The document presents insights on using Google Analytics (GA) for a community of practice focused on financial security, detailing how non-expert users can track website performance and optimize content based on user engagement metrics. It discusses the preliminary findings on popular topics and the effectiveness of various online resources created by the financial security community over time. Additionally, it highlights the challenges and successes encountered in analyzing data to improve online outreach and provide better financial resources to the audience.

1. Using Data from
Google Analytics
Fahzy Abdul-Rahman (NMSU)
… with major assistance from
Andrew Zumwalt
2012 eXtension Annual Conference
October 3, 2012

2. Goal
1. To share our Community of Practice’s (CoP’s)
experience on how we have been using Google
Analytics (GA)
– As non-expert users
– Not intended to go over Google Analytics for CoPs
• eXtension webinar by Amy Hays (July 2011) - slideshare
2. To share preliminary findings on items that tend
to get more hits
– Write eXtension publication with these factors in
mind without sacrificing quality

3. Motivation
• What are getting the hits? Factors?
• What GA information tend to be highly useful?
– Extension.org is non-profit organization
– Many of the GA information pertain to
information measurable in $ (e.g. sales, donation)
• Conversion rate (more later)
• AdWords
• Application to Personal Finance CoP
– Different than Child Care example?

4. Google Analytics IQ (GAIQ) Lessons
• Fundamentals
• Account Administration
• Campaign Tracking and AdWords
First Steps Integration
• Introduction to Google Analytics • Analysis Focus - AdWords
• Installing the Google Analytics • Goals in Google Analytics
Tracking Code
• Filters in Google Analytics
• Working with Report Data
• Regex and Google Analytics
• Cookies and Google Analytics
Interpreting Reports
• E-commerce Tracking
• Pageviews, Visits, and Visitors
• Domains and Subdomains
• Time Metrics
• Traffic Sources
• In-Depth Analysis
• Content Reports
• Advanced Segmentation
• Analytics Intelligence
• Internal Site Search
• Event Tracking and Virtual Pageviews
• Additional Customizations

5. Get the most out of your reports
Getting Started • Optimize keywords: Watch videos to learn how
• Install tracking code: Install your tracking code to get the most value from your advertising
and view reports within 24 hours. spend.
• Set up goals: Identify what key actions you want • Tag campaigns: Track conversions on banner ads,
to track, conversion rates for ads, marketing email marketing, and other marketing initiatives.
initiatives, ecommerce or more. Set up goals to • Track Ecommerce: Link ecommerce performance
measure your effectiveness. to keywords and marketing campaigns for details
• Working with Report Data: Explore your data on ROI and more.
and learn how to read basic reports.
Exploring Advanced Features
Interpreting Reports: Pageviews, Visits, and Visitors; • Advanced Segmentation: Create and use
Time Metrics; Traffic Sources; Content Reports custom segments to isolate and analyze specific
parts of your traffic.
Maximizing Online Advertising & Ecommerce • Custom Reporting: Use the drag-and-drop
• Link to AdWords: Monitor your AdWords interface to create reports with the metrics and
revenue, conversions, and ROI. Watch this dimensions you want.
short video to learn how. • Flash Tracking: Simplified tracking for Adobe
• Link AdSense Got an AdSense account to Flash, Flex and AS3 content.
monetize your site? Link your AdSense and • Create customized email reports: Send regularly
Google Analytics accounts to gain more insight scheduled reports to stakeholders within your
into your AdSense performance. Find out which company.
pages and referrers generate the most revenue,
and optimize your site's performance using
AdSense Reports.

6. How have we used GA results?

7. FSA CoP
• Financial Security for All (FSA) Community of Practice (CoP)
• Led by 10-15 Extension professionals
• Develop resources; provide peer-reviewed Frequently
Asked Questions and Featured Resources; answer Ask the
Expert questions; and created online learning lessons
– Lessons: Bankruptcy Education and Investing for Farm Families
• Consumers a source of reliable and up-to-date financial and
consumer information through a knowledge base of
commonly asked questions that have science-based, peer
reviewed answers.

