Painting by Numbers: Google Analytics

Shelby Thayer & Nikki Massaro Kauffman

What are your website objectives?

How do you know if you’re meeting those objectives?

So What?

Data Limitations
Data quality sucks – get over it.
Web data will never be perfect.
Different browsers
Blocking cookies
Forgot to tag a page?
Why bother if the data isn’t accurate?

Data Limitations
Accurate vs. Precise
Being precise is predictable and reproducible.
Use trending
Accurate Precise

Look for Trends
Trends vs. Hard Numbers
Web analytics will never be exact. You’re numbers will never tie out. So many things can skew numbers (visitors using different browsers, clearing cookies, etc.).
Look at trends (what’s changed?)

Look for Trends
Hard numbers bring context.
Which campaign performed better?
You can’t tell from this data – why?
Campaign #1 17% Bounce Rate Campaign #2 38% Bounce Rate

Look for Trends
Hard numbers bring context.
When you bring in the hard numbers you can give it some context.
Campaign #1 17% Bounce Rate 12 Click-throughs Campaign #2 38% Bounce Rate 1,243 Click-throughs

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 segment:
new vs. returning
mobile vs. computer
referring keywords
Etc.

What Do All These Numbers Mean?
Visits
%New Visits
Pageviews
Pages/Visit
Bounce Rate
Avg. Time on Site
Traffic Sources
Content

Google Analytics Dashboard

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

Visits & % New Visits

Pageviews & Pages/Visit
An instance of a page being loaded by a browser.
Relies on changing URL.
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
What if the purpose of your site is for visitors to find what they want and get out after just one page?

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
URL where visitor originated before arriving at your site
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 Bookmarks, Typing, Etc. psu.edu, HelpDesks, Twitter, Etc. Google, Yahoo, Bing, Etc.

Traffic Sources

Content
why people come to your site & what they are looking for
Try viewing as Content by Title
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.

Google Analytics Resources
Google Analytics Blog: http://analytics.blogspot.com
Google Analytics Help:
Getting Started
Analytics IQ
Analytics Help Forum
ITS Technology Training Community: http://technologytraining.psu.edu

Google Analytics Resources
Kyle James’ Presentations: http://www.slideshare.net/jameskm03
Avanish Kaushik's Blog : http://www.kaushik.net
Avanish Kaushik’s Web Analytics an Hour a Day
Shelby Thayer's Blog: http://www.trendingupward.net
Web Analytics Association: http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org

http://higheredanalytics.com	268
https://wikispaces.psu.edu	175
http://accessibility.psu.edu	44
http://webstandards.psu.edu	19
http://www.slideshare.net	4
http://www.personal.psu.edu	1

Painting by Numbers: Google Analytics

by Nikki Massaro Kauffman on Feb 11, 2010

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

6 Embeds 511

Statistics

Painting by Numbers: Google Analytics — Presentation Transcript