Episode 03: Understanding Google Analytics
Timestamp
0.00 - Introduction
3:05 - Reasons why Google Analytics is a useful tool
5:25 - What’s Javascript?
6:05 - What are Cookies?
7:25 - Data Collection
8:25 - Report
9:10 - Google Analytics in a nutshell
Read about this Episode:
Hello There! This is Gabriela with another chapter of Digital Jump. In this episode, I want to share how Google Analytics collects information. If you already have Google Analytics installed on your website, you might already know how handy this tool is. It's one of the most popular tools for entrepreneurs out there. If you still don’t have it I strongly suggest you have a look at how it works and install it. By the way, it’s free to use! Analytics provides key data that would improve your business performance. It helps to find out more about your user and understand what kind of behaviors they have on your website. So, do you know exactly what Google Analytics does and how to take advantage of it? If the answer is no then read carefully.
A couple of years ago, I worked with a young entrepreneur with loads of traffic on his website. It got to the point where he wanted to be more strategic about when and how to publish content and products. They decided to use Google Analytics. He wasn’t particularly familiar with the tool, so he initially thought that creating an account would be enough, adding the Javascript code, and then he was ready to go! However, after seeing the first report he was shocked by the amount of information collected. They had to take their time to analyze such information and sort out relevant data. It was so overwhelming that they decided to quit. Even though his business was doing incredibly well, he didn’t manage to see the full potential of this tool, a situation many entrepreneurs out there are going through.
Let's start with the benefits of having Google Analytics and then explore how exactly Analytics collects information.
It allows you to understand how users find your website.
You can follow up what people are searching on your webpage
It allows you to get data on who and how people visit the site. E.g what regions they’re opening the link from? Do they find us on Facebook or on Google search?
You can find out what are the most popular pages on your website. What pages are receiving more views?
You can follow up on the number of conversions. You can configure and check where your visitors go before buying the products.
It’s Free! There is no need to add it in your budget and if you know how to use it ends up being a very valuable tool for your business.
It can also be intuitive (After learning the basics).
In this chapter, I’m looking to make clear the technical part of this great tool.
So how does Google Analytics exactly deliver these great results? If you already have a website, the first you need to do is open an account with Analytics. They’ll provide you with a code that will be used on your webpage. What’s the purpose of this code? You might wonder. This is Javascript code, in other words, programming language. This code is embedded in your Analytics and allows us to collect information about your visitor’s browser and computer settings, meaning that it can store information like your readers’ operating systems, screen resolution, etc. It also helps to set Cookies, which can determine if your visitor is new or returning. But what's a cookie anyway? Such a bizarre name for a computer term. A cookie is a tiny little file that's stored on your user's computer. It contains the address of the Web site and codes that your browser sends back to the Web site each time your user visits the page. That is, we will see if the user plans to buy on the web, or if he uses other services. Cookies make it all possible. Every time the user visits our page, a tracking code is activated. This is called data collection. For example, when a page loads on a website, Google Analytics records and collects the information, first with the tracking code, and then packaged in a "hit." This hit is then sent to Google's servers for the next step: data processing.
The next step within Google Analytics, which is crucial in the process, is to transform all the raw data, applying the filters and settings in your account. When opening an account in Analytics it’s important to set up exactly what you want the program to do. These settings are extremely important as they allow Analytics to process only the most relevant data so that it can best align with your business goals and strategies. If we miss this step, we will end up with an overwhelming amount of data that in the end will be difficult to analyze. For instance, It is possible to apply a filter that tells Google Analytics not to process any data from members of the same team. It is not recommended to include this data in the analysis if your team uses the page frequently. Be very careful with the filters, once they are applied, there is no way to retrieve the data that you asked Analytics not to process.
Once the processing step is finished, Google Analytics delivers a report. Through the reporting interface, it is the way we can access our data. There will be several visuals and reporting tools that make it easy to read and analyze the information that Google Analytics presents us. To access the data, I recommend using the Google Analytics Core Reporting API, which allows you to create your reporting tools and a custom dashboard to display your data.
In essence, Google Analytics is a fundamental tool that can help you as an entrepreneur to improve both your content and the experience provided to the user. Thanks to Analytics you can find useful information, like which products are the most eye-catching or when the majority of readers navigate your site and what they are specifically searching for, to find out what content works and what doesn’t. By understanding how Google Analytics works, you can get the most out of it and achieve more without much effort. I hope this chapter helps you take that Digital Jump and achieve your entrepreneurship goals.
Are you new on Digital Jump? Take action with this post by asking your Digital Jump team for tips on how to use and set up your Google Analytics account. You can contact us on Instagram @insidedigitaljump or write to us at contact@insidedigitaljump.com. If you liked the episode, spread the knowledge on your social media or with other entrepreneurs that might find it useful. See you soon.
