As the name suggests, Real Time Analytics can display information about visitors who are currently on a specific tracked page, in real time.
Where can I find Real Time?
In the profile of a given website in Google Analytics, there is a top panel labelled ‘Home’. In the left-hand column, there are three sections – Real Time, Intelligence events and Dashboards. Selecting ‘Real Time’ brings up a screen that will look similar to the one in the image. It displays current data about visitors to the site. The difference, however, is that this is a real-time view.
What are these reports used for?
The “Right now” overview shows the number of visitors currently on the monitored website. In addition, a comparison of the ratio of new visitors to returning visitors is also available. This comparison can also be used to filter monitored groups.
The next report, “Pageviews”, shows the frequency of page views, also in real time. The larger field displays the number of views over the last 30 minutes, and the smaller one even shows the last 60 seconds.
There is no need to describe what all analysts commonly use, so there is nothing further to add regarding the other reports. They are practically identical to the classic reports we are used to in Google Analytics. The key magic and difference of Real Time compared to classic reports lies precisely in that real-time aspect.
So why the “analytical spectacle”?
In the time I’ve been using the Real Time overview, I’ve found that it’s actually quite addictive. After using it for a while, you start unconsciously filtering and observing visitors almost individually. It is often possible to trace a sort of life story of website visitors from the data. Monitoring Real Time to a greater extent can therefore turn into something of a spectacle. Without any real reason, you then end up spending quite a lot of time on it, time that could certainly be put to much more effective use.
With a touch of hyperbole, however, I can imagine that analysts of websites with adult or otherwise niche content might find the experience of monitoring such a dashboard genuinely engaging.
In my opinion, Real Time Analytics is certainly a powerful and interesting tool. But given that it doesn’t provide all that much useful or substantial information, I see it largely just as a highly addictive distraction. Personally, I prefer not to get carried away by this ‘entertaining spectacle’ and will rely primarily on long-term reports for accurate analysis.