Whether you’re a business owner or blog writer interested in expanding your online presence, Google Analytics will help you. However, many of us aren’t experts in statistics, numbers, and calculations. That’s why Google Analytics can do it for you! This convenient platform can increase website traffic and keyword difficulty. Even so, while it’s user-friendly, it can take some getting used to. Here’s what you need to know about Google Analytics and why it’s an important aspect of SEO.
What is Google Analytics?
As its name implies, Google Analytics is a web analytics service that tracks certain statistics for search engine optimization (SEO). Many businesses and other organizations use Google analytics for marketing purposes. It’s part of the Google Marketing platform and free to use for all business owners with a Google account.
Google Analytics can perform a variety of conveniences that help businesses track their user traffic and marketing campaigns. Small and medium-sized businesses also use the platform to observe specific customer behavior analytics. This can be utilized to better understand their target audience and use effective keyword research techniques. In summary, Google Analytics can track customer demographics, top user interactions, and trends.
What Does it Do?
In essence, Google Analytics gives you the opportunity to view important business metrics in a simple and automated manner. For business owners with a lot of tasks that rarely include data collection, Google Analytics is incredibly useful. The platform tracks specific metrics such as your number of site visitors, the number of searches for your company, and their geographic location.
However, these are only a few of the many conveniences Google Analytics provides. The platform also allows you to view social media metrics, conversion rates, and the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaigns. You can even determine your site’s accessibility needs and where customers tend to visit after looking at your business.
How Does it Work?
Google Analytics acquires data through JavaScript page tags found in the code of each web page. Thus, when users interact with a particular site, the information is submitted to Google’s data collection servers. The platform proceeds to generate customized reports that visualize and track customer behavior. This can include anything related to bounce rates, number of users, and page views.
In other words, page tags act as a preview of your customer’s interactions with your site. Granted, this only applies to users who enable cookie usage. If users allow themselves to be analyzed by means of cookies, Google Analytics can determine specific trends and patterns. These features can include data visualizations, predictive analytics, data filtering, and more!
Why is it Important?
When you understand your customers, you know what attracts them to your business. In summary, analytics follow customers from the beginning of the marketing process to the end. This helps you plan out your marketing funnels and measure customer metrics along the way. Customers need to be aware of your brand and stick with it until they make a purchase from your business.
Google Analytics tracks customer metrics to help you figure out which marketing tactics work and which ones need improvement. In other words, the more you know about your customer’s preferences, the better business decisions you’ll make. Google Analytics separates your data into separate reports that you can analyze and implement in your marketing campaigns.
Metrics
Metrics refer to a standard, quantitative measurement. Google Analytics tracks up to 200 different metrics to measure site performance. These are some of the most commonly measured metrics in the platform:
- User: New visitors to your business website.
- Bounce Rate: Percentage of visitors who only visited one page, thus triggering a singular request to the Google Analytics server.
- Average Session Duration: The average amount of time users visit the site.
- Sessions: The amount of visitor activity within a 30-minute period.
- Pages per Session: The average number of page views per user session.
- Goal Completions: Otherwise known as a conversion rate, this designates when a customer completes a particular, desired action.
- Percentage of New Sessions: The percentage of first-time site visitors.
- Page Views: The number of pages viewed per user.
Metrics vs. Dimensions
At first glance, metrics and dimensions sound incredibly similar. The best way to distinguish them apart from one another is the way they measure data. Metrics are quantitative measurements of a singular piece of information. Meanwhile, dimensions are qualitative descriptions of data. For example, a metric would provide a specific number (number of page views) whereas a dimension would provide data by means of labels (user regions).
User Acquisition vs User Behavior Data
Google Analytics can provide several kinds of data for businesses creating marketing campaigns. These pieces of data can be separated into two categories: user acquisition and user behavior. User acquisition data tells business owners how customers are finding their site. This helps them figure out if customers are finding their site through certain outlets like social media or typing in the link themselves. Meanwhile, user behavior data tracks what customers are doing when they engage with the site.
