Google

Analytics
A Quick Guide
to the Basics
Version 1.05

by Michael Pastore

Epublishers Weekly
www.EpublishersWeekly.com

Copyright © 2008 by Michael Pastore

 What is
Google Analytics?
 What is Google
Analytics?
A free service from Google that
performs “Web Analytics”
 What is
Google Analytics?
A free service from Google that performs
“Web Analytics”
Web Analytics is “the study of the
behavior of website visitors.”
 What is
Google Analytics?
A free service from Google that performs
“Web Analytics”
Web Analytics is “the study of the behavior
of website visitors.”
Businesses use this data, collected from
their websites, to design websites that
maximize their profits.
by any
other
name ...

Note: In Europe,
“Web Analytics” is called “Web Metrics.”
 G.A. is not for
businesses only ....

Individuals and non-profit organizations

with websites can use this data to:

increase the amount of web visitors

improve the quality of the visits
 Before You Use
Google Analytics ...
 Before You Use
Google Analytics ...

1 Create a Google Account

(or: use your existing Gmail account)
 Before You Use
Google Analytics ...
1 ) Create a Google Account
(or: use your existing Gmail account)
2) Configure (Set up) Google Analytics*
*(not covered in this Quick Guide)
 Before You Use
Google Analytics ...
1 ) Create a Google Account
(or: use your existing Gmail account)
2) Configure (Set up) Google Analytics*
*(not covered in this Quick Guide)
3) Make your website “Standards compliant”
7 Benefits of a Standards-
Compliant Website
1. Higher Rankings in Search Engines
2. More Users Can View Your Site
3. Faster Download Time and Reduced Bandwidth Usage
4. Compatible with the Newest Browsing Technologies
5. Persons with Disabilities Can Use Your Site
6. Your Site can be accessed with many devices, including
handheld PDAs and cell phones
7. Website maintenance and upgrades are easier
How can I see my
website’s stats?
How can I see my
website’s stats?

1. Log in to Google Analytics:

www.google.com/analytics
 How can I see my
website’s stats?
1. Log in to Google Analytics:
www.google.com/analytics

2. After logging in, you reach your

Home Page.
3. Now click “View Reports”.
e= mc 2
Welcome to your Dashboard !
 Take a few minutes to
get to know your Dashboard ...
 The Dashboard is made of 6 sections ...

The top section is called (by me) the

Time-Graph ...

Here, you can change the settings to show the time

range for your website statistics.

The graph above shows the number of visits from

January 10 to February 9, 2008.
 Note to Skeptics:

Why don’t we see millions

of page views here?

Because this is a new

website,
unlaunched,
still under development.
The Dashboard

the Time-Graph ...

Click here to change the time range ...

Changing the time range here effects the time

range in all the other sections of your report.
The Dashboard

the Time-Graph ...

By clicking the Export button, you can export this

information as a PDF file, or an XML file. If you
choose PDF, then a PDF file will be created and
then downloaded immediately to your desktop.
The Dashboard

the Time-Graph ...

By clicking the Email button, you can export this

information as an attached file, and then email it to
yourself or others.
The data can be exported in any of 4 formats: PDF,
XML, CSV*, or TSV.*
*CSV (or TSV) = a text file containing data that is separated
by commas (or tabs).
 Before continuing, we need to learn some
webmaster jargon: definitions of essential terms ...
 Hits
Back in the days before Google
Analytics, webmasters used the term
‘hits’. But the term ‘hits’ has become
outmoded, and deservedly so.

When a user would look at one web

page that had 20 images on it, the
old-fangled reporting systems would
report this as “21 hits”. The term
“hits” has been replaced by more
accurate terms such as “page views”
and “visits”.
Essential Jargon

Page View

A page view is an instance of a web page

being loaded by a web browser. ...

If a user looks at 7 of your web pages, that is

counted as 7 page views.
Essential Jargon

Visit
A visit is recorded whenever someone comes
to your web page, and looks at one or more
pages.
If a user looks at 100 of your web pages,
without leaving the site,
that is still counted as 1 visit.
The visit ends when this user leaves your site.
Essential Jargon

Pages per visit

Divide the number of pages that the user sees,
by the number of visits, and you get the
“pages per visit.”

