Getting the Most Out of Google Analytics

The latest version of Google Analytics was unveiled in March 2011, and many users waited until early this year to migrate to the new version. By mid-2012, the old version went away.

While the new version contains all the previous version’s “bells and whistles,” there are several new features and reports that have brought Google Analytics up to speed – especially with enterprise-level, user tracking tools.
Cool Blue can provide insight and direction to integrate this new version into your operations, however, below is a brief overview of some of the many things the new and improved Google Analytics can do for you:

Real-Time Reports: These reports, though still in “BETA,” can be very insightful by providing filtered data showing how many users are on your site, what pages they are viewing, how they arrived, and more. This kind of immediate feedback is extremely valuable, especially after the launch of a big marketing campaign, for example.

Intelligence Events: These remain widely underused despite being around for some time now. Google Analytics monitors trends – automatically alerting you to variations from the standard deviation. With that information, you can preempt negative trends and identify positive trends on which you can capitalize.

Site Speed: By default, this measures pages’ load times (latency).  With Google Analytics, this data is sorted by browser, location, date, page, and more.  And although the data are provided for just a sample of pages on your website, they effectively track the effects of latency on bounce rates, conversion rates, etc.

Site Speed User Timings: By adding custom timing codes to specific interactions on your website, you can track specific events, such as uncovering the average load time for a large image.

‘Mobile’ and ‘Tablet’ Default Advanced Segments: Advanced segments have proven themselves useful in past versions of Google Analytics. Segmenting and comparing various user groups enable more profound analysis of individual and overall user behavior.  The two newest default segments are ‘mobile’ and ‘tablet,’ which provide easier ways to find user information. Do they spend more/less time on site?  Do they have a higher or lower conversion rate?

Search Engine Optimization: In response to numerous complaints concerning the “not provided” keywords as a result of SSL changes, Google has merged their webmaster tools into Google Analytics. To gain access to this tool, you must sign up for webmaster tools with Google and synch the accounts.  The result is a collection of invaluable information about how many times your site appeared in search results for specific terms, as well as the click-through rates.

Social: An entirely new section within Google Analytics that identifies where people are engaged with your content and measures the conversions and revenue resulting from social media. One key is that Google has done the work to identify and tag the social networks – making it easier to visualize the data.  Coupled with multi-channel funnels, this improvement can even help you understand direct and indirect conversions from social media.

Google Analytics is evolving to better provide useful information about how online visitors interact with a website. By integrating these and other enhanced tracking capabilities, you can propel your organization or business forward based on valuable site feedback.