Google analytics

Google Analytics
What is web analytics?
Web analytics is measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of web data for purpose of
understanding web usage. Web analytics not only used as tool to measure web traffic but can also be
used as tool for business and market research and to assess and improve effectiveness of website.
Analytics Tools
There are differenttoolsavailableinthe markettotrack andanalyze the webtrafficanduserinteraction.
Sr.no Tool
1. Google Analytics
2. Google Website Optimizer
3. Piwik
4. Open web analytics
5. Woopra
6. Mint
7. Clicky
8. Kissmetrics
9. CrazzyEgg
10. Site Meter
From all above listedtools, Google Analyticsisthe mostpopularand commonlyusedtool toanalyze the
web traffic and different user interactions.
In subsequent sections, we will have detailed overview about Google Analytics.
Google Analytics
Google analyticsisthe free analyticstool usedto whichprovidesstatisticsforwebsite.Ithelpstoanalyze
the web traffic as well as different user interactions.
To get started with Google analytics, you first need to set up Google analytics account.
1. Create a newGoogle analyticsaccount if you do not have. Visitgoogle.com/analytics.Thenclick
Access Google Analytics or Create an account button and follow the instructions.
2. Set up the property

Once youfinishedconfiguration,click“GetTrackingCode”and youwillget the trackingcode.Just
copy and paste the tracking code into every web page where you want to track.

Once youaddedthe tracking code to yourweb site Google analyticswill startcollectingdatafor
your website.
The JavaScript snippet above will record page views for every page on your site containing the
code.
Page Tracking
Page tracking allows you to measure number of views for a particular page on your website.
For a website, you might want to track page when large portion of screen changes.
For example, you can track the page when the user goes from home screen to contact screen.
The defaultJavaScriptsnippetforanalytics.jscontainsapage trackingcall.Sowhenyouinstall the
tracking code, it will automatically start tracking the page.
There are 3 fields that can be sent with tracking code.
Value Type Required Description
Location String No Url of the page to be tracked
Page String No The page pathandquerystringof the page(ex:/homepage?id=10)
Title String No The title of the page(ex:homepage)
To send a pageview, pass the ‘ga’ function ‘send’ command with the ‘pageview’ hit type.
ga(‘send’,’pageview’);
When this command is executed the analytics.js library sets the title value using document.title
browserproperty. The libraryalsosetsthe locationvalueusingthe followingbrowserproperties.
Once calculated, locationvalue senttoGoogle Analyticsservers whererestof the page valuesset.
var location= window.location.protocol + ‘//’+window.location.hostname+
window.location.pathname + window.location.search;

You can override the defaultvalues.To override the default page values you can pass additional
Parameters to ga command.
ga(‘send’,’pageview’,{
‘page’:’/contact’,
‘title’:’Contact’ })
To see reports goto “Reports” tab.
Google analytics reports lets you access the performance of your website content and actions
usertakesonwebsite. The behaviorsection inanalyticsreports providesinformationaboutwhat
your visitors do on your website.
You can access the behavior reports using the menu in the left side bar of Google analytics
dashboard.

There are total nine separate reporting sections and tools under Behavior in your website’s Google
analytics profile.
1. Overview
The overviewreportprovidesagraphshowingamountof trafficyour website receivesandsome
additional metrics.

Brief description of data in behavior overview report
a. Pageviews:The total numberof pagesviewed. Thisnumberincludesthe repeatedviewsof a
single page.Inother words,single person may view the same page multiple times and each
view is counted as page view.
b. Unique Pageviews:The numberof individual people whohaveviewedaspecificpage atleast
once during the visit.
c. Avg. Time on Page: The average amount of time user spends on viewing specific page or
screen or set of pages.
d. Bounce Rate: The percentage of single-page visits or number of visits in which people left
your website fromthe same page they enteredon.For example,if youvisita page and then
leave, that is counted as bounce.
e. % Exit: The percentage of users who exit from a page or set of pages.
2. Behavior Flow
The behaviorreportletsyou see the path visitorscommonlytake onyour website-fromthe first
page they view to the last page they visit before leaving your website.

3. Site Content
The site contentreportshowsthe following reportswhichshowshow people engage withpages
on your website.
 All Pages:
The all pagesreportdisplaysthe toppagedof website basedonwebtraffic.Italsoshows
each page’s pageview, unique Pageviews, average time on page, bounce rate, %exit
 Content Drilldown
The content drilldown report is helpful for the website having subfolders such as
domain.org/support, domain.org/Help etc.
This report also allows you to see top folders of content on your site and top content
within those folders.
 Landing Pages
The landing pages report shows the top pages on your website where visitors enter.

