Google Analytics: 5 Basics Of The Basic - From Set Up To Analyze

In today’s post, I will discuss five very basic things about Google Analytics.

I always wish to see what my blog readers do when they are on my blog so I can make changes to my blog and serve them better.

So I move to Google Analytics to get some insights.

Whether you are an expert or just started, Google Analytics can be confusing - from setting it up properly to filter out desired data.

When I started, I faced a lot of challenges. Even today, I need to consult with others from time to time on many issues. So I thought, writing about using and setting up Google Analytics for fellow small business owners would be a good cause.

What does Google Analytics do?

By inserting a tracking code into the site, you are letting Google Analytics track your website visitors.

The tracking is done in real-time and you can analyze data for a date range depending on your needs.

How does Google Analytics help business owners?

How this tool helps you much depends on the information you want to get from it. Some most common answers everyone is seeking are -

• Number of visitors to the website
• Demographics data break-up of that traffic
• Sources and medium of the traffic
• Most visited pages of the website by visitors
• Less interactive content and pages of the website

And many more.

These answers can be used in a variety of ways:

• When you know the number of visits to your site, you can quantify your efforts in driving that traffic. Accordingly, you can optimize your plan.
• If people are using their mobile more than desktop to surf the website, then you can craft your content accordingly. For example, if you see a very less number of visits from iOS, then accordingly you can start your investigation to find the root cause.
• If you can track any particular action - how many times the users take a step on the site, then the data can help you optimize the path to the action. Also, data about who didn’t take the step, and bounces off from the web page, can be helpful to make some improvements to increase your conversions.

As you become more familiar with data in Google Analytics, you can use it to adjust the way you are optimizing your processes.

How to set it up?

You need to register in Google Analytics with your Google account login. the steps are like -

• Open Google Analytics
• Login
• Create new account
• Create new property
• Create new view
• You will get the Tracking Code
• Copy the code and then add it to pages you want to track of your website.
• Check Google Analytics whether data is recording or not

You are done, now start analyzing.

How does the Analytics dashboard help you?

Through Google Analytics dashboard will let you see -

• Traffic metrics for the set date range
• Real-time information about active users and pages they are browsing
• Sources the visitors come from (ex. organic search, direct, email, referral, or other)
• The country most of them visit your site from
• The most popular times the visitors coming in
• The most popular pages of the website will be listed here
• Information about the devices they were using to access the site

You can of course customize the dashboard according to your wish later on.

How to improve website performance with Google Analytics?

Google Analytics provides valuable information about the people who visit your site and their browsing behavior. All you need to recognize the pattern and then optimize pages so Google ranks them higher on SERP.

Study Google Analytics data carefully to make data-driven business decisions and get more traffic, leads, and conversions!

There are many more things you can do through Google Analytics -

• Set up E-commerce Analytics (essential if you have an e-commerce portal)
• Measure your SEO results
• Attribute sources of your leads and sales
• From where visitors are leaving the website (exit point) through the goal funnel
• Page load time optimization
• Keyword the visitors are using to come to your website

And many more.

All the best with Google Analytics!