Google Analytics Simplified
You may or may not be familiar with Google Analytics, It is one of my passions. This might sound a little odd, but as a business owner, it means I can keep an eye on the performance of my websites quickly and from anywhere when you use the app. In this blog/video I want to share with you a shortcut that will simplify Google Analytics and make it very fast to get the information you require.
Top Tip for Finding Business Intelligence
There are a lot of options and combinations you can use to make Analytics work for you. You can search by date, compare dates, choose medium, filter by source, discover bounce rates etc. The list is endless and it may take you a while to work it out. I could show you and do offer training, however, the point of this video is to make it simple for you to do it yourself.
It may seem obvious but the big search bar at the top is there for a reason and is often overlooked. All you have to do is type in your query and Google will answer it in seconds. It may get a bit of time to get used to but it is no different that talking to Alexa or Google Home. Ask questions like:
What is my best perorming campaign in 2022
What is the average age of my website visitors.
Best performing page July vs august
Compare Revenue this month vs last year
Once you get started, you will begin to learn as will Google. Alongside your answer will be suggestions for results. You can easily get lost in detail here. To find out the most relevant answers and click go to report. You can then share this information as a PDF with others. You can also get this report sent to you by email daily, weekly or monthly.
What is Google Analytics?
"Google Analytics is a platform that collects data from your websites and apps to create reports that provide insights into your business."
It is a free tool provided by Google that lets you keep track of your website performance. This can be anything from finding out the bounce rate of a certain page to how many sales you make from your Facebook advertising. You can dig as deep as you like or just get an overview from the dashboard which you can customise to suit your needs.
It comes with a useful date selector that allows you to quickly compare month on month on month or year to year performance. It can also give you up to date info on what is happening on your website in real time.
Is Google Analytics on my Website?
Some business owners don't know if they have analytics installed or not. This may sound silly, but sometimes a marketing manager will add it, or the web developer will and not tell anyone. The first thing to do is check the code on the website. You ca do this quickly by right clicking on your website and selecting - View Source Code
This will produce a screen full of code that makes up the back end of your website. Then press Shift + F to find some text. Type in "UA-" and it should find something that looks like this -
('config', 'UA-161013595-1')
The UA- number is the ID of your Google Analytics. If it absent then you would need to set up a Google Analytics account and follow the instructions of how to set up tracking. Get in touch if you need help.
Follow this guide for more info on setting up your account. How to set up Analytics.