  Google  search).  She  returns  one  week  later  by  clicking  over  from  a  social  network.  That  same  day,  she  comes  back  a  third  time  via  one  of  your  email  campaigns,  and  a  few  hours  later,  she  returns  again  directly  and  makes  a  purchase.      Metrics  and  Dimensions  Metrics  are  numerical  data  about  users  and  their  interactions  with  your  website,  while  dimensions  describe  the  characteristics  of  users  and  their  actions.    Examples  of  Metrics   Use  of  Metric   Examples  of  Dimensions  Visitors  or  users  (measures   Geographic  location  of  users  the  number  of  unique  users   To  understand  the   (dimension  of  user)  that  visit  your  site)   overall  size  of  your  Visits  or  sessions  (period  of   audience   Traffic  source  that  brought  consecutive  activity  by  the   To  gauge  the   the  user  to  your  site  same  user)   interaction  of  users   (dimension  of  session)  Pageviews   with  your  website   The  page  the  user  viewed   To  understand  how   (dimension  of  action)  Bounce  rate  (percentage  of   many  times  a  page  has  sessions  with  only  one  user   been  viewed    interaction)   To  understand  how   many  users  that  land     on  a  page  leave  it   without  viewing  any   other  content            Reference:  https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1662518?utm_source=analytics%20academy&utm_medium=text%20lesson&utm_campaign=lesson%202.3    Image  by  James  Royal-­‐Lawson      ALIA_PD_Sep2014_v1 3