Has my website traffic increased thanks to a new campaign or a change in design? How many new visitors have come to my site, and where are they from? Google Analytics has the answers.
Right from the very first days, I was introduced to how this tool works. At AITOM, there’s David, an analytics expert who’s got a broad perspective and certainly doesn’t waste time. Outside of work, he writes a blog with a friend about the web and marketing called Ztráta času. A nice name, though his writing certainly isn’t. During our training, I was literally in shock. Why? Google knows almost everything about me – and about you too!
Anyone can use and benefit from Google Analytics, as it’s free. There are plenty of detailed guides online on how to link Google Analytics to your website, but today I’ll explain it in simple terms. Go to the Google Analytics website and create an account; once you’ve done that, you’ll receive a tracking code which you place in your website’s source code. Done? From this moment on, Google Analytics collects data from your website.
Why do you need to track data in Google Analytics? Because you’ll find out:
- how many visitors came to your website during the time period you choose – whether it’s a day, a month or a year,
- how customers are responding to a campaign or a change to your website, by comparing two time periods, e.g. months,
- who visits your website – are they mainly women or men, what age are they, and from which region?
- what traffic source brought customers to your site – was it organic search, paid advertising, a newsletter or Facebook?
- how visitors behave, how long they stay on your site, and where they go next,
- if you have an online shop, you’ll find out how many of the total visitors to your shop actually make a purchase.
And that’s just a basic overview; every business should track different data, combine it, and use it to identify the gaps that are holding you back. We’ll be looking at Google Analytics again in the next instalment, complete with practical examples!
Read the previous part: Decoding keywords in Collabim: Part III.