Almost all websites on the internet use Google analytics as a traffic analysis tool. It helps you segment and analyze your audience, acknowledge where they’re coming from and allows you to take a deep dive to determine what they’re looking for in order to improve the experience on your website.

Here are some of the most popular things Google Analytics can track:

1. 1.       How many users were/are on your site (you check real time users)

   2.       Where did they come from

   a.       Cities

   b.      Countries

   3.       See how many people are new visits versus revisits

   4.       Which devices your visitors use

   5.       How much time they spend on your site

   6.       Track how users navigate your site with Behavior Flow

   7.       Check which pages are popular

   8.       Check which keywords they used to look you up

   9.       Track goals like downloads and sales

   10.   Segment where the traffic is coming from

   a.       organic searches

   b.      paid ads

   c.       blog mentions

   d.      Social Media Referrals

   e.      Type in your site directly

REGISTERING A GOOGLE ACCOUNT

If you haven’t already, set up a dedicated Google Account (gmail.com) for your business/website. As usual, try not to mix personal items with work. Should you already have a Google account, visit https://google.com/analytics sign-in and follow the instructions on setting up your Analytics account for your website.

INSTALLING GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Once you’ve populated the form above, you’ll be able to grab your analytics tracking code. In some cases you may only need to add your Tracking ID if you have some sort of CMS add-on that integrates Google analytics with your website seamlessly. Otherwise, you’ll have to grab the script and paste it in the <header> portion of all the pages on your site. There’s also a PHP implementation option if you’re familiar with it. It’s best to grab someone web savvy to help you out with either case

VERIFYING GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Once you’ve included your data tracking script onto your site, it will start recording data immediately but will not show up on your dashboard for another 24-48 hours. There are some ways to verify if it’s been installed properly. You can actually check real-time visitors on your site, visit the “REAL TIME” reports tab and it should say at least 1 person is active (if you have the website open in another browser tab).

With time, you’ll eventually come to understand patterns and trends with your website performance. Later you’ll want to cater to those trends and optimize your website to perform better on things like goals and conversions, reduce bounces and adjust copy to match popular keywords. 

It takes a bit of learning to understand and discover those trends and patterns but once you do, you’ll have the utilities to combat competition by rising up the ranks of relevance and enhance the online experience for your visitors.

The better experience you provide online, the easier it is to guide users into certain funnels and the better chances you’ll have at converting visitors into customers.