Over the past couple of years, Google Analytics has risen to the top of of the Site Traffic Tracking game.  There have always been several ways to track your Web site traffic, ranging from the basic statistical data provided by most Web hosts and hit counters to more advanced server side software such as Urchin.  But Google Analytics brings some new features and advantages to this space.

A couple of advantages of Google Analytics over most Site Traffic reporting toools:

  • Easy Installation
  • Easy to read graphs and charts
  • Ability to compare historical data
  • View traffic by geographic location
  • Track time on pages and bounce rates
  • Integration of Adwords 
  • Details about visitor search terms
  • Goal Setting and Tracking
  • Track alternative content
  • Cost (FREE!)

It's not to say that other tracking software doesn't offer some or most of these features, but Google Analytics makes all of this easy, and FREE.

This post is not a how-to for Google Analytics, there are plenty of sites out there that can help you use Google Analytics.  Instead, we are going to talk about what a business should do with Analytics.

What is Google Analytics?

I guess we should start from the very beginning, in case you've never heard of Google Analytics or you haven't yet setup an Analytics account, you should head over to http://www.google.com/analytics/ and sign up for a free account.

So what is Analytics, and why do you need it?  Analytics is Google's solution to tracking events on Web sites.  To start using Anylytics, setup a new site, and you will get a small snippet of Javascript that will contain a unique ID that Google will use to associate with your Analytics account.  In the most basic scenario, you can just place the snippet of code at the bottom of every page on the site you want tracked.  Place the code right before the closing "body" tag, . 

<script type="text/javascript">

 
 
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-xxxxxxxx-x']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
 
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
 
script>
 

Now Analytics can track visitor traffic information on your site, with a few limitations we will discuss.  It takes about 24 hours to start tabulating the data. 

Why use Analytics?

You may be asking, "My host gathers statics already, why should I use another tracking tool?"  My question to you is, " Have you viewed those statistics?"  If you have, you know that the statics that come from most hosting accounts is very limited, and full of data that has very little meaning.  Most of these statistics refer to Page requests and Server requests.  You will notice that the Server requests is a much higher number.  This is because a single page may make many requests to the server.  Every image and file (such as external Style Sheets and Javascript) generates a request.  It is not uncommon for a page to make 10-20 server requests for a single page request.  Your server will additionally log every search engine spider that crawls your site.  So, many of the Page requests that you will see are not actual visitors that you care about so much. 

This information is not entirely useless, and should be used in tandem with Google Analytics.  This will help create a better picture of what is happening with your site.  For instance, your host does provide other useful information such as errors, missing pages, etc.

Where Analytics will really shine is with usability.  The graphs are very easy to read, and you can easily compare your results to past results.  Wouldn't you like to see this month's results to last month? Or the same month a year ago?

Google Analytics Graphing is easy to use.

 Track Everything

 What can you track with Analytics?  Well, for starters, you can track page view information such as:

  • Refering site (where the visitor came from)
  • Time spent on the individual pages
  • Which pages they go to.
  • Bounce rate (A bounce is when a visitor immediately backs out of a page or site immediately)
  • Detailed information about your visitors (Operating System, Browser, New Visitor / Returning Visitor, and so much more)

Ok, that is a great start, but what else can we track?  With some slightly more advanced confirugation, Analytics can track much more information:

  • Facebook Fan Page traffic
  • File downloads (like PDFs)
  • Flash content
  • Ad Campaigns
  • Ecommerce

Goal Setting

Goal Setting with Google Analytics

Goal Setting is an important step in any initialive.  Before you invest in any initiative, you set some goals to judge your success.  Some goals are easy to track, if you are starting an advertising campaign for a new product, you may have a goal to sell some number of units.  It may not be easy to track sales if your role in your organization does not give you direct access to the sales numbers, or you may have a delay in reporting of those numbers.  Further, you may not know how many people add a product to their cart, only to abandon during the checkout process, indicating a problem with your checkout.  

With Google Analytics, you can set a variety of goals, from "Add to Cart" measurements, to downloads of a particular document, or new subscribers to your blog.  Set your goals in Analytics and measure your success.  

I have data, now what?

By now, I am sure you've setup your Analytics, and you are gathering data.  So what do you do with all this new found infomration?  This first thing you should do is evaluate what you precieve as the purpose of your site.  If you are running a blog, you want lots of eyeballs and visitor interaction.  If you are an ecommerce site, you want purchases.  If your site is a corporate presence, or marketing, you want people to view your products and services and contact you. 

Google Analytics for Real Data, Really Quick

Here is a quick scenario that shows how Google Analytics can be used by a Small Busienss to improve visitor experience, and hopefully conversion.  Say you have a basic Corporate Presence Web site, and you see that the majority of your traffic is coming from search engine natural results.  You see the top search terms that your visitors use to find your site, and they are searching for one of your services.  But Analytics shows that you have a very high bounce rate, and very few clicks on your services or contact page.  You may discover that your call to action is not clear or your site is difficult to navigate. 

In another case,you may discover your visitors are coming from a different part of the country, or a different country that you were targeting.  This presents an opportunity to adjust your strategy to appeal to your visitors.  Maybe you need to present your content in a different language, or adjust the colors of your site to appeal to that culture. 

The point is, you can start to see if what you are doing is working, whether a marketing campaign, or content strategy.  As a business, you need to evaluate the success of all your efforts, and Google Analytics can be a powerful tool for you to see what is happening on your site, all for the low price of FREE!

How does your firm use Google Analytics?  Do you track your campaigns?

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Analytics