Google AnalyticsGet Up to Speed

Jay MurphyOctober 15, 2014Trionia.comjmurphy@trionia.com@trioniawww.linkedin.com/in/jaymurphy/

Agenda

SEO and Analytics– Site Search– Landing Pages– Matched Keyword– (not provided) Insights

What’s new with Google Analytics?– Universal Analytics– New Features

Timeout Settings Referral Exclusions Demographic Reports Remarketing Custom Dimensions User ID (Session ) Enhanced eCommerce

– Analysis Tactics

Why Measure?

With information about your visitors you can better decide:– How to improve your website,– How to spend time and money on

specific topics and marketing,– How to reach your audience – how to

reach new audiences…

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

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How Google Analytics Works

GA code

For more detail:Google Analytics Concepts

How Google Analytics Works

(continued)

Google processes the information and stores it as Dimensions and Metrics

DimensionsMetrics

How Google Analytics Works

(continued) Reports then present using

Dimensions and Metrics– Dimensions are ‘things’ we want to

measure Page name, referrer, campaign, country, …

– Metrics are the ‘things’ we can count Pageviews, visit (session), time on site,… Some are calculated

– Universal Analytics can create our own custom dimensions and metrics!

Report Categories

SEARCH REPORTS

SITE SEARCHSETUP

In the Google Analytics Admin go to View Settings

Turn on Site Search

Add the Query String Parameter

Option – Add Categories

SITE SEARCHREPORT

PAID SEARCH MATCHED KEYWORD QUERY

LANDING PAGES

Behavior– Landing

Pages– Secondary

Dimension – Keyword

Argh!!!(not provided)OK take a deeeep breath!

(NOT PROVIDED) INSIGHTS

What if we could look at all our (not provided) landing pages

Solutions Gallery!(not provided) Insights

(NOT PROVIDED) INSIGHTS

NEW FEATURES & REPORTS

Vocabulary Quiz

Visit Profile Unique Visitor Content

Session View User Behavior

www.coolsite.com

Universal AnalyticsUpgrade Step 1

Google Analytics CodeUpgrade Step 2

Change Asynchronous (or older code):<script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXXX-Y’]); _gaq.push(['_setDomainName', ‘coolsite.com']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);})();</script>

To this – Google Universal Analytics:<script> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

ga('create', 'UA-XXXXXXX-Y', ‘coolsite.com'); ga('send', 'pageview');</script>

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UA-XXXXXXX-Y

Universal AnalyticsUpgrade Installation Check

– Check on your Google Analytics Admin > Property Settings > Tracking Info –

> Tracking Code

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www.coolsite.com

Cool Site

Universal AnalyticsTag Assistant Check

Download Tag Assistant from the Chrome Store (this only works in Google Chrome)

Universal AnalyticsTag Assistant Check

A Green ‘Tag’ Icon shows that tagging is working

Click on the Tag to see more information about the page tagging

Will also tell you about other tagging including remarketing, conversion, and other marketing tags

Timeout Settings

Timeouts have always been configurable – but it had to be done in code. Can be configured in the Admin.

Why do this?– What if people watch videos on your website

for more than 30 minutes? Set the session timeout to the max video length.

– Some purchases have a very long lead time – for example in construction the sales cycle can be nine months to a year.

Timeout Settings

coolsite.com

Referral Exclusions

How to remove those pesky referrals from your own websites? – Like timeout setting this used to be done with

code on each of the websites – but now this can be done right from the Admin Panel.

Referral Exclusions

www.coolsite.com

coolsite.com

blog.coolsite.com

coolsite.shoppingcart. com coolsite.shoppingcart. com

Demographic Reports

A new features is demographic reports that include:– Age– Gender– Affinity Groups

For example: movie lovers, travel buffs, …– In Market Segments

People investigating specific products

Demographic Reports

Demographic ReportsConfigure Step 1

Demographic ReportsConfigure Step 2

Update your Code:

<script> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

ga('create', 'UA-XXXXXXX-Y', ‘coolsite.com'); ga('require', 'displayfeatures'); ga('send', 'pageview');</script>

Demographic ReportsConfigure Step 3

Demographic ReportsConfigure Complete!

Remarketing Lists

Once “Display Features” are active on an accounts “Remarketing Lists” are available

These are groups of users that can be targeted in current or future campaigns

Market home loans directly to people looking at real estate

Travel information to people who visit travel sites

Display FeaturesRemarketing List

Now that Display Features is turned on you can also create remarketing lists…

www.coolsite.com

Cool Sites Inc. www.coolsite.com Main Coolsite.com View

www.coolsite.com

Custom Dimensions

A very powerful feature for helping to better understand users and groups of users.– You define the Dimension name– Scope defines data association

‘Hit’s good for tracking a onetime activity– A video play or form submission

A ‘Session’ to track a visitor login ‘User’ scope is useful to track across

sessions

www.coolsite.com

Custom Dimensions

Custom DimensionCode Update

www.coolsite.com

User ID AKA Session Unification

VERY EXCITING!– The User ID feature will allow tracking

across multiple devices It only works for users who

authenticate to your website or application– Examples:

Game Users, Club Members, Students, Employees, Blog Authors…

User IDConfigure Step 1

User IDCode Step 2

Code Added to Site– User ID cannot

be Personally Identifying

– User ID set on every page

User IDUser ID View Step 3

Name the View Set the Time

Zone Hit Create View Use this View for

Reporting

Enhanced eCommerce

In addition to tracking purchase transactions – Enhanced eCommerce

Track:– Product impressions – Refunds – by transaction and item– Affiliate performance– Internal promotion performance

ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES

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Behavior : In-Page Analytics

Filters

FiltersRefinement

Advanced SegmentsBuilt In

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Advanced SegmentsCustom

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QUESTIONS?

To Learn More

Cardinal Path is offering three days of Analytics Courses in New York– Google Analytics – 101, 201 and 301

When: December 10th, 11th and 12th.

REGISTER ONLINE

Analytics Resources

Blogs– Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Books– Web Analytics Demystified – Eric T. Peterson– Web Analytics an Hour a Day – Avinash Kaushik

Education– Google’s Analytics Academy – with Justin

Cutroni

Definitions

Session (Visits)A visit is defined as a series of page requests from the same uniquely identified client with a time of no more than 30 minutes between each page request. So for a user who visits at 11:00 AM and then again at 11:20 this user counts as a single unique visit; if the user clicks on a new page at 11:35 it now counts as two visits.Unique VisitorsA unique user (computer) that accesses a Website, while people cannot be identified by analytics, we substitute computers.  So a single computer that accesses a website is deemed to be a Unique Visitor.  (Most analytics tools use cookies, small files saved by a browser, to determine if a machine has been to a website before.  Since many users remove cookies on a monthly basis, unique visitors can be overstated.)

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Definitions(continued)

New VisitorsA visitor that has not made any previous visits.  Again, since New Visitors are also determined by the use of cookies saved on a visitors computer; visitors that delete cookies show as new visitors.Bounce RateThe percentage of visits where the visitor enters and exits at the same page without visiting any other pages on the site in between.  (In general a higher bounce rate is not a good sign – but some websites are designed for a single page view before leaving, for example blogs.  Use bounce rate to analyze your site based on your site’s users goals.)

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Definitions(continued)

Average Pages per SessionThe average number of page views a visitor views before ending their session. It is calculated by dividing total number of page views by total number of sessions.Average Time on SiteAverage amount of time that visitors spend on the site each time they visit. (This metric can be complicated by the fact that analytics programs cannot measure the length of the last page view, since the time is measured by start time of second page minus the start time of the first page.)PageviewsA request for a file whose type is defined as a page – typical a single webpage. An occurrence of the script being run in page tagging.

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Definitions(continued)

Page A Page CPage B Exit

Page A Page B ExitA Day Later

Sessions (Visits)?Pageviews?Unique Visitor?

Entrances Page A?Exits Page B?Bounce Rate Page B?

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22

33%

Page B ExitAnother Day Later

Definitions - Time

Page A Page CPage BExit

1:20 PM 1:25 PM 1:30 PM

5 Minutes 5 Minutes ?

Time on site is 10 minutesThe exact time is unknown. Several methods to track this include ‘events’ on a page such as a video view, a timer or external link to capture this time. However none is exact.

Universal Analytics

Custom Dimensions (& Metrics) Measure Users across Devices

– User ID New Reports / Data

– Demographics Reports– Enhanced eCommerce

*If you want to learn how to track Caffeine Consumption with Universal Analytics check out this video: http://goo.gl/xfOi3U

REPORT INTERFACE

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How to Access

Google Analytics is easy to access:– http://www.google.com/analytics/

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Accounts, Properties & Views

Report Categories

Acquisition -> All Traffic Report

The All Traffic report shows traffic by Source/Medium:

Reporting Interface

The reports in Google Analytics use the same basic interface*.

The following slides will show:– Setting date ranges, comparison,

exporting, secondary dimensions…

* There are some differences such as the navigation reports, flow reports… But in general most reports use the same interface.

Reporting InterfaceDefinitions

Reporting InterfaceDate Range and Comparison

Reporting InterfaceLine Chart Time Ranges

Reporting InterfaceSecondary Metric

Reporting InterfaceSecondary Dimension

Reporting InterfaceReport Type – Data (standard table)

Reporting InterfaceReport Type – Percentage

Reporting InterfaceReport Type – Performance

Reporting InterfaceReport Type – Comparison

Reporting InterfaceExport

Reporting InterfaceEmail

Audience Reports

Answers these questions (and more)?– Where are my visitors coming from?– Are they new visitors?

How many are new? How many are regular visitors?

– When do my visitors come to my site?– What browsers, version of flash, java…

do they use?

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Audience : Location

Audience : New vs. Returning

Audience : Engagement

Audience : Users Flow

Acquisition Reports

– Where did people find out about my site?

– What proportion of visitors come to the site: Directly, through search engines and

through referral websites?– For search engine traffic – what

keywords?– Which referrals provide the ‘best’ traffic?– What campaigns are most effective?

Acquisition : Overview

Acquisition : All Traffic

Acquisition : Organic Keywords

Behavior Reports

– What are the most popular pages?– How do visitors navigate through the

site?– What are the top entrance pages?

How do people reach these pages? – Where did people leave the site?

Further detail to determine if a user goal was satisfied or it was a failed visit.

Behavior : All Pages

Behavior : Landing Pages

Behavior : Landing PagesAnalysis

Behavior : Site Search