Several criteria are used to evaluate the success and efficiency of any web resource, from a personal blog to a large online store: the number of unique visitors, income, conversion, etc.
Analytical services allow you to track almost any parameters, evaluate them, compare them with previous periods, and make management decisions based on the information received. In this article, we will talk about how the most popular of these systems, Google Analytics, is configured.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is an analytical system that continuously monitors the performance of a web resource. This free tool allows you to:
analyze traffic sources;
track conversion rate;
evaluate traffic dynamics for a certain time interval;
define the visitor’s profile: location, age range, device used;
fix session duration.
For the service to work correctly, each page of the site must contain a certain piece of code that registers the behavior of visitors and writes data to the database. Based on this information, reports are subsequently compiled.
What are the benefits of using Google Analytics?
A wide range of tools. Some of them are considered the benchmark in web analytics: a large set of attribution models, multichannel sequences, cohort analysis, etc.;
Flexible approach to generating statistical reports. For convenient analysis of individual data segments, the service has a tool for special reports. You can present the results in the form of graphs, charts or widgets using the Data Studio functionality, creating dashboards and grouping reports with multiple ways;
Online analytics. If you use Google Analytics for large projects, then there may be some delay in uploading information. Nevertheless, the service provides an opportunity to get a convenient real-time report, which is indispensable in assessing the truth of hypotheses and the effectiveness of changes;
Multilingual interface. According to statistics, more than half of Internet users use the tools of the analytics system created by Google. And for sites whose audience lives outside of Ukraine and the CIS countries, this platform is simply irreplaceable.
How do I add a Google Analytics counter to my site?
To add Google Analytics to your site, load the service’s start page, then register or log in to an existing Google account. After that, a page will open where you should click on the “Register” button and create an account:
Tell the system what exactly it needs to track: a mobile application or a website;
Create a name for the account that describes its purpose. For example, if you are running several projects, then it is reasonable to create an account for each of them with the name of the project;
Set the name of the site;
Enter the URL of the web resource;
From the drop-down list, select the branch of activity corresponding to your business;
In the second list, enter the country and time zone of your target audience.
Advice! You should not remove the default positions in the data access settings. They help Google improve its tools and give technical support specialists access to data if necessary.
In the next step, click on “Get tracking ID” and confirm your agreement with the user agreement, after which the tracking code will appear in the window that opens.
There are two ways to install the Google Analytics counter on the site: place its code on all pages of the tracked resource, or use the Google Tag Manager special tool.
How to connect Google Analytics with GTM?
The easiest and fastest way to connect Google Analytics to your site is with the Google Tag Manager tool, which configures and runs standard or custom tags without involving the experts who developed the web resource. The service is also used for mobile applications. It reduces the size of the program code and scripts, which can significantly optimize the download speed.
Open the start page of the service and register. The window that appears will display a script that must be inserted into the program code of all pages of your Internet resource.
Important! One piece of code must be inserted before the closing tag, and the other must be placed immediately after thetag.
Use the “Tags” item and click on the “Create” button to generate a tag linking the site to Analytics:
Then click on ‘Tag Configuration’, type ‘Universal Analytics’, and select the tracking type from the ‘Page View’ list:
Next, you need the “New Variable” item. Enter the Google Analytics ID received during registration in this system in the appropriate line of the dialog that opens. Enable features for the Display Network by checking the box in advanced settings.
Save all changes and complete the setup by submitting the data for publication using the Submit button that appears.
Google Analytics Account Structure
The Google Analytics account hierarchy has three levels of data:
Account. You can connect up to 100 different accounts to an Analytics account at the same time. It is a kind of folder where you can connect several different resources. The system allows you to share account-level access with other Google accounts.
Resource. You can add up to 50 resources in total within one account. The resource can be a website or smartphone app whose activity you want to track.
Representation. The system provides the ability to add 25 views for each tracked resource. They can display different targets or subdomains. As an example, a subdomain with the English version of the site is one view, and the Ukrainian version is another.
How do I set up a view in Google Analytics?
A view is a report based on which you can analyze certain parameters of a web resource. A counter with basic parameters aggregates information about all traffic. If you need to set up Google Analytics on your site in such a way that visits from certain URLs or work traffic of colleagues are not taken into account, you can set the appropriate filters by creating a new view.
This is done in the “Views” module in the administrator settings section, where the corresponding link leads at the bottom of the page on the left. It’s best not to change the default settings in the work view so that you always have access to the full amount of statistics.
To create a new view, create a duplicate of the current one using the “Copy” button and set the values of the filters you need.
The report can be based on:
subdomain statistics;
traffic cleared from internal views of company employees;
traffic directed from friendly resources, etc.
What can I track on the site after installing the Google Analytics counter?
The information collected by the analytical system is used to analyze the effectiveness of marketing activities and search for “thin” places in a web resource. It also helps to build a portrait of the audience. Next, let’s focus on the most interesting reports, which can be found in the menu located in the left sidebar.
Attendance
This metric is most conveniently assessed by uploading the “Traffic sources” report, for which you need to go to the section of the same name and select “Source / channel” in the “All traffic” menu.
All sources are displayed here: both advertising and organic issuance. In this case, the data can be evaluated for each channel separately by setting the required time interval. The service also allows you to compare indicators in dynamics.
Demographic data
You can find characteristics such as gender, age range and geographic location of users in the Audience report.
It also displays information about the devices of visitors to your web resource, the percentage of new users, their interests, and the language settings installed in the operating system. To obtain generalized data, use the “Overview” item of the section in question:
User behavior
If you have installed the Google Analytics code on your site, then by selecting the “Engagement” menu item in the “Behavior” subsection, you can quickly assess how much time visitors spend exploring your web resource:
Popular pages
For multipage sites, it is useful to periodically analyze the traffic statistics of individual pages and evaluate the internal movements of users. To do this, use the “Overview” item in the “Behavior” section:
Here you can also see the user map, which shows which pages the visitor navigated. The report helps to find “thin” places of a web resource – if a large proportion of the audience decides to leave the site while on a certain page, then there are probably some problems on it.
Events
To get an idea of whether visitors are taking targeted actions, set the goals that the system should track. This can be filling out a questionnaire, subscribing to a newsletter, making a purchase, etc.
Statistics for different domains
The analytical system allows you to collect data from different domain resources within a single session. This may be necessary if the order is placed on another site (for example, online payment is connected there).
If you don’t set up cross-domain tracking in your account, moving a user to another site is the same as starting a new session with a new user. With cross-domain tracking configured, such transitions will be counted as one session per user.
How can I check if the counter is configured correctly?
If the Google Analytics counter is configured correctly, then in the “Overview” block, which can be accessed from the “Conversions” -> “Goals” section, information will appear on how many times and when exactly users visited your site, moving from search engines or social networks, and also performed targeted actions that were identified at the previous stage.
An analytical system allows you to continuously improve your offer, guided by up-to-date information about buyers and their behavior. You will also be able to evaluate the effectiveness of different promotion channels.
