Evaluate Your Content
with Google Analytics
(by category)
Ben MacNeill
User Interface Designer, eXtension

Google Analytics
• Website traffic analysis tool
• It's free (but you need a google account.
unfortunately no public view.)
• Visitors, Traffic, Content

Where
are your
visitors
coming
from?

How are
your
readers
finding
your
content?

What's
the most
popular
content?

How many
boiiiiiiing
boiiiiiiiiiiiing
visit your
boiiiiiiiiiiiiing
page and
bo–
boing
leave?
boiiiiiiiing
boiiiing (and is
boiiiiiiiing that good
boiiiing or bad?)
boiiiiing

What about my content?
• the Public site GA data is aggregated
• No way to look at a single category of content
(until recently!)

Top-Level Categories
Now in GA
• Available in content reports
• Top Content (Most Popular)
• Top Landing Pages (Arrivals)
• Top Exit Pages (Departures)
• Look at all content or limit to specific types
(Articles, FAQs, Learning Lessons, Events)

What Does it Look Like?

How it works
• Actual url: http://www.extension.org/faq/824
• We pass an extra parameter to GA when the
visit is recorded
• Extra parameter = Top-level categories

Using the 'Find Page' Filter
• Select a report: Content > Top Content
• Choose any CoP resource area tag
• No spaces. \"beef_cattle\" not \"beef cattle\"
• View all content: fire_ants
• View only FAQs: (faq).*(fire_ants)
• View only Articles: (pages).*(fire_ants)

Analysis: Bounce rate
• the percentage of visitors to a page who leave
without visiting any other page

Bounce rate: 41.46%

Bounce rate: 90.91%

Let's Go to
the Browser

Be Careful When
Evaluating Your Pages
• Don't make decisions based only on our star
rating system
• it can be gamed
• may or may be statistically significant
• doesn't show up in search

Under-performers?
• Don't unpublish a piece of content
• Destroys all the Google page rank built up
for that page
• Generates a \"Page not found\" for all new
visitors coming from search
• Damages the reputation of the site
• Breaks all links that point to your page

Get Reports by Email

Getting Access to GA
• If you need access to GA, send me your gmail
address or the email associated with your
google user ID.
• ben.macneill@extension.org
• thanks!