8. How have we used GA results?
• Shared with NIFA
• Monthly CoP Meeting
– Unusual activities
– Top hits
– Accessed Webinar recording
– CoP annual report

9. E.g. #1 Month Pageviews
Jan 1, 2007 - Jan 31, 2007 0
Feb 1, 2007 - Feb 28, 2007 0
Content filtered by Mar 1, 2007 - Mar 31, 2007
Apr 1, 2007 - Apr 30, 2007
8
365
“personal_finance” May 1, 2007 - May 31, 2007
Jun 1, 2007 - Jun 30, 2007
Jul 1, 2007 - Jul 31, 2007
1,509
948
1,387
Aug 1, 2007 - Aug 31, 2007 1,331
Sep 1, 2007 - Sep 30, 2007 993
Oct 1, 2007 - Oct 31, 2007 1,286
Nov 1, 2007 - Nov 30, 2007 1,406
Dec 1, 2007 - Dec 31, 2007 916
Jan 1, 2008 - Jan 31, 2008 1,030
Feb 1, 2008 - Feb 29, 2008 788
Mar 1, 2008 - Mar 31, 2008 741
Apr 1, 2008 - Apr 30, 2008 616
…
Jan 1, 2009 - Jan 31, 2009 734
Feb 1, 2009 - Feb 28, 2009 767
Mar 1, 2009 - Mar 31, 2009 785
Apr 1, 2009 - Apr 30, 2009 30,348
May 1, 2009 - May 31, 2009 32,451
Jun 1, 2009 - Jun 30, 2009 32,060
Jul 1, 2009 - Jul 31, 2009 32,618
Aug 1, 2009 - Aug 31, 2009 30,837

10. Pre-April 2009
• From Ben MacNeill (eXtension engineering
group)
That spike is directly related to when we started
collecting GA data by category. Around April 11 we
appended categories to the URL that Google
records so that we could then filter by category
within GA.
There's no way to get that information prior to April
2009.

11. E.g. #2
Glossary Spike
• 5,000 page views for January 31, 2012

12. Glossary Spike
• For that day, 1,353 Pageviews from
"cloquet.k12.mn.us" (Unique's: 167)

13. E.g. #3
AaE Question Escalation
• (August, 2012) “Received a deluge of AaE question
escalation reports this past month. Not sure why.
Unfortunately, some questions were about resources in
a certain county in the U.S., some wanted financial
assistance from us, some were very poorly worded, and
some were just plain venting about the economy or the
government. I answered them the best that I could and
closed out some that we couldn't work with.”

14. AaE Question Escalation
• Not everything can
be answered by GA

15. Where are the hits coming from?

16. eXtension - ALL
Historically
FSA

17. eXtension stats: Applicable to FSA?
• National
Data from:
Quantcast

18. • Visitors Flow, September 2012
FSA Visitor’s Tendency

19. • Browser & OS, September 2012
FSA Visitor’s Tendency

20. 04/2009-04/2009 Keywords 09/2012
1. 1.
lost birth certificate 7,931 (not provided) 1,357
1.76% 18.93%
2. 2.
what is fica on my paycheck 7,931 smart goals 85
1.76% 1.19%
3. 3.
(not provided) 5,500 what is fica tax 42
1.22% 0.59%
4. 4.
what is fica 2,847 rmd rules 39
0.63% 0.54%
5. 5.
fica tax 2,463 investing for farm families 38
0.55% 0.53%
6. 6. what is fica on my payche
what is debt 1,759 34
0.39% ck 0.47%
7. 7. what's fica on my payche
fica exempt 1,695 30
0.38% ck 0.42%
8. 8.
self proving affidavit 1,695 lost birth certificate 27
0.38% 0.38%
9. 9.
self-proving affidavit 1,279 fica exemption 25
0.28% 0.35%
10. 10. important household doc
replace lost birth certificate 1,216 25
0.27% uments 0.35%

