| So you are new to Google Analytics and it all looks a | | | | useful and time saving feature. |
| bit complicated. Your webmaster has set up your | | | | Underneath the graph of visits we have "Site Usage", |
| website with the GA code and given you access. | | | | with some pretty interesting stuff, most of which is self |
| "Knock yourself out, buddy", he (or she) quips and you | | | | explanatory. When checking the "Compare to Past" |
| are on your own with it. It all looks a bit daunting. | | | | box the previous date range data will show up in |
| Where to start? Relax, here are some simple steps to | | | | green, as well as a percentage increase or decrease. |
| get you started using this amazing and free tool.o | | | | The two items I am most interested in are the "Avg. |
| Break the information down into small chunks. Instead | | | | Time on Site" and the "Bounce Rate". This tells me a |
| of getting pages of data focus on small areas;o Set | | | | lot about how people are reacting to my site. |
| small goals that you can measure - getting people to | | | | What is "Bounce Rate" and what is a good one? |
| look beyond your home page is one goal, another | | | | Bounce rate means the number of visitors who hit |
| could be having a page of interest that you want | | | | your site and 'bounce right out again', not looking at |
| people to click to, or just getting people to spend longer | | | | other pages. The lower this number is the better. What |
| on the site;o Compare timeframes, use the date | | | | a good bounce rate is cannot be set in concrete as |
| settings to compare data prom previous weeks, | | | | there are too many factors involved, but what I have |
| months or years to see if any progress is being | | | | done is look at my bounce rate for a year's date |
| made;o Export data at regular intervals to build a | | | | range, and then compare my current rate with that. |
| record of patterns and trends. | | | | Am I doing better or worse than my own average? |
| I will expand on the above as we look at the Google | | | | Under the Site Usage are several "overview" boxes |
| Analytics Dashboard. This is what you see first on | | | | and clicking the "view report" link brings up the full |
| opening your GA. The blue graph of "Visits" is the | | | | report. These reports have more information that can |
| most noticeable feature, and above this to the right is | | | | be drilled down into, so its important to think about your |
| the date range. | | | | goals. What do you want your website to achieve for |
| By default GA give you the last month's worth of data, | | | | you? Are you trying a new marketing strategy that |
| but by opening up that box you can set the date | | | | you want to track? Keep it simple and be very |
| range to anything you like, a week, a month or even a | | | | specific. I like to see where my traffic is coming from, |
| year by entering the start date and the end date. | | | | and one of my goals is to increase my Page Rank. So |
| Checking the "Compare to Past" box automatically | | | | for me, getting good links into my site is important and I |
| gives dates that precede the one you are looking at | | | | track those results on a weekly basis. |
| for the same amount of time. For example if I choose | | | | Exporting the data is pretty easy in GA, the button is |
| a date range of 3 days, and check that box I will see | | | | on the top left and there are choices for how the data |
| the preceding 3 days. You can override that date | | | | is exported. I like to watch trends and so I export my |
| range which is useful if you want to compare, say, July | | | | weekly "Traffic Sources" report and build my |
| this year with July last year. | | | | spreadsheet using the weeks results. |
| Setting date ranges is a very powerful tool in analyzing | | | | That covers the most basic features of Google |
| data. Once into the report section you want to analyze | | | | Analytics, there is so much more that can be gleaned |
| you can then set date ranges and export the data to | | | | and I will cover some of those subjects in future |
| a spreadsheet, change dates, export again - all without | | | | articles. |
| having to find your reports again. I find this a very | | | | |