Beginner’s Guide to Google Analytics
Google is amongst the biggest search engines, with daily visitors crossing over one billion. But, what is even better about it is the host of tools by Google that websites can employ to learn and track their growth . One such tool is Google Analytics . Free and easy to comprehend, Google Analytics is one of the best tools that help website owners, monitor, track and analyse their progress online. In addition to page insights GA (Google Analytics) also allows expert SEO strategists and Marketers to create custom goals like Tracking Web Page Visits, Number Of Clicks and build Reports, among other benefits .
From tracking real-time users on the website to a treemap that exhibits every action a visitor takes on it, Google Analytics leaves no leaf unturned in helping website owners to get a detailed analysis of everything that happens on every page of a website . But before you can enjoy all the benefits of business analysis tools that Google Analytics offers, you should be able to learn how to set up google analytics . Through this article, we not only learn how you can set up Google Analytics on your website but also dive deeper into its many categories, including Audience, Acquisition, Behaviour and Conversions .
Steps to setup Google Analytics for your website
Wondering how to set up google analytics? Here are some steps you can follow. Remember, once your website is ready, setting up your Google Analytics is the first thing you must do.
- Create a Google Analytics Account (its free)
- Tap the Admin button found on the bottom left side and create your account.
- In the dropdown menu choose to create a property.
- Provide all the necessary details, including your website name and URL. Make sure you pick the right time zone.
- Upon entering all the information, click on Get Tracking ID to get a Code that starts with “GA”.
- Embedded this code in the CMS ex. on WordPress of WIX. All CMS have a Google Analytics integration option that requires you to install the code and it works just fine.
- You can also choose the Google Analytics Code and place it in the header of each of your pages to get per page insights .
- Once the tracking ID or code is installed you can get a real-time view of visitors in Google Analytics . That’s how to set up google analytics on your website.
The Main Section Of Google Analytics Reports
Google Analytics is expanded in various sections, each with a distinct purpose to help website owners and analysts understand all page insights in detail. Some of the most important sections include —
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Traffic Sources
– if you own a website that receives traffic i.e people are visiting your website pages, there must be a source. This can be from Google’s search results page, people entering your website page name directly into their search bar to visit your website, social media and many more. Using traffic sources, you can determine where your traffic is coming from. The traffic sources are distinguished into three main categories are Direct, Referral and Search Engine . No matter where your traffic is coming from it can always be placed into one of these sections . Putting a little more light on the three sections, here is what each of them means.
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Direct Traffic
— When someone lands on your website directly, it is Direct Traffic. So, if you did an email marketing campaign and embedded your website URL in it, people who click on it will come directly to your website. Similarly, if someone types your website URL into their search bar, it is categorised as direct traffic . So, emails, SMS, chats, among others, fall under Direct Traffic .
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Referral Traffic
— Other than direct, there is another way people can visit your website which is from other websites which is Referral traffic. The most common form of Referral traffic that you can easily generate is via social media. So, if you do a Facebook ad or Instagram story with your website link and people “swipe up” to visit your website, Google Analytics recognises it as referral traffic. Similarly, if someone gives a link to your website in their blog, the traffic that comes from there becomes a referral.
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Search Engine Traffic
— When someone searches you on Google and finds any ranking URL of your website, it becomes Search Engine Traffic. However, there is more to it. Keywords and search engine optimization play an important role in getting more search engine traffic from sources like Google and Bing, among other search engines. The more your website pages are optimized, the better chances you have to rank higher. Search Engine Traffic is further divided into Paid/CPC and organic traffic. If you run an ad on google, the traffic that comes from there will fall under CPC. Organic, on the other hand, is non paid.
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Campaigns
— Paid or unpaid, if you have a camping run, you can check its progress in Acquisition > Campaigns > All Campaigns. But, before you can do that, make sure you have embedded the Google Analytics tracking tags in the campaign. For example — you can place the code in a button in an email. So whenever someone clicks on the button, Google Analytics registers it. You can future categorise the campaign in Sources, Medium, Traffic Type and more.
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Adwords & AdSense
— If you run ads on search engines, you can track them in the Adwords (better known as Google Ads) section. However, if you are a publisher who generates revenue from ads on their website, you can get a comprehensive insight using Adsense.
Content Performance Analysis
You can check the performance of each of your website pages, track audience behaviour and analyse content performance via Google Analytics.
Pages and Landing Pages — To get a detailed report on your landing pages, you will have to integrate your website to Google Search Console. Landing Pages can establish which are the most visited pages, keywords that they are ranking for and more.
Event Tracking And Adsense — You can set up event tracking in the Google Analytics settings. These events are generally what you want your user to do. For example, Watching a video or downloading a file. Each event can be established in a Category with an Action, Label and Value. Once your event is set up, you can track and analyse it in real-time. Adsense is another option to explore if you are a publisher. You can visit the Adsense option to track visits, views and more.
Site Search Tracking — This report allows you to monitor what people are searching for within your website. It is specifically beneficial if you have a search function on your website. You can set up site search by going to admin in Google Analytics, site search settings and turn on-site search tracking. You can set up parameters and include or exclude a search term.
Visitors Analysis
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Unique Visitors
— There are repeating visitors and unique visitors. If someone lands on any of your website pages for the first time, they are considered Unique Visitors. You can track and compare the number of unique visitors here.
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Geographic and Language Information
— Google Analytics allows you to get page insights into the Behavioural data of the visitors which include which country or region they are coming from and the language they use to visit your website. The data is specifically beneficial when running paid or organic campaigns.
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Technical Reports
— With Tech Reports, you can discover everything from what device your traffic is using to visit your website to the operating system, browser and more.
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Benchmarking
— This is a very beneficial option that helps you compare your performance within your niche. You can find it under Audience > Benchmarking. Comparisons from Devices used to channel and traffic sources can be made here.
Ultimately, you need to spend some time to get a grasp on every report and option that Google Analytics provides. The more you understand the better you analyse.
