Google Analytics Guide: How It Works & Why You Need It

You have probably already heard of the term “Google Analytics.” It’s everywhere, and you might have a basic understanding of how it works. But when it comes to using it, there are some things you should know.

In this article, we’ll cover why GA can be helpful for your business or personal website and how to get started using it.

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a free web analytics mechanism or tool that helps you track website traffic, conversions, and goals. It can help you understand how your users interact with your website and improve your marketing efforts.

To use it effectively, knowing what it does and how it works is essential. This article will explain what Google Analytics actually is and how it works. We’ll also give you a brief overview of its different features and include some tips for using them.

Google Analytics helps you track and analyze the traffic to your website or mobile app. It is an excellent way to measure the success of your marketing efforts, but it can also be used to determine how users interact with your site.

These insights may help improve your website and assist you in creating better content. You can use it to find out which pages on your site get the most traffic, which keywords people search for when finding you, how often people visit each page on your site, and what happens after they click through from an ad or email.

How Google Analytics Works

Google Analytics uses “cookies,” or small pieces of software, placed on a visitor’s computer by the website they visit. These cookies track where visitors come from, how long they stay on your site, what pages they look at and how often they return.

The data collected in this way allows you to see what people are doing when they visit your site  for example:

• How many visitors do I have?
• Where are my visitors coming from? (e.g., Facebook)
• What pages do most people view first? (e.g., “About Us”)
• Which carriers do my visitors spend the most time on?
• What is the average time spent on my site? 
• How often do visitors return to my place after visiting it once? 
• What types of devices are people using to view my website? (e.g., PC or tablet) 
• What countries do most of my visitors live in?

Once you know where people are coming from, what they’re looking at, and how long they stay on your site, this data can help inform your marketing strategy.

For example: If most of your traffic comes from Instagram, it might be worthwhile to focus more on Facebook ads than other types of marketing (like Google AdWords).

First, you need to create a Google Analytics account. You can do this by going to analytics.google.com and clicking “Sign Up for Free” (at the top right of the screen). Once you’ve created an account, visit your website and click on the “Analytics” tab at the top of your screen: Next, click on “Admin” in the menu bar above:

Once you’ve clicked on “Admin,” click on the “View Settings” button:

This will create a page where you can choose what data to track. The most important thing to follow is your “Events” or “Goal Completions” (if you have goals set up). You can also follow other things, like pageviews and traffic sources, but these aren’t as important for our purposes.

Once you’ve chosen what data to track, click “Save”:

Setting up Google Analytics

So, you’re all set up? Great! Now it’s time to look at how it works and what it can do for you.

First, let’s talk about what a “property” is. The definition of property in this context is anything related to your website or app that connects back to the same analytics account (in this case, yours).

A site URL like “www.examplewebsite.com” would be linked to your Google Analytics account by creating one property for each unique domain name on which you want Analytics tracking enabled (or none if a search isn’t necessary).

This means that if you own multiple websites say, www.examplewebsite1.com and www.examplewebsite2.com you’ll need two different properties for both sites’ data points to appear under one profile in GA reporting tools like BigQuery or Data Studio (more on those later!).

The second is to understand Google Analytics as an analytics platform. This means you can use it to measure more than just website traffic; there are also tools for mobile apps, and you can use analytics to get your small business’ SEO started, and much more.

To understand how it works, you need to know that there are two main types of data: session and transaction.

Session data is information about when users visit your site/app, including their location, operating system, device type (mobile or desktop), browser version, and more.

Transaction data is information about what they do while they’re there—what pages they view and in what order; how many times they click on some aspects like buttons or links; whether or not they complete specific goals like signing up for an email list or purchasing something from your store.

Understanding the Audience Report

The Audience report is a critical part of the dashboard. It shows you who is visiting your website and how they got there. You can see how many visitors came from social media, search engines, or other sources.

The audience report offers data on:

• Number of visits – How many times have people visiting your website
• Average time on Site – How long each visitor spent on your site (if they didn’t leave quickly)
• Bounce rate – The percentage of people who left after viewing just one page

Referral sources: Where people were referred from (this can help you determine which marketing campaigns are working best).

Here’s what type of insight you can acquire:

Devices – How do your visitors access the internet

Browser version – What web browsers are they using

Language – What certain languages do they speak

Understanding the Acquisition Report

This report is different from all other reports. It displays the number of visits and new users that come to your website through a specific channel, such as search engines or social media.

You can use this information to improve your website by adjusting the pages that are performing well and those that aren’t performing well at all. You can also use it to see how many people have visited or registered for a particular service on your site after clicking an ad on Facebook, which may indicate that your ads are working effectively.

The most important thing to remember about a website report is that it shows you what’s happening on your site. You can use it to identify problems and fix them quickly, but you can’t use it as a way to predict what will happen in the future or where your business is going.

A website report can also help you determine how many people have visited your site and what they’ve done while there. You can see how long each visitor stayed, which pages were viewed most often, whether or not they completed a transaction, and more.

Understanding the Behavior Report

The Behavior Report, as the name might suggest, is a report that shows you how visitors behave on your site.