Thus, if 20 users visit your website, and the

total number of pages they see is 300,
then the “pages per visit” is 300 divided by 20,
or 15 “pages per visit”.
Essential Jargon

Other terms ...

Webmasters are also interested in other terms,

such as ...
Essential Jargon

Other terms ...

•Average Time on Site ... (which means: the

average time the user spends on your website)

and ...
Essential Jargon

Other terms ...

• Percentage of New Visits (simply, the % of new

visits -- by new visitors -- to your website)

and ...
Essential Jargon

Bounce Rate
A “bounce” happens when a user visits your
website, stays to see one page only, and then
leaves.
The Bounce Rate is the percentage of “single-
page web visits.”

For example: if 100 users visit your site

and 20 of those 100 users
stay to see one page only
then your Bounce Rate is 20%.
☛ Later in this presentation, we will have a bit more to say
about this important idea ➠ “Bounce Rates”.
Let’s go back to
our Dashboard

Tricks of the Time-Graph

Slide your mouse-cursor along the bottom

line of the Time-Graph.
 Dashboard

Tricks of the Time-Graph

mouse-cursor

A pop-up box will appear, that shows you, for

each day, the number of visits to your website.
Dashboard

Tricks of the Time-Graph

Try this:
Click the down-arrow to the right of the word
“Visits”:
 Dashboard

Tricks of the Time-Graph

Surprise! ... the Beta* “Graph Mode” appears

☛ * Google hopes that it will be “Beta”

than the previous version! ☺
 Dashboard

Tricks of the Time-Graph

the Beta “Graph Mode”

6 Radio Buttons

You can click any one of the 6 radio buttons.

Click, for example, “Pageviews”, for example. Now as you slide your
cursor along the timeline, you see the number of Pageviews (instead
of Visits) on any given day.
 Dashboard

Tricks of the Time-Graph

the Beta “Graph Mode”
Now click on the label: “Compare Two Metrics”
and then select another radio button ...
 Dashboard

Tricks of the Time-Graph

the Beta “Graph Mode”

This reveals two graph lines,

one for Visits, and the other for
Pages/Visit.
 Dashboard

Tricks of the Time-Graph

the Beta “Graph Mode”
You may not believe
what happens when you
click
“Compare to Site” ...
Belgian UFO
 Dashboard

Tricks of the Time-Graph

the Beta “Graph Mode”

“Compare to Site” ...

Nothing Happens.
Nothing at all.

Google
is saving this feature
for a future release.
 Dashboard

Tricks of the Time-Graph

In sum:
the Time-Graph at the top of your dashboard
gives you a summary of the 6 key indicators:

☞ Visits
 Dashboard

Tricks of the Time-Graph

In sum:
the Time-Graph at the top of your dashboard
gives you a summary of the 6 key indicators:

☞ Visits
☞ Page views
 Dashboard
Tricks of the Time-Graph
In sum:
the Time-Graph at the top of your dashboard
gives you a summary of the 6 key indicators:

☞ Visits
☞ Page views
☞ Pages per Visit
 Dashboard

Tricks of the Time-Graph

In sum:
the Time-Graph at the top of your dashboard
gives you a summary of the 6 key indicators:

☞ Visits
☞ Page views
☞ Pages per Visit
☞ Bounce Rate
 Dashboard

Tricks of the Time-Graph

In sum:
the Time-Graph at the top of your dashboard
gives you a summary of the 6 key indicators:

☞ Visits
☞ Page views
☞ Pages per Visit
☞ Bounce Rate
☞ Average time on site
 Dashboard

Tricks of the Time-Graph

In sum:
the Time-Graph at the top of your dashboard
gives you a summary of the 6 key indicators:

☞ Visits
☞ Page views
☞ Pages per Visit
☞ Bounce Rate
☞ Average time on site
☞ Percentage of New Visitors
 Dashboard

Site Usage

When you want the vast, unending, and

revelatory details about these 6 key indicators,
then you jump down from the Time-Graph to
the next module: Site Usage.
Dashboard

Site Usage
Click on “Visits” to find out the
total visits, and the average
visits per day (or per hour).

At no extra charge, you can

see a bar graph that shows the
number of visits on each day.
Dashboard

Site Usage

Click on “Page Views” to find

out the total page views.

A bar graph shows the number

of page views on each day.
 Dashboard

Site Usage
Similar information is available
for the other key indicators,
whenever you click.

