How To Use Google Analytics

How To Use Google Analytics To Improve Your Website

Google Analytics is a comprehensive web analytics tool that you can use to track your statistics and improve your website. It’s one of the most popular statistics tools around to help you keep track of activity on your site and help you get to know your visitors better.

The information can be used in many different ways and the best way to start is to come up with questions that you want to be answered and then look at Google Analytics for the answers. Below are some suggestions on what you can learn from this tool and sample questions you might ask.

Google AnalyticsLearn More About Your Visitors

  • How many visitors are there and what percentage are new or returning
  • How many pages have been viewed
  • How many pages are viewed per session
  • How long are visitors staying
  • What country and city are visitors in and what language do they speak
  • What internet browser and operating system are they using
  • How many visitors are viewing from a desktop, mobile or tablet
  • What pages do visitors enter your site on most and what pages do they visit next

Know Where Your Visitors Are Coming From

  • How are visitors finding your site (search engine, direct link or referral)
  • How many visitors come from organic searches and what search engine are they using
  • What referral sites are sending visitors and how many
  • What organic keywords are visitors using to find your site

Find Out How Visitors Are Interacting With Your Web pages

  • What page links are visitors clicking on most
  • What is the average time visitors are spending on a page
  • What does bounce rate mean

Once you decide what information you want to track, locate the metrics in your Google Analytics account and add the metrics to your dashboard. You can then have these specific metrics in the dashboard emailed to yourself on a regular basis so you never forget to review them.

To get an even better understanding of visitors (aka audience) you might want to view this short 5-minute video by Google Analytics.