Google Analytics is the most widely used website statistics service. It shows you how people found your site, how they explored it, and how you can enhance their visitor experience. With this information, you can improve your website return on investment, increase conversions, and make more money on the web.
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3. It Starts With Passion
Thereâs no shortage of creative thinkers out there.
Whatâs a little harder to find are creative thinkers who
understand business. Thatâs where Supernova Media
Shines.
We are a full service web company. We provide our
customers with a uniform custom branded web
presence.
At Supernova Media we specialize in the speedy setup
of WordPress websites & blogs. All our websites are
mobile friendly, have onsite search engine optimization
and social media integration.
4. Google+ Analytics
Whether Itâs your personal site youâve built from
the ground up or you oversee the digital strategy
for a corporation/business, many of us are
managing a web presence these days.
There are millions of websites out there, and
tracking how people are getting to your site and
whatâs performing well is a must for being
competitive in the online market.
Google Analytics is the most widely used website
statistics service, currently in use on around 55%
of the 10,000 most popular websites.
5. Google Analytics
Google Analytics makes it easy for site managers
to track and analyze this data. Itâs a powerful, free
tool that generates detailed statistics about the
visitors to a website.
Wondering which keywords resonate with
visitors? Need insight on what design elements
might be turning people away?
Hereâs how you can start answering the website
questions that have been keeping you awake at
night.
6. Google Analytics
Sign up for an account and set up a profile for the site
youâd like to track and the step-by-step process will
generate a unique script for you. This is called the tracking
code that you must implement on your website. If youâre
using a content management system or blogging platform
like WordPress, you only need to add the code once to
your template or theme. The theme will propagate the
code in every post and page you create.
If your site is custom-built, youâll either need to implement
the code on each page manually, or speak to your web
developer about how the site generates content.
7. Google Analytics
If you're adding Google Analytics to a WordPress
blog via the Google Analytics for WordPress -
plugin, you need to add the property ID to the
plugin settings.
I recommend to use the Google Analytics for
WordPress âplugin if you need the additional
features like not tracking your own visits,
automatically tracking outgoing links and other
advanced features.
8. What you can Measure
After you connect your site to Google Analytics, hit âView Reportâ on
the initial screen. This will bring you to the main dashboard. In the left
column, youâll see the various types of data Google Analytics provides:
⢠Audience: This shows many things about the people coming to your
site, including where theyâre located geographically, what language
they speak, how often they visit your site and what computers and
browsers they use to get there.
⢠Advertising: This lets you know all about your advertising programs
and how well they are working complete with AdWords integration.
⢠Traffic Sources: Here youâll find how people got to your site. You
can track which sites link to your page or keywords people search
to find you.
9. What you can Measure
⢠Content: This tab gives you insight into specific pages on
your site. It can help answer questions about how people
enter and exit your pages, as well as which ones are most
popular.
⢠Conversions: If youâre aiming for established objectives,
reports in the Goals tab will be helpful to you. Here youâll find
data about desired actions from users, including downloads,
registrations and purchases.
These tabs contain sub reports that provide insights about
specific aspects of your site, including top content and visitor
loyalty.
10. Dashboard
On the âAccount Homeâ you can select which site you would like to
track. After you select the site you will be brought to your
dashboard. On the main dashboard, youâll see a summary of your
siteâs data- this is also the Visitors page. You can customize the
dashboard to show whichever reports you decide you want to see
upfront. By default you will see the number of daily visits youâve
had over a one month period. To change the report, select it from
the left column.
The graph can be viewed not only on a daily basis but also on a
weekly and monthly basis by clicking on the âHourlyâ âDayâ âWeekâ
âMonth âat the top right hand corner of the graph. This is useful if
you want to measure month by month progress over a longer time
frame.
Not only will Google Analytics give you a graph to look at but it will Weekly Report
also list your stats below.
11. Reports
Many of the reports in Google Analytics, such as pageviews and conversion rates, contain linear
graphs that present data for the topic and date range youâve selected. When mousing over the
dots on the line, youâll see measurements for that day, week or hour.
You can change the metric you want to visualize by clicking the tab above the graph on the left.
Here youâll also have the option to compare two metrics against each other. When youâre not
comparing date ranges, you can compare against the site average. This is particularly helpful if
youâve laid out goals, as you can compare site activity to conversion goals. When comparing, a
second line (gray) will appear for the variable over the graph with the original metric line (blue),
making it easy to see how youâre stacking up.
12. Sharing & Exporting
These graphs and reports can be
exported as PDF (recommended), XML,
CSV or TSV file by clicking on the
Export button in the top left corner or
you can email it by clicking on the Email
button. You can also schedule a
recurring report or add the report to an
existing pre-scheduled email.
13. Traffic Sources
Traffic Sources is another great tool for you
to utilize. It can help marketers understand
how well campaigns are working and how
better to invest in site content, advertising,
or other forms of engagement.
The Google Analytics Traffic Sources
section categorizes your site traffic as
"direct" traffic, "referring" traffic, "search
engine" traffic and âcampaignsâ.
Direct traffic comes from people that type
your website address directly in the browser
or click on a bookmark.
14. Traffic Sources
Referral traffic is traffic send from other websites. This
means that you have a link on another website, or you
post a link or an article on another website.
