HOW DOES GOOGLE ANALYTICS HELP ME?

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1 Google Analytics HOW DOES GOOGLE ANALYTICS HELP ME? Google Analytics tells you how visitors found your site and how they interact with it. You'll be able to compare the behavior and profitability of visitors who were referred from each of your ads, keywords, search engines, and s, and gain valuable insight into how to improve your site's content and design. However large or small your site, and however you drive traffic to it--whether it's unpaid search, partner sites, AdWords, or other cost-per-click programs - Google Analytics tracks it, from click to conversion. For AdWords users in particular, Google Analytics will provide you with the actionable information that you can use to increase your ROI by tracking cost data for all of your campaigns and combining that data with conversion information on a page-by-page basis. Google Analytics automatically imports AdWords cost data so that you can track the effectiveness of your AdWords campaigns, and automatically tags your AdWords destination URLs to track keyword and campaign conversion rates with no effort on your part! To find out more about AdWords, please visit the AdWords home page at HOW DOES GOOGLE ANALYTICS WORK? Google Analytics uses a first-party cookie and JavaScript code to collect information about visitors and to track your advertising campaign data. Google Analytics anonymously tracks how visitors interact with a website, including where they came from, what they did on a site, and whether they completed any of the site's conversion goals. Analytics also keeps track of your e-commerce data, and combines this with campaign and conversion information to provide insight into the performance of your advertising campaigns. All of this information is presented in an easy-to-read, yet thorough manner, through intuitive, visual reports. Google Analytics won't affect the performance or the appearance of your website and there are no extra files to host on your website. With information from Google Analytics, you will be able to drive traffic more efficiently to your site, and convert that traffic more effectively. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SEARCH TERM AND A KEYWORD? A keyword is defined as a significant word or phrase relevant to the web page or document in question. While "keywords" and "search terms" are interchangeable in some contexts, Google Analytics reports differentiate keywords and search terms to distinguish between external and internal searches. In Google Analytics, "keywords" are associated with external search engines. For example, someone who found your site after performing a search for "cars" on would be associated with the keyword "cars." In contrast, Google Analytics defines a "search term" as any word a visitor searches for using your internal site search. For example, if the visitor that came to your site from the Google search engine via the keyword "cars" then uses your site's search functionality to search for "filters", that visitor would be associated with the keyword "cars" and the search term "filters." Essentially, a keyword is a word searched for using an external search engine, whereas a search term is a word searched for using your internal site search. Page1

2 WHAT DOES BOUNCE RATE MEAN? Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. Use this metric to measure visit quality--a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren't relevant to your visitors. The more compelling your landing pages, the more visitors will stay on your site and convert. You can minimize bounce rates by tailoring landing pages to each keyword and ad that you run. Landing pages should provide the information and services that were promised in the ad copy. GOOGLE ANALYTICS VISITOR REPORTS The Visitors section contains the following reports: Visitors Overview: How many new and returning visitors came to your site and how extensively did they interact with your content? This traffic overview allows you to drill down into aspects of visit quality (i.e. average pageviews, time on site, bounce rate) and visit characteristics (i.e. first time visitors, returning visits). Visits: The number of visits your site receives is the most basic measure of how effectively you promote your site. Starting and stopping ads, changing your keyword buys, viral marketing events, and search rank are some examples of factors that influence the number of visits your site receives. Pageviews: Pageviews is the total number of pages viewed on your site and is a general measure of how much your site is used. It is more useful as a basic indicator of the traffic load on your site and server than as a marketing measure. Average Pageviews: Average pageviews is one way of measuring visit quality. A high Average Pageviews number suggests that visitors interact extensively with your site. A high Average Pageviews results from one or both of: Appropriately targeted traffic (i.e. visitors who are interested in what your site offers high quality content effectively presented on the site. Conversely, a low average pageviews indicates that the traffic coming to the site has not been appropriately targeted to what the site offers or that the site does not deliver what was promised to the visitor. Time on Site: Time on site is one way of measuring visit quality. If visitors spend a long time visiting your site, they may be interacting extensively with it. However, Time on site can be misleading because visitors often leave browser windows open when they are not actually viewing or using your site. New vs. Returning: A high number of new visitors suggests that you are successful at driving traffic to your site while a high number of return visitors suggests that the site content is engaging enough to keep visitors coming back. You can see how frequently visitors return and how many times they return in Recency report and the Loyalty report, both under New vs. Returning in the Visitors section. Map Overlay: Use this map to visualize volume (visits, pageviews) and quality (pageviews per visit, conversion rates, per visit value, etc.) metrics by geographic region. Click on any region to zoom into the city level. Languages: Which languages do your visitors prefer to use and how do these groups of visitors differ with respect to site usage, conversions, and other metrics? This report captures the preferred language that visitors have configured on their computers. Understanding who your visitors are is crucial to developing the right content and optimizing your marketing spend. Many times, geo-location is not enough. Many countries have diverse populations speaking different languages which present important market targeting opportunities. Page2

