Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION TO GOOGLE ANALYTICS ........................................................................................................ 11 Google Analytics Overview .......................................................................................................................... 11 Providing answers to difficult questions ..................................................................................................... 11 A few features ............................................................................................................................................. 11 How Google Analytics works ....................................................................................................................... 12 What happens if........................................................................................................................................ 12 Data confidentiality ..................................................................................................................................... 13 INTERFACE NAVIGATION ................................................................................................................................. 14 Initial screen ................................................................................................................................................ 14 Analytics settings ......................................................................................................................................... 14 Report interface........................................................................................................................................... 15 Dashboard ................................................................................................................................................... 16 Report structure .......................................................................................................................................... 16 Setting the Active Data Range ..................................................................................................................... 16 Setting a Comparison Data Range ............................................................................................................... 17 Graphing by Day, Week and Month ............................................................................................................ 17 Multi-Line Graphs ........................................................................................................................................ 17 Graph Roll-Over ........................................................................................................................................... 18 Exporting Report Data ................................................................................................................................. 18 Email reports ............................................................................................................................................... 18 Curriculum links ........................................................................................................................................... 19 Title and Breadcrumbs ................................................................................................................................ 19 Narratives and Scorecards ........................................................................................................................... 20 Report tabs .................................................................................................................................................. 20 Quick segmentation..................................................................................................................................... 21 Keyword reports .......................................................................................................................................... 21 Hourly reporting .......................................................................................................................................... 22 Report views ................................................................................................................................................ 22 Sorting data ................................................................................................................................................. 22 Expanding Number of Results Displayed ..................................................................................................... 23 Find Box ....................................................................................................................................................... 23 INSTALLING GOOGLE ANALYTICS TRACKING CODE ......................................................................................... 24 Getting started with Google Analytics......................................................................................................... 24
Create a New Account ................................................................................................................................. 24 Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC) ...................................................................................................... 24 Finding your Tracking Code ......................................................................................................................... 25 Understanding the Tracking Code ............................................................................................................... 25 Custom Website Setups .............................................................................................................................. 26 Installing the JavaScript ............................................................................................................................... 26 Using GA with Adwords and Other Products .............................................................................................. 26 Verifying Installation........................................................................................................................................ 27 Checking reports for Data............................................................................................................................ 27 Checking Source Code ................................................................................................................................. 27 INTERPRETING REPORTS.................................................................................................................................. 28 Guidelines ........................................................................................................................................................ 28 Contextual Help Resources.......................................................................................................................... 28 Create Context for your Data ...................................................................................................................... 28 Creating Context with Visualizations ........................................................................................................... 29 Looking for trends ....................................................................................................................................... 29 Investigating Changes in Trends .................................................................................................................. 30 Data Driven Decision Making ...................................................................................................................... 30 Pageviews, Visits and Visitors .......................................................................................................................... 31 Pageview...................................................................................................................................................... 31 Visit .............................................................................................................................................................. 31 Visitor........................................................................................................................................................... 31 Pageviews, Visits and Visitors The basics ................................................................................................. 31 Pageviews vs. Unique Pageviews ................................................................................................................ 32 Absolute Unique vs. New vs. Returning ................................................................................................ 33 Pageviews, Visits and Visitors in Your Reports ............................................................................................ 33 Time metrics .................................................................................................................................................... 34 Time on page ............................................................................................................................................... 34 Time on Site ................................................................................................................................................. 34 Avg. Time on Page vs. Avg. Time on Site .............................................................................................. 35 Flash-based sites.......................................................................................................................................... 35 Length of Visit vs. Average Time on Site ............................................................................................... 35 Traffic Sources ................................................................................................................................................. 36 Traffic Sources Reports................................................................................................................................ 36
Traffic Sources Explained............................................................................................................................. 36 What Makes a Good Source of Traffic? ....................................................................................................... 36 All Traffic Sources ........................................................................................................................................ 37 Revenue and Conversion Drivers ................................................................................................................ 38 Keyword Report ........................................................................................................................................... 38 Campaign Attribution .................................................................................................................................. 40 Content Reports .............................................................................................................................................. 41 Top Content, Content by Title, Content Drilldown...................................................................................... 41 Why I am seeing / in my reports? ............................................................................................................ 41 Top Landing Pages ....................................................................................................................................... 42 Navigation Analysis.......................................................................................................................................... 42 Navigation Summary ................................................................................................................................... 42 Why Are Previous Page and Next Page the same? ............................................................................... 43 Entrance Paths Reports ............................................................................................................................... 43 Additional Content Reports & Drill-Down ................................................................................................... 44 ACCOUNTS AND PROFILES............................................................................................................................... 45 The Analytics Settings Screen ...................................................................................................................... 45 Analytics Accounts ....................................................................................................................................... 45 Creating a New Account .............................................................................................................................. 46 User Manager .............................................................................................................................................. 46 Administrators and Users ..................................................................................................................... 47 Add/Delete Users and Edit User Info .......................................................................................................... 47 Adding a New User ...................................................................................................................................... 47 Granting Access to a User............................................................................................................................ 47 Modifying Access ......................................................................................................................................... 47 Managing Access and Accounts .................................................................................................................. 48 Changing for Login Email Address ............................................................................................................... 48 Profiles ......................................................................................................................................................... 48 Using Profiles ............................................................................................................................................... 49 Profile definition .......................................................................................................................................... 49 Adding a New Profile ................................................................................................................................... 50 Edit Profile ................................................................................................................................................... 50 Removing Profiles ........................................................................................................................................ 51 CAMPAIGN TRACKING AND ADWORDS INTEGRATION ