I wish I knew about Google Analytics sooner. This is valuable free info from Google that allows you to evaluate your visibility and success on the Internet.
You can view the report as an Executive, Marketer or Webmaster.
The report is broken down into the following areas:- I will discuss my favorites!
Executive Overview
- Executive Overview- Charts that include Recent visits and Page Views, Returning Vs. New Visitor, Geo Map Overlay (I love this- I am shocked at how many people in different countries are visiting my blogs and web sites) and visitors by source- this means you can see when your competitors are checking you out!
- Conversion Summary
- Marketing Summary– Where your visitors came from
- Content Summary– Tops 5 entrances, exits and content
- Site Overlay– lets you see your site; small boxes are near your links. You can see how many times these links were used.
Marketer Overview
- All CPC Analysis
- CPC vs Organic Conversion
- Overall Keyword Conversion
- Keyword Considerations
- Campaign Conversion
- Conversion Summary
- Site Overlay
- Defined Funnel Navigation
- strong>Entrance Bounce Rates- tells whether or not your visitors continue looking through your site or leave.
Webmaster Overview
- Content Summary
- Defined Funnel Navigation
- Entrance Bounce Rates
- Content by Titles
- Web Design Parameters (also in Content Optimization described below-last set of bullets)
Marketing Optimization
Unique Visitor Tracking
– breaks down into:
- Daily Visitors– graphs showing daily visits & new visitors by date range.
- Visits & Pageview Tracking–
- Goal Conversion Tracking– how many visits and how may page views by date.
- Absolute Unique Visitors– pie chart- new versus prior visitors.
- Visitor Loyalty– a graph tracks the number of visits by visitor frequency
- Visitor Recency– “Each visitor who visits your site during the active date range is categorized according to the number of days that have elapsed since their last visit.”
Visitor Segment Performance
– breaks down into:
- New vs Returning– New compared to returning visitors.
- Referring Source– Pinpoints where people are coming from.
- Geo Location– Breaks down the countries visitors come from and where in each country.
- Geo Map Overlay– A visual map of the world- lets you see where on the map visitors are coming from.
- Network Location– which Internet Service Provider (ISP) is being used by your visitors.
- Language– what language they are using to read your site.
- Domains- by ISP, such as Comcast.net, Verizon.net etc.
Marketing Campaign Results
– breaks down into:
- Campaign Conversion
- Source Conversion
- Medium Conversion- basically tells you where your traffic is coming from.
- Referral Conversion- referral conversion
- Campaign ROI
- Source ROI
- Medium ROI
Search Engine Marketing
– breaks down into
- All CPC Analysis
- AdWords Analysis
- AdWords Keyword Positions
- Overall Keyword Conversion
- CPC vs Organic Conversion
- Keyword Considerations
Content Optimization
Ad Version Testing – breaks down into:
- Overall Ad A/B Testing
- Source Specific Testing
- Keyword Specific Testing
Content Performance
– breaks down into:
- Top Content– URLS- Unique Views, Page Views, Ave. Time (Spent) %Exit
- Content Drilldown
- Content by Titles– Same as Top Content, but labeled by page title
- Dynamic Content
- Depth of Visit– how many pages were viewed
- length of Visit- how long the visitor stayed
Navigational Analysis
– breaks down into:
- Entrance Bounce Rates– tells whether or not your visitors continue looking through your site or leave.<
- Top Exit Points– which pages users exit from the most
- Site Overlay
- Initial Navigation– tells you which navigation paths resulted in conversions during the visit.
- All Navigation– tells you how visitors got to each page on your site and where they went afterwards.
Goals & Funnel Process
– breaks down into:
- Goal Tracking
- Goal Conversion
- Defined Funnel Navigation
- Defined Funnel Abandonment
- Reverse Goal Path
- Goal Verification
Web Design Parameters
– breaks down into
- Browser Versions– The browser version visitors use
- Platform Versions– Which Operating System visitors use
- Browser & Platform Combos– Combo of the two above
- Screen Resolutions– Screen Resolutions used to view my site
- Screen Colors– Screen Color bit
- Languages– Which language they used to read the site
- Java Enabled- yes or no
- Flash Version
- Connection Speed– what speed visitors use.
- Hostnames
Google Analytics is a great way to see how much traffic your site is getting, how visitors react to your site and it can show you what areas of your site need to be strengthened.
I can see through Google Analytics that my main site is getting about 100 hits a day from my blogs alone. Google is offering free, valuable information that we all could use.
Oh and if someone is charging you for your web site stats and they like what I have described above, guess what? They are getting them for free and you should too!