21. 04/2009-04/2009 Referral Traffic Source
1. 09/2012
google.com 320
1. 12.46%
google.com 7,643
8.12%
2.
genxfinance.com 69
2. 2.69%
genxfinance.com 5,692
6.05%
3.
3. intranet 62
extension.iastate.edu 2,718 2.41%
2.89%
4.
4. fcs.tamu.edu 61
njaes.rutgers.edu 2,111 2.38%
2.24%
5.
5. njaes.rutgers.edu 58
fcs.tamu.edu 2,015 2.26%
2.14%
6.
6. csrees.usda.gov 55
csrees.usda.gov 1,759 2.14%
1.87%
7. 7.
facebook.com 1,407 early-retirement.org 55
1.49% 2.14%
8. 8.
lifehacker.com 1,247 studentaid.rutgers.edu 55
1.32% 2.14%
9. 9.
about.extension.org 1,151 google.ca 53
1.22% 2.06%
10 10
extension.unh.edu 1,151 4-h.org 52
. 1.22% . 2.02%

22. The Hits
• Data from GA
• Many readily available from FSA CoP efforts (e.g.
tagging)
• Scraping
– Google Spreadsheet Doc (=insertHTML, =insert…)
• Limitations: 50 per sheet, Excel VBA better but lack expertise
– To obtain number of words and tagging for FAQs
– Sample 150 out of 1,815 from FAQ list.
• Excel and SAS for data cleaning and analyses

23. GA Metrics are Not Perfect
• Sample
– E.g. This report is based on 499,411 visits (6.28%)
• Hits = Reading = Comprehension = behavior
change?
– Print one and make copies
– Hit a page and stayed on that page while
attending other oncoming matters
• Cookies block

24. Overall Hits for “personal_finance”,
04/2009 – 04/2012
Unique Avg. Time
• From top 25 “all time” pageviews:
# Page Title
Personal Finance – eXtension 49,211
Pageviews Pageviews on Page Entrances
34,521 0:00:52 25,098
1 Investing for Your Future - eXtension Learning Lessons 25,735 20,387 0:01:33 18,669
2 How can I replace a lost birth certificate? – eXtension 17,936 16,759 0:04:51 16,727
What is the FICA tax that is taken out of my paycheck? -
3 eXtension 16,568 16,074 0:04:31 15,915
4 Organize Your Important Papers - eXtension 16,297 13,655 0:02:36 12,366
Financial Security: Managing Money in Tough Times –
5 eXtension 13,782 8,132 0:00:58 5,283
6 Investing Unit 1: Building Blocks - eXtension 11,809 8,785 0:01:55 3,071
7 Financial Security: Glossary - eXtension 11,347 2,037 0:00:31 620
8 Teaching Children Coping Skills - eXtension 9,899 9,262 0:02:20 8,833
9 Financial Security: Glossary - eXtension 9,613 1,082 0:00:36 700
Financial Security: Managing Money in Tough Times -
10 eXtension 8,849 4,456 0:00:54 2,769
11 Investing for Your Future - eXtension 8,674 6,684 0:01:45 6,207
12 Investing for Your Future - eXtension Learning Lessons 8,244 6,111 0:01:45 5,459
13 SMART Financial Goal-Setting - eXtension 8,180 4,520 0:01:39 4,153
Who is exempt from paying the FICA tax in the United
14 States? - eXtension 7,703 6,541 0:03:24 6,525