This includes:

• How many people are visiting your site?
• What pages are they visiting?
• How long they stay on each page before moving on to another page or leaving the website entirely (this can be useful in determining what content and pages need improvement).

The data in this report will help you understand how to improve your website so that users stay on it longer and have a better experience overall. The longer people spend viewing content on your website, the more likely they will find what they’re looking for and become customers!

How to Use Google Analytics: 

1. Set up a tracking code on your website. 

2. Create a profile for your business in Google Analytics.
3. Review the data in reports and adjust accordingly!

4. Keep an eye on your certain analytics to see how your efforts are paying off!

Understanding Conversions / Goals

It’s essential to understand what a goal is in Google Analytics. A goal is an action on your site that you want to be able to track and measure. In this section, we’ll look at the different types of goals, how to set them up, and how to measure success with goals.

Setting Up Goals

Goals are set up by navigating to the Admin tab > Property > View Settings > Goals & eCommerce > Goal Setup on any website property that uses Universal Analytics (not classic).

Here you can name your goal, add a description for it if needed, select which page or event you would like this goal type applied to, and then choose whether or not it should be enabled or disabled by default when someone visits your site.

When finished with these selections, click Save Changes at the bottom right corner of your screen and Save All Changes located next door once complete with all changes made within view settings!

When setting up a goal, you can select one of three goal types: Destination – This type of goal is triggered when someone reaches a specific page (i.e., “thank you” page or confirmation page). Page views – This type of goal is triggered when someone visits a page on your site (i.e., the home page).

Event – This type of goal is triggered when someone completes an action on your site (i.e., filling out a form).

In addition to adding a goal, you’ll also want to create your funnels. A funnel is a visual representation of how many people click on each page or event concerning how many people reach the final page or event in that funnel.

For example, if you wanted to track the number of people who visit your site and then make a purchase, this would be considered one funnel. If you wanted to track the number of people who visit your site and then sign up for an email list but do not make a purchase, this would be another funnel.

Getting Started with Google Analytics

Once you get a Google Analytics account, the next step is to log into your account and set up your website. This process is simple, but you need to do it for every web property you want to track with it. When you set up a new site, or “property,” within Google Analytics, you can choose from several options like site Search and Referrers. These will help determine what factors impact traffic to your site differently so that you can optimize them accordingly.

Setting up a property also involves setting up goals so that when someone visits certain pages on your website (like an order form), they’ll automatically be counted as conversions for those pages. You’ll also see which channels are most effective at driving traffic back to those pages by looking at average visit duration or bounce rates by channel once everything has been configured correctly!

After you’ve set up your property, it’s time to start tracking visitors and analyzing the data. This is where certain  Google Analytics comes into play. To get an accurate picture of what’s happening on your site, you need to track specific metrics like sessions, pageviews, and bounce rates. You can also set up goals so that when someone visits certain pages on your website (like an order form), they’ll automatically be counted as conversions for those pages.

You’ll also see which channels are most effective at driving traffic back to those pages by looking at average visit duration or bounce rates by channel once everything has been configured correctly! After you’ve set up your property, it’s time to start tracking visitors and analyzing the data.

To get an accurate picture of what’s happening on your site, you need to track specific metrics like sessions, pageviews, and bounce rates. You can also set up goals so that when someone visits certain pages on your website (like an order form), they’ll automatically be counted as conversions for those pages.

Google Analytics can help you improve your certain website and marketing.

If you’re not already certainly using it, it’s time to start. It’s free, easy to set up, and no hidden fees or costs exist.

Here are some ways that how it can help you improve your website and marketing:

• Helping you understand your audience by providing data on how people visit your site and interact with it (and thus how often they buy from you)
• Helping improve the usability of a website by analyzing how users interact with the site so that improvements can be made
• Helping improve conversion rates by looking at where visitors drop off in the buying cycle and making changes based on what information is most vital for them to see before making a purchase decision

Helping improve customer retention by analyzing customer behavior and identifying what they’re looking for (and then giving it to them). Helping reduce shopping cart abandonment rates by identifying why people leave without buying anything (and then fixing it).

Google Analytics can give your website data that will be useful

Google Analytics is a free tool for website owners, and it can help you understand your audience. It can also show how people use your website—what they’re looking at, what they’re reading, and so on.

This will allow you to better market yourself as an expert in your field by focusing on the information that matters most to your audience. You’ll also be able to use this data when making improvements to your marketing strategy and website design.

Analytics helps you understand your audience better by showing you: How people use your site, including where they click and what pages they view (behavior), What content is most popular with the people who visit your site (audience), and What keywords are used when searching for information related to yours (keywords).

How long do people stay on your site and how do they move around (engagement) Using these insights, you can better understand what your audience wants from you. This will allow you to tailor your marketing strategy and website design to align with their needs.

Takeaway

Google Analytics is the most powerful analytics tool on the web, and it can be used to track anything you want. It’s free and easy to set up, so there’s no reason not to use it! We hope this article has helped you understand how it works and why you need to use it in your business.

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