How Google Analytics Works

Google Analytics measures the most important web site elements.  Webmasters (businesses) improve their web presence with these tools, and generate more revenues.

 Google Analytics tracks and displays three key web site areas:

  • How people find the site.
  • How people navigate, or interact with, the site.
  • How people accept offers – buy goods, or register for offers.

 Google analytics includes:

  • Graph – it includes both a long trend view, and detailed reports users access with a click.  It shows information such as visits, the number of pages people view per visit, and the bounce rate – whether people remain on the site or bounce off to another site.
  • Report control – the user creates the custom report they want including regional reports, browser reports, and keyword reports.
  • Report summaries – sharable reports users create on their dashboard.  They create and schedule emails, so everyone in an organization sees the reports they need.
  • Adword Reports – users analyze and adjust Adwords – the keywords they purchase – based on their performance.

How Google Analytics Help

Google Analytics helps advertisers create better ads, target their ads to the right people, and optimize their sites for the best conversion rates.

For example, regional data lets an advertiser determine hot spot areas, and how much traffic or business those areas contribute.  If, for example, many people come from Spanish speaking areas, the advertiser serves them better with ads and site areas in Spanish.

One of Google Analytics’ key components is landing page help.  Targeted landing pages provide visitors exactly the information they want, so they stay on the site, visit in the future, and convert (“make a purchase” or “become a lead”)  Google Analytics helps advertisers design better landing pages, so more customers use the site.

Another key component is navigation reports, which lead to better navigation design.  Google Analytics shows exactly how people move through the site, including exactly where they bounce.  Webmasters streamline and improve their navigation process with this information.

For example, a site upsells customers by displaying an offer page after the customer clicks “add to cart.”  With Google Analytics the company sees 70% of the customers leave the site when the offer page appears.  They remove the offer page, and instead they show the same offer on the side of the initial check out page.  With this small change, only 20% leave the site after pressing “add to cart.”  That’s a significant conversion improvement.

Conclusion

Google Analytics provides key information that not only shows advertisers when ads work and when they don’t, but helps advertisers improve their ads, their site, and their sales.