 Exit Pages
The exit pages report shows last pages people visit before exiting your website.
4. Site Speed
The site speed reports show some crucial reports which helps you to identify the areas where
your website needs to optimize.
4.1 Site Speed Overview
The site speed overview report displays a graph of average load time for all the pages
Brief description of the metrics that you will find in Site speed overview
4.1.1 Avg. Page Load Time

The average amount of time it takes for page to load from initiation of
pageview(ex: user clicks on a page link) to load completion in a browser.
4.1.2 Avg. Redirection Time
The average amount of time spent in redirects before fetching a page.
4.1.3 Avg. Domain Lookup Time
The average amount of time spent in DNS lookup for a page.
4.1.4 Avg. Server Connection Time
The average amount of time spent establishing TCP connection for a page.
4.1.5 Avg. Server Response Time
The average amount of time your server takes to respond to user request,
including the network time from the users location to your server.
4.1.6 Avg. Page Download Time
The average amount of time to download a page
4.2 Page Timings
The page timingreportdisplayshow longyourmost visitedpagestake toload compared
to overall average load time for your website.
4.3 Speed Suggestions
The speedsuggestionsreportgivesdetailedinformationonhow tooptimizethe pageson
your website.
4.4 User timing
User timing shows performance information specific to your site.

Note:To use usertimingreports,youneedtoimplementcustom code on your website.
User timingsallowdeveloperstomeasure periodsof time usinganalytics.jslibrary.Thisis
Particularly useful for developers to measure the latency, or time spent, making AJAX
requests, loading web resources.
User timing are measured using the following fields:
timingCategory String Yes A stringforcategorizing all usertimingvariables
into logical groups(ex: web service call)
timingVar String Yes A string to identifythe variable beingrecorded
(ex: JavaScript load)
timingValue Number Yes The number of milliseconds in elapsed time to
report to Google Analytics (ex:20ms)
timingLabel String No A string that can be used add flexibility in
visualizing user timings in reports (ex: Url for
web service)
Implementation
To send the user timing data use “ga” function and pass “send” command with the
“timing” hit type.
ga('send', 'timing', 'timingCategory', 'timingVar', timingValue);
ga("send", "timing", "Services/abc/currentUserName", "Ajax Get Request
Call", 232)
where:
“Services/abc/currentUserName” is a timing category
“Ajax Request call” is a timing variable
“232” is a timing value
For more information:

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/user-
timings
5. Site Search
If you have search engine on your website which visitors can use to search the site, you can
measure the usage of this search functionality.The results you can find under the site Search
Category in Google Analytics. To enable site search follow the steps below:
Site search consists of:

 Overview
The site search overview report displays overall metrics for the visitors who use search
box on your website.
 Usage
The usage report breaks down the number of visits where someone used search box in
your website versus the number of visits where the search box wasn’t used.
 Search Terms
The search term reportdisplayskeywordsenteredintoyourwebsitessearchbox.Along
with the terms, it also shows metrics for total number of searches, % search exits and
additional details about visits related to search terms.
 Pages
The Pagesreportdisplaysthe same metricsmentionedaboveforsearchterms,butinthis
case the metricsare focusedonpageswhere searchesoriginated
6. Events
The events section in Google Analytics allows you to track the specific user interaction on your
website such as clicks on external links, file downloads, video plays etc.
To use events reporting you need to setup the events tracking code in your web site.
 Setting event tracking code
Event tracking allows to measure how user interacts with content of your web site. For
example, you might want to track how many times a buttons was pressed.
An event consists of following fields:
Category String Yes The object that was interacted with(ex: button)
Action String Yes Type of interaction (ex: click)
Label String No Useful forcategorizingevents(ex: nav buttions)
Value Number No Useful to pass counts(ex:4 times)
Implementation
To send an event, pass “ga” function the “send” command with “event” hit type
ga(‘send’,’event’,’category’,’action’)
Ex: ga(‘send’,’event’,’User Actions’,’DownloadDocument’)
Where;
User Actions is event category
DownloadDocument is event action
Once you are done with setting event tracking code in your website, you can see the
Following reports in Google analytics
6.1 Events Overview

The eventsoverviewreportdisplaysthe summaryof visitorinteractions you are tracking
on yourwebsite.The reportshowsnumberof eventsbasedonevent category, action, label.
6.2 Top Events
The top eventreportdisplaysthe events with most user interaction. For example, if you
are tracking “UserAction”onyourwebsite usingthe eventtrackingcode thenyoucanclickon
User Actions from this report to see specific links that visitors are clicking on when they
leave your website.
6.3 Pages
The pagesreportshows the top pageswhere visitorsinteractwiththe eventsyouare tracking.

6.4 Events Flow
The events flow report displays the path visitors take on your website from where they
arrive to when they interact with your event.
7. AdSense
Google AdSenseprovidesafree,flexiblewaytoearnmoneyfromyourwebsites,mobile sitesand
site search results with relevant and engaging data. To use AdSense reports you must link your
Google AdSense Account to Google Analytics Account.
For more details:
https://developers.google.com/adsense/
8. Experiments
Experiments in Google analytics allow you to conduct simple testing to see which landing page
variations performs best at meeting specific conversion goals.
For more details on Experiments:
https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/platform/experiments-overview

9. In-Page Analytics
In-page analytics feature enables you to view your web page along with your Google Analytics
data. To use this feature, you must install Page Analytics Google Chrome Extension.

Google analytics

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