Caution: the options that are

offered under % New Visits are
fascinating.*

☛ * fascinating (noun). Beyond the scope of this tutorial. ☺

 Dashboard

There are 4 more realms of data for you to explore:

Visitors Overview; Map Overlay; Traffic Sources
Overview; and Content Overview. To access each
one, click on the “View Reports” link on the bottom
left of each module.

Click Here
 Dashboard

Visitors Overview
Among other things, the Visitors Overview section
contains a “Technical Profile.”

Here you discover which web browsers are used to

see your site, and the connection speeds of your
users.
 Dashboard

Map Overlay

Google designed the

Map Overlay to be hours
of fun for adults.

Just run your mouse-

cursor over any of the
world’s nations, to see
how many visitors from
that nation have visited
your website.
 Dashboard

Traffic Sources Overview

The Traffic Sources Overview shows you where your

traffic comes from.
☞ Direct Traffic is traffic from the user’s bookmarks, or from
users who type a URL directly into the URL bar
☞ Referring Sites means users who come to your website
from a link on another website
☞ Search Engines ... this is traffic that comes to your site
when a user searches the web, and then finds your site,
using a search engine, such as Google or Dogpile
 Dashboard

Content Overview

Content Overview is like

a popularity report for
each of your most-often
visited web pages.

You can (and should) go

deeper here, by clicking
on the link (on the
bottom left) that says:
“view full report.”
 Dashboard

Content Overview

Content Performance is now revealed.

This shows profiles of each web page.

Pay attention to your bounce rates.

How do you evaluate a page’s bounce rate ?

 Bounce Rate

The bounce rate, as you

elephantinely recall, is
the percentage of
single-page web visits.

When a user visits your

website, then stays to
see one page only —
that evanescent
transaction is deemed
a “bounce.”
 Dashboard

Bounce Rate
If the bounce rate of
a web page is

30% or less
Bounce
then this web page is
doing well.

No action is needed.
 Dashboard

Bounce Rate
If the bounce rate of
a web page is

around 50%

then you should do Bounce

something to improve
the interest in this
web page.
 Dashboard

Bounce Rate
If the bounce rate of
a web page is

70% or more

then this web page is

crying out for Bounce
attention.

Do something to bring
it back to life.
Summary
Mark Twain
(Samuel
Clemens) said:

“I am a great
believer in luck.
And I find that
the harder I
work, the more
luck I have.”
Summary
“Anyone could
discover a theory of
relativity. But to
improve the viability
of a website takes
true genius: hard
work combined with
knowledge.”
 Summary
To attract more visitors
to your website:
 Summary
To attract more visitors
to your website:

Make your site compliant

✓
with W3C standards
 Summary
To attract more visitors
to your website:

Make your site compliant

✓
with W3C standards

✓ Use Google Analytics to

find the site’s strengths
and weaknesses, then
improve both
 Summary
To attract more visitors
to your website:

Make your site compliant

✓
with W3C standards

✓ Use Google Analytics to

find the site’s strengths
and weaknesses, then
improve both
✓ Learn more: start with
our Resources on the
following page ...
 Resources

Thank you for viewing

Google Analytics
A Quick Guide to the Basics

Comments to: epubster @ gmail.com

Learn more about Google Analytics:

Google Analytics home page www.Google.com/analytics

Google Analytics Help Center http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/
Analytics Help (Google Group) http://groups.google.com/group/analytics-help
Google Analytics Blog http://analytics.blogspot.com/
Wikipedia Article on Web Analytics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_analytics
Blog of Avinash Kaushik www.kaushik.net/avinash
Google Webmaster Central www.google.com/webmasters/
Epublishers Weekly (blog): www.EpublishersWeekly.com
 Credits
Written, designed, and
produced by:
✓
Michael Pastore
Thanks for the use of these image:
✓
● Rodin photo from: Flickr by innoxiuss
● Elephant photo from: Flickr by nickandmel2006

For the latest ideas about

technology and culture,
visit the new blog, ✓
Epublishers Weekly:
www.EpublishersWeekly.com
About the Copyright ©

www.EpublishersWeekly.com

www.EpublishersWeekly.com
 Thank you
to our Sponsor

Zorba Press
www.ZorbaPress.com