3 Loyalty (Visitor Behavior): Loyal visitors are frequently highly engaged with your brand and a high number of multiple visits indicates good customer/visitor retention. A high number of new visitors (i.e. those on the left of the histogram) indicates strong visitor recruitment. On th_s histogram, your most loyal visitors are shown on the right and your new and least loyal visitors are shown on the left. Recency (Visitor Behavior): The frequency with which visitors return to your site can indicate their level of engagement with your brand and their readiness to buy. On this histogram, visitors are categorized according to the number of days that have elapsed since their last visit. For example, new visitors are included in the "0" bar at the left of the histogram. Visitors who last visited the site more than one year ago are included in the 366+ bar. Length of Visit (Visitor Behavior): Length of visit is a measure of visit quality. A large number of lengthy visits suggests that visitors interact more extensively with your site. The graph allows you to visualize the entire distribution of visits instead of simply the Average Time on Site across all visits. Keep in mind that Average Time on Site is skewed by visitors leaving browser windows open when they are not actually viewing or using your site. You can see whether a few visits are skewing your Average Time on Site upward or whether most visits to your site have a high average time. Depth of Visit (Visitor Behavior): Depth of visit is a measure of visit quality. A large number of high pageviews per visit suggests that visitors interact extensively with your site. The graph allows you to visualize the entire distribution of visits instead of simply the average pageviews per visit. You can see whether a few visits are skewing your average pageviews per visit upward or whether most visits to your site result in a high number of pages being viewed. Browsers (Browser Capabilities): Which browsers do your visitors use? Optimizing your site for the appropriate technical capabilities helps make your site more engaging and usable and can result in higher conversion rates and more sales. Operating Systems (Browser Capabilities): Which operating systems do your visitors use? Optimizing your site for the appropriate technical capabilities helps make your site more engaging and usable and can result in higher conversion rates and more sales. Browsers and OS (Browser Capabilities): Which browsers/operating system combinations do your visitors use? Optimizing your site for the appropriate technical capabilities helps make your site more engaging and usable and can result in higher conversion rates and more sales. Screen Colors (Browser Capabilities): How many screen colors can your visitors see? Optimizing your site for the appropriate technical capabilities helps make your site more engaging and usable and can result in higher conversion rates and more sales. Screen Resolutions (Browser Capabilities): Which screen resolutions do your visitors use? Optimizing your site for the appropriate technical capabilities helps make your site more engaging and usable and can result in higher conversion rates and more sales. Flash Versions (Browser Capabilities): Which versions of Flash do your visitors have installed? Optimizing your site for the appropriate technical capabilities helps make your site more engaging and usable and can result in higher conversion rates and more sales. Java Support (Browser Capabilities): Is Java supported on your visitors' platforms? Optimizing your site for the appropriate technical capabilities helps make your site more engaging and usable and can result in higher conversion rates and more sales. Page3

4 Network Location (Network Properties): Which internet service providers do your visitors use? This report allows you to track the internet service provider (ISP) domains to which the user resolves. The domain is determined by the internet service that owns the user's internet _protocol (IP) identifier. Hostnames (Network Properties): From which hosts are people visiting your site? Hostnames sometimes provide insight into organizations that are interested in what you offer. Connection Speeds (Network Properties): Which connection speeds are your visitors using? Optimizing your site so that it loads quickly for most visitors can result in higher conversion rates and more sales. User Defined: This report allows you to compare visitors from custom segments that you have defined. You define these segments by calling the utm_setvar function in your website code. For example, if visitors fill out a form on your site in which they provide a professional title (such as "manager", "technical specialist", "marketer"), you can call utm_setvar to capture and store their selections in the user defined variable. This report allows you to compare the visitor segments you have captured. Page4

5 GOOGLE ANALYTICS LOG IN Log into Google Analytics with your gmail account Make sure to select UC Denver from the list of My Analytics Accounts if you track more than one site. 3. Until the site is migrated, choose to find current site reports. 4. Select View Reports to see the analytics. You ll see the informational dashboard for the UC Denver home page. Notice the four areas of interest are listed on the left visitors, traffic sources, content and goals. On the right, you can change the dates for analysis. To find your site, select Content Drilldown from the Content menu. Page5

6 5. Navigate to your site from the URL location. For instance, to see the analytics for the schools and colleges, select the following path: \Academics\Colleges\ In the following screen capture, you ll see the statistics for all schools and colleges in the UC Denver site. Notice the pattern of Web views Monday-Friday. SPECIFIC SITE STATISTICS Once you have navigated to your site in the Content Drilldown mode, you can see specific results relative to your site. Follow the following steps: 1. Navigate to your site via the content drilldown described above. 2. Choose the Dimensions dropdown menu located just above the results. 3. Choose from the same categories shown on the home page: 4. Page, none, Source, Medium, Campaign, Keyword, Ad Content, Visitor Type, Landing Page, Language, Continent, Sub Continent Region, County/Territory, Region, City, Browser, Operating System, Screen Colors, Screen Resolution, Flash Version, Java Support, Network Location, Hostname, Connection Speed and User Defined Value. Page6

7 Let the fun begin. Page7