25. Unique Avg. Time
# Page Title Pageviews Pageviews on Page Entrances
What is the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) rule for
tax-deferred retirement plans such as IRAs and 401(k)s? –
15 eXtension 7,177 6,780 0:03:46 6,525
How long should you keep monthly utility bills such as gas,
electricity, water, etc. for your home? I have heard a year,
and that is what I am starting to do in a notebook with
dividers for each month. Is there any point in keeping these
16 records any longer? - eXtension 6,939 6,780 0:02:51 6,700
Financial Security: Managing Money in Tough Times -
Overall Hits for
17 eXtension
Organize Your Important Household Papers: Print this
6,477 3,947 0:01:01 2,387
18 Lesson - eXtension 6,095 4,854 0:03:32 4,106
“personal_finance”
Even Frost-Free Outdoor Faucets Can Freeze, Break -
19 eXtension News 6,032 5,729 0:03:14 5,729
20 Investing for Your Future - eXtension Learning Lessons 5,968 4,981 0:01:35 4,663
Financial Security: Managing Money in Tough Times -
21 eXtension 5,872 3,055 0:01:05 1,782
22 Financial Security: Retirement Planning - eXtension 5,729 3,644 0:01:37 668
What's the best peer-to-peer music download software? -
23 eXtension 5,618 5,490 0:02:07 5,490
How long should you keep Explanation of Benefit
statements from insurance companies, including Medicare?
24 - eXtension 5,268 5,029 0:03:19 4,965
25 What is a self-proving affidavit? - eXtension 5,061 4,774 0:02:50 4,726

26. Overall Flow
• From top 25 all time pageviews:
– 17 are pages
• Pages could be curriculum, articles, monthly
messages, glossary
• Average time = 1:41 min
• Tend to be simple. E.g. introduction pages
– 8 are FAQs
• Average time = 3:27 min
• Higher complexity: Longer, comprehending questions and
answers
• “How can I replace a lost birth certificate?” Is #2

27. Results by Page Categories
• Articles
• Glossary Terms
• FAQs

28. Result
FOR ARTICLES

29. Article Top Tags
• 63: personal_finance_research_summaries,
• 52: financial_security:_legal_topics,
• 38: financial_security:_financial_planning_process_research,
• 36: financial_security:_managing_money_in_tough_times,
• 34: cop,
• 32: financial_crisis,
• 31: financial_security:_saving_and_investing_research,
• 31: disasters,
• 29: financial_security,
• 26: financial_security:_consumer_credit,
• 24: financial_security:_consumer_education_research,
• 24: financial_crisis_and_individuals,

30. Average
Google Average Page
Title Date Published
Search Views per
Entrances Week
Investing for Your Future 8-Jan2010 47.2025 319.949
Financial Security: Managing Money in Tough Times 29-Jun2010 17.4177 192.076
Organize Your Important Papers 19-Feb2007 84.6329 169.215
Investing Unit 1: Building Blocks 15-Oct2009 5.02532 94.0127
Teaching Children Coping Skills 10-Sep2008 56.4051 93.2405
Financial Security: Glossary 14-Feb2007 1.86076 91.7848
SMART Financial Goal-Setting 19-Feb2007 33.6582 89.5443
Deciding Which Bills to Pay First 24-Jun2010 25.2658 87.6962
Organize Your Important Household Papers: Print this
28-Sep2007
Lesson 15.2532 72.6582
10-
2010
Financial Security: Retirement Planning Mar 2.17722 61.3418
Coping With Stress 10-Sep2008 24.4177 54.0253
Household Filing System 31-Jan2008 24.8987 49.4684
Investing for Farm Families 14-Oct2009 6.59494 47.1266
Investing Unit 1: Wealth Protection 28-Jul2008 0.417722 45.2785

31. Average
Google Average Page
Title Date Published
Search Views per
Entrances Week
Investing Unit 1: Wealth Protection 28-Jul2008 0.417722 45.2785
Organize Your Important Household Papers:
5-Apr2009
Introduction 5.46835 41.924
Financial Security: Estate Planning 27-Jan2009 1.67089 41.6203
Financial Security: Consumer Credit 2-Apr2011 2.17722 41.3671
Sizing Up Your Financial Situation 24-Jun2010 2.5443 40.8861
10-
2006
Financial Security for All Learning Lessons Nov 0.531646 40.8354
Investing Unit 2: Investing Basics 12-Feb2009 0.367089 40.6582
Financial Security for All Debtor Education 19-Apr2010 2.73239 40.2817
Financial Security: Children and Money 11-Jan2011 2.05063 39.8101
Dealing With Collection Agencies 8-Dec2009 22.2763 37.4737
Accepting Your Feelings 25-Jun2010 17.4937 36.2532
11-
2009
How Does a Credit Card Work? Nov 27.9494 34.7722

