5 Beginner Tips on How to Use Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a great way to get real insight to your traffic and where it’s coming from. One thing about this nifty tool that people don’t realise though is that it’s not as minimalistic as it may appear to be. In fact, there may be a few features you didn’t even know about and are not using, when you should be! If you are a beginner at Google Analytics and you want to make sure you are using it to your advantage, here are a few tips to help you along the way. 1. The Pie Matters: You can look at a pie chart on Google Analytics that will give you some pretty important information such as where your traffic is coming from. In fact, you can see every single visit and where it comes from in Google Analytics by visiting the Sources Overview Report. As with any site, it’s important to you and to Google that you have an array of traffic sources including Social Bookmarking Sites, Social Networking Sites, Press Release Sites, Direct Traffic and Traffic Email Campaigns. 2. Landing Pages: I think most people would agree that having a nice landing page is one of the most important aspects to your website. If you have an unorganised landing page, you will be missing out on turning visitors into potential customers or clients. Thankfully, Google Analytics has an option in the Content > Site Content > Landing Pages section that will let you view other people’s pages and see who has the highest bounce rates as well as other pertinent information such as average time on website, page value, visits and page views. Take a look at some of the best landing pages on Content > Site Content > Landing Pages and get a better idea on how you can make your own landing page a BETTER landing page. 3. Mobile = Money: These days, just about everyone owns some sort of mobile device. If you do not have a website that is mobile responsive you are missing out on not only visits, but social shares if people like the page and potential sales. If you do have a mobile responsive website, you can take a look at mobile reports via the Audience > Mobile > Devices. This section lets you view an assortment of data including visits, impressions/views, time the visitor stayed on the page, new visit percentages and bounce rate. 4. On Page Clicks: Do you own an e-store or something similar? Have you ever wondered how many clicks you got for each navigation menu or for each product? If so, then you will really like this feature in Google Analytics. It’s called the On Page or In Page Click Report. It will literally give you a percentile break-down of every section, product or link on your page and let you see which items get clicked the most. This is a really great way to see what products or sections get the most clicks so you can start to build more pages or products like it. For example, if you have a toy e-store and you have a section for Sports, Music Instruments, Bikes, etc., and you see that you only get 45% of your clicks on music and 65% on Sports, it will give you a better advantage of knowing what products your visitors tend to like more or pay attention to more. Use this report to your advantage to really see what people like. 5. Location Location Location: As with any website, location of your visitors (usually) matters. You can find a location report of any and all visitors in the Audience > Demographics > Location to see all sorts of info and data about your visitors such as a map graph with color patterns as well as visits from certain countries, page vs visits from certain countries, visit duration and new visit percentages. You will also find another important feature on this page called Goal Conversion Rate that helps you see how close you are to your current goals on Google Analytics. Hopefully these tips on reports will allow you to “read’ into Google Analytics a little more. It’s also important that you use Google Analytics as a tool. Don’t be afraid to press buttons when it comes to learning how to use Google Analytics. Grab a cuppa, sit down and really dig into the nitty gritty of what Google Analytics is and how to use every aspect of it to your advantage.