Google Analytics 4
Abbreviated as GA4, Google Analytics 4 is the most recently updated version of this platform. Released in October 2020, GA4 focuses less on the use of third-party cookies and more on machine learning for improved data accuracy. GA4 achieves this through advanced artificial intelligence, Google ad integration, and customer-oriented reporting. GA4 also uses codeless tracking that provides faster information and improved data control for easier management.
Create a Google Analytics Account
If you don’t already have an account set up through Google Analytics, it’s very easy to sign up. Type in the URL google.com/analytics to visit their home page. Once you pull up the site on your computer, look at the upper right corner and click “Sign in to Analytics” or “Get started today.” You’ll be guided through a series of questions asking about your business, website name, and other important information. Once this is finished, click “Get Tracking ID” to finalize your account.
How to Set Up Google Analytics
Once you’ve created your account, you’ll be required to set up a tracking code connected to your website. Google Analytics will give you a JavaScript code that must be installed on every site page you’d like to track. If you have a WordPress site, this will already be very easy. However, sites built through HTML will require you to manually add the code to pages you’d like to track.
Understanding Google Analytics
Familiarize yourself with Google Analytics and how it works to get the most out of its resources. Used properly, this platform can significantly enhance your business. Google Analytics separates your data into three different categories: accounts, properties, and views. As one might expect, accounts allow you to organize and manage your data. Properties refer to specific information like your JavaScript tracking code. Views allow you to observe your data and analyze your site performance.
How to Use Google Analytics
When you already have multiple accounts for your business, it can seem overwhelming to add another to the list. Thankfully, once you get used to its features, Google Analytics is user-friendly. When opening your GA account, you’ll see a dashboard along the side of your screen featuring your home, reporting, customization, and admin tab. Each of these features different metrics and information that can assist you with effective keyword research.
The Home Tab
Like most Google platforms, this is an overview of your GA account where you’ll select which site to analyze. This is the tab you’ll choose if you’d like to view session information, goal conversion rates, and bounce rates.
The Reporting Tab
Your reporting tab updates you on your site performance and includes information that tells you where improvements could be made. Clicking on your reporting tab brings you to a separate page with an Audience Overview Report. It’s here where you’ll find the following information:
- Dashboards: An overview of your reports with customizable widgets.
- Intelligence Events: GA includes a Content Experiments tool that lets you simulate site traffic based on design changes and added content.
- Shortcuts: Allows you to use the platform efficiently by giving you immediate access to your most used reports.
- Real-Time Reports: Provides information about highly searched keywords and the number of viewers interacting with your site.
- Audience Reports: Detailed information about your audience demographics.
- Conversion Reports: The total number of conversions through your website and their activity prior to converting.
The Customization Tab
Your marketing SEO needs may require unique services that aren’t included in GA’s default settings. Thankfully, its customization tab allows you to analyze specific customer data. In fact, the customization tab lets you create as many personalized reports as you’d like. To use this tab, select the metric you want to track along with its corresponding dimensions. For example, you can choose metrics like bounce rates along with dimensions like keywords and phrases.
The Admin Tab
As its title suggests, this is where you manage your account and select the site you want to analyze if you have more than one. You can also switch between other accounts if it applies to your business. Using the admin tab, you can set marketing goals and create user segments. You can also schedule emails and alerts while specifying attribution models. In other words, the admin tab is the place where you manage your account and personalize its settings.
Adding Users
Speaking of the admin tab, you’ll use this section to add other team members to your Google Analytics account. The process is simple and only requires their email address. To add more users, click the admin tab on the left-hand side of your dashboard. Proceed to select your account and click “User Management.” This will allow you to add your team members and select their specific permissions. For example, you can restrict some users from admin-level access. Vice versa, you can give others permission to edit your account’s settings.
Traffic Sources
This portion of Google Analytics allows you to see where your site visitors are coming from and your users’ search intents. Clicking on the acquisitions tab on the left-hand side of your account will allow you to view traffic sources such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and 20 more! This includes internal searches on major websites such as CNN and international search engines.
Social Settings
This Google Analytics feature can be vital if you’re running a social media marketing campaign. This will allow the platform to track your social media metrics and the results that come out of your marketing campaigns. While this won’t be included with your tracking code, you can measure it separately under their “Social Settings.” For example, including a link to one of your social media accounts will alert the system to track visitor data.