Search engine traffic is traffic that your website receives
from search engines. This traffic source is divided into
organic or non-paid search engine traffic â meaning
that the visitor clicked on a so-called natural search
result â and CPC or paid search engine traffic, which is
the traffic you purchase (via pay-per-click ads from
search engines).
Campaign traffic tracks visitors from a specific source,
such as a an email newlsetter link.
15. Traffic Sources
Selecting "All Traffic Sources" from Google Analytics left-side
navigation will show you a table listing the most active traffic
sources and their medium. Direct traffic, as you would expect, has
a medium of "none." Traffic from Facebook, as an example, will
have a medium of "referral." Search engine traffic will have a
medium or "organic" or "CPC" as described earlier.
Sometimes you will see a search engine domain, like Google.com,
with the medium "referral." This indicates that the site sent you
traffic from a page other than a search engine results page. This
could be a link from a Google+ account or some other Google
service.
These are just a couple of ways to view traffic sources but if you
explore the sub menus within âTraffic Sourcesâ you will find all sorts
of great options.
16. Conversion Rate
The goal of using Google analytics to design a website is to change a
visitor from someone who simply views web pages to someone who has
established some type of relationship with the website. When a webpage
viewer becomes a website customer, a relationship has been established
between the visitor and the website -- a conversion has taken place.
In the simplest terms your conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who
arrive at your landing page, who complete the task you want them to. This
could be clicking on a link, subscribing to a service, or making a purchase.
A conversion rate is calculated over a set time period, usually a week,
though it could be tallied over a day or a month. In most instances,
creating a dedicated landing page will help you acquire and analyze
conversion rates.
The simple logic behind this, is when you make your landing page more
persuasive, you increase your conversion rate.
17. Conversion Rate
If the primary objective of a website is an online purchase, it is
important to make the clickpath to the desired outcome short,
clear, and easy to navigate. Generally, the fewer clicks needed to
accomplish a purchase, the better customers like it. Study the
attributes of visitors to your website and try to create a profile of
those visitors who converted. Be able to answer these questions.
â˘From where do your converted visitors tend to come?
â˘How do converted visitors enter the website?
â˘Do visitors from a specific search engine or advertisement return
to the website?
â˘What sources seem to drive the most interest in your website?
â˘Does your website have any drop-off points?
18. Conversion Rate
The good thing is that Google Analytics can be set up to define the
necessary steps that distinguish a "true conversion." What you will need to
do, however, is sit down and decide which route you want to define as a
true path to visitor conversion in your own website.
The next thing you will need is a success URL that is different from the rest
of the URLs on your site. This is a tricky but important requirement. The
success URL needs to be entirely different from the URLs in the previous
steps. For example:
Step 1: www.somewebsite.com/
Step 2: www.somewebsite.com/contact.php
Step 3 (success URL): www.somewebsite.com/contact.php?x=success
19. Creating a Goal
To set up a Goal (to track conversion rates) Click to the
Conversions tab in the left menu. In the sub menu click
Goals and then click set up Goals.
You can create 5 goals. If you have none setup click
the first open Goal link.
You will then give your Goal a name, activate or
deactivate it and select which type of goal you would
like. Lets choose URL.
So, if your goal process ends with
www.somewebsite.com/contact.php?x=success, enter
that into the URL destination and click save.
20. Creating a Goal
So, if your goal process ends with www.somewebsite.com/contact.php?x=success, enter that
into the URL destination.
In the match type, you have three choices, "head match," "exact match" and "regular
expression match." You need to set this very carefully, or else Google Analytics may provide
the wrong conversion data. Check out how Google defines these here.
21. Creating a Goal
Next is your Goal Fennel. This only applies if you have several pages leading up to your goal.
If this is the case, select the box and enter the leading sites as prompted.
After this click Save.
Once your goal is created you will be able to view reports on the goal overview page.
22. Creating a Goal
Your conversion rate is the number of successful transactions divided by
the total number of unique visitors. The "Successful transaction" data is
taken as the number of "goals" achieved in Google Analytics. So as an
example, let us say we have the following statistics:
Total number of unique visitors to the website (in a one month period) =
3458
Total number of goals (those visitors that reach the download page)
reported in Google Analytics = 50
Then the conversion rate of website is around:
% Conversion rate = (50/3458) x 100% = 1.45%
23. Google Analytics
Now that weâve broken down some of
the basics, itâs your turn to go for it.
There are SO many great tools and
features that are FREE for you to use
and experiment with so why not?
Knowing your audience and their traffic
patterns will help better your business
so you have nothing to lose.
24. Our Services
Being Passionate comes easy when you
genuinely enjoy what you do. We offer an
array of services at Supernova Media but
hereâs what we do best:
⢠Web Design & Hosting
⢠Consulting
⢠Branding
⢠Virtual Tours
We know that your success is our success.
Contact Us
25. About Nancy Bain
Nancy is a business owner, educator, and business strategist
with more than 20 years experience. When she is not advising
and teaching people about social media, Nancy spends a lot of
her own time using social media.
Find Nancy online:
Google+ : Nancy Bain Like Supernova Media on
Follow Nancy on Twitter Facebook
Visit her Website Find her on LinkedIn
Follow her Blog And visit her YouTube Channel