Google Analyitcs: Painting by Numbers

Painting by Numbers:Google Analytics

So What?
Ask yourself “so what” 3 times.
What can you do with this data?
If you can’t do anything, it’s not useful.

Look for Trends
Numbers in a vacuum do not mean much.
Can you compare it to something?
Can you look at the data over time?
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Don’t Forget Qualitative Data!
Must know visitors and pages to interpret analytics data (quantitative).
Use surveys, focus groups, or informal chats with visitors to find out about how they use the site (qualitative).

Filter & Segment
Make sense of the data by looking at a subset: your subject library or department, new visitors, iPhone users, etc.
Combine to create advanced segments: new visitors with iPhones, etc.

What Do All These Numbers Mean?
Visits
%New Visits
Pageviews
Pages/Visit
Bounce Rate
Avg. Time on Site
Traffic Sources
Content
1.02
121,585
99.05%
123,747
99.69%
00:00:02

Google Analytics Dashboard

Visits & % New Visits
Visits
Measured by cookies.
From the time a site is accessed until browser is closed or user is inactive for 30 minutes.
% New Visits
Measured by cookies.
What about visitors who don’t allow cookies or remove them?

Visits & % New Visits

Pageviews & Pages/Visit
Pageviews
An instance of a page being loaded by a browser.
Relies on changing URL.
Pages/Visit
Average number of pages accessed in a visit.
“Visit” as defined previously.
Activity on rich media (Flash, etc.) sites will not show up as pageviews without special code.

Pageviews & Pages/Visit

Bounce Rate
Percentage of visits that left your site after a single page
Look at what page they are on and where they are going. Did they print the page? Did they go to another Libraries site?
Combine Bounce Rate with Keywords or Avg. Time on Site to find out more.
Prioritize bounce rate by most popular landing page.
Look at particular segments to make sure you aren’t losing visitors you want.

Bounce Rate

Avg. Time on Site
Calculated by timestamps for each page.
No way to tell how much time was spent on last page.
Did they find what they want or just give up? What can you really do with this information?

Avg. Time on Site

Traffic Sources
Referring Sites
URL where visitor originated before arriving at your site
Keywords
Search terms that led visitors to your site.
“So what?”
Try sorting these to find out which give you higher Bounce Rates, fewer Pages/Visit, etc.
Create a segment and look at these areas.

Traffic Sources

Content
Content
why people come to your site & what they are looking for
Try viewing as Content by Title
Landing Pages
core entry points for visitors (not just your home page)
Try sorting Top Content or Landing Pages on Unique Pageviews, Bounce Rate, Etc.

Content

Site Overlay
Visual representation of what links are being visited on site
Puts the data in the context of the site.
Use it to decide which links can or should be changed.

Hands-On Training Sessions

Google Analytics Resources
Kyle James’ Presenations
Avanish Kaushik's Blog & Web Analytics an Hour a Day
Shelby Thayer's Blog
Web Analytics Association
Google Analytics Blog
Google Analytics Help:
Getting Started
Analytics IQ
Analytics Help Forum
ITS Technology Training Community
https://wikispaces.psu.edu/display/training/Google+Analytics+Training and click Google Analytics Resources.

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Google Analyitcs: Painting by Numbers

by Nikki Massaro Kauffman

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