32. Log(Average Page Views per Week)
Log(Average Hits/Week) (1) (2) (3) (4)
Intercept 0.82517 1.585*** 1.358*** 1.523***
Log(Average Google Search 0.634*** 0.609***
Entrances)
Age of Article (Days) -0.0006*** 0.0002* -0.0007*** 0.000193
Number of Tags 0.140*** -0.04098
Research Summary -0.685** -1.06331
Financial Planning Research -0.21013 -0.1752
Legal 0.35982 0.14268
Managing in Tough Times 1.790*** 0.82425
Adj R^2 0.0443 0.509 0.1173 0.5788
n(Read) 506 506 506 506
n(Used) 485 433 485 433

33. Results
FOR GLOSSARY TERMS

34. Top 13
Average Average
Glossary Title Date PublishedGoogle Search Page Views
Entrances per Week
Periodic Expenses 15-Nov2006 9.43038 11.6582
Bankruptcy 5-Apr2009 2.59494 5.86076
Diversification 19-Feb2007 0.025317 3.5443
Debt Limit (Debt-to-Income
15-Nov2006 2.5443 3.3038
Ratio)
Bond 3-Aug2007 0.164557 2.94937
Durable Power of Attorney 20-Nov2007 0.189873 2.94937
Net (“Take-Home”) Income 15-Nov2006 2.39241 2.94937
Portfolio 15-Nov2006 0.835443 2.78481
Annual Report 14-Nov2006 0.012658 2.65823
Bear Market 14-Nov2006 0 2.51899
Corporate Bonds 22-Feb2007 0.164557 2.50633
Self-Proving Affidavit 17-Apr2007 1.49367 2.49367
Commodities 22-Feb2007 0.012658 2.44304

35. #14-25
Average Average
Glossary Title Date Published
Google Search Page Views
Entrances per Week
Bull Market 14-Nov2006 0 2.41772
Blue-Chip Stock 14-Nov2006 0 2.40506
401(k) Plan 14-Nov2006 0.037975 2.40506
Unused Credit 15-Nov2006 2.05063 2.40506
Broker 14-Nov2006 0 2.36709
Commission 15-Nov2006 0 2.3038
Account Maintenance Fees 14-Nov2006 1.86076 2.26582
Debt Balance 15-Nov2006 1.63291 2.08861
Stock 29-Jul2010 0.037975 2.07595
Growth Funds 15-Nov2006 0 2.05063
Index Fund 15-Nov2006 0 2.05063
Mutual Fund 15-Nov2006 0.0126582 2.01266
Google search one item leads to related items

36. Glossary: Log(Average Hits/Week)
Variable (1) (2)
Intercept 1.33 2.526***
Log(Average Google
0.625***
Search Entrances)
Age of Article (Days) -0.002 -0.00126***
Number of Tags 0.047 0.03788
Adj R^2 0.0416 0.411
n(Read) 505 505
n(Used) 474 239

37. Results
FOR FAQS: DATA INCOMPLETE

38. Implications
• GA is very useful even for a non-profit organization like
eXtension
• SMART Goals
– For conversion rate
– Possible goals: Enrollment in the online courses
• Bankruptcy, Investment for Farm Families,
– Higher search rank (SEO)
• Tagging
– Messy: Not everyone tags, insonsistencies
• financial_security:_consumer_credit vs. consumer_credit vs.
consumercredit vs. credit
– Important for evaluation
• Factors that matter: Subject matter, Google search
entry, number of tags (+)

39. Recommendations/Future Studies
• Adequate data: If data were merged properly
• … with improved Excel VBA skills for data
scrapping
• … and cleaned data
• … which include having well-defined tags
– Encourage improved tagging in CoPs
• SMART goals for conversion rate. E.g. enrollment
in courses
• Google Optimizer for optimum eXtension.org
design

40. Using Data from
Google Analytics
Fahzy Abdul-Rahman (NMSU)
fahzy@nmsu.edu
2012 eXtension Annual Conference
October 3, 2012