Arguably one of the most sorted out tools, Google Analytics understand your website traffic like no other. It emerges to be a powerful web analytics application that like any other Google offering comes absolutely free.
Offering a host of compelling features as well as benefits for every professional starting from senior executives to website owners, this application is indeed a wonder.
As per statistics, there are 27,725,874 live websites that use it currently. It has a number of variations such as –
- 360 Suite
- Anonymize IP
- Beta Tracking
- Custom Variables
- Ecommerce
- Forced SSL
- Social Interactions
- Tasks
- Universal analytics Debug
Read up to know more about Google Analytics!
How do you set up?
- Set up an account under your primary Google account by visiting the official website – https://www/google.com.analytics/.
- Click on the Sign In option.
- Google now links all the services including its analytics section right under one single centralised account.
- If you have logged in successfully, then visit the Admin tab. Next, set up an account and a property name. A single account can contain multifarious properties for tracking.
- Go under Account drop down and then choose Create New Account.
- Now, name your Account which is your company name, then your website name and lastly, specify your website URL.
- Insert a tracking code which Google Analytics has provided you with. This only takes a few minutes depending upon how long your CMS needs to add this tracking code.
This is it! Now that your tracking is all set up, the web analytics application starts to collect data instantly. After a few days’ time, you get to see your reports and review them.
Goals & conversion tracking
Your digital business success depends upon how well you use the analytics at your disposal. Thousands of competitors are swarming on the web fighting for the “SPOT” on search engine ladder.
Herein comes the vitality of conversion goals. These are the ones measuring your business outcomes. Goals help in tracking your business’ true effectiveness by analysing your website performance. You get to see whether your target hub is doing what it is supposed to do and thus, confirm your business affectivity. So, before you start measuring your goals, you need to set them.
Google Analytics utilises goals for tracking conversion on your website.
Hence, your conversion must align with the rightful action that you need from your website visitors. Conversion may be in the form of a purchase or an info request or subscription. What the analytics implement for measuring the goals is majorly through your destination pages where the user lands for completing a particular task.
Here is how you create a new goal –
- Sign in first and then go to the Admin tab.
- Move to your desired Account and then View.
- Click upon Goals that reside in the View column.
- Hit upon +New Goal.
- Now, choose a fitting template as per your business objectives.
- Click on ‘continue’ and then name your goal.
- Mention how you wish to track your goals.
Remember that the analytics will show you conversions right from the moment you set up the goals tracking. After it receives the data, it shows you a number of reports.
Why is Google Analytics crucial for you?
Bot Filters
Google comprises some of the best robust bot filtering abilities so far. Its capability to fight spams remains unparalleled to date. Bot covers a wide range of things starting from search engines to referral spams. Unlike other software which ignores certain bots, Google does not miss a thing.
Better Metrics
The numbers on this analytics look a lot different than other software as they use diverse kinds of metrics. The stats here remain closer to your site’s unique visits as it measures “sessions”; whereas other programs measure clicks or raw hits. However, a “session” from this analytics gets generated from multifarious page views incurred from a single person. You can say that here, you compare apples with oranges! Keep in mind that the data is rock solid and NOT wrong. It helps you make smart business decisions for your website.
Most accurate
Google knows pretty much everything about everything!
It has very likely got data based upon your browsing habits. Therefore, it proves the best as it gathers REAL insights on REAL people who visit your website. In case you wish to know how many have visited your website, then it is the one who has the right answer.
Way to go! GA is your choice
Google Analytics (GA) is currently the best comprehensive tool of analytics in the market. It lets you grow your business with confidence.
With it, you can –
- Track the demographics of your website visitors
- Know how they are coming to the site
- Learn how are they interacting with the content
Some of the vital things that you can track
Location – Here, you identify the exact geographical location of your website visitors.
Content – Recognise which sites send traffic to you.
eCommerce – Understand the shopping behaviour of your target audience.
Traffic source – Find the most desired blog posts and pages.
Did you know you can add Google to your WordPress?
Yes!
You can easily add Google Analytics to the WordPress website of yours. It can take place in 2 ways:
- Manually: Using the tracking code
- Automatically: Using the Plugin
The GA was industrialized from Urchin on Demand Software. This software was later assimilated by the mega-giant Google in 2005. As earlier the demand for this product was low, it had ‘invitation only’ availability. However, with a million users today, it is entirely accessible.
In the highly digitized 21st century, Analytics has emerged as an influential application which helps you track the traffic patterns for your site. It also integrates with other important programs of Google such as AdSense as well as AdWords.
It’s easy to use and is dynamic in nature. Learn as much as you can, and then, see the web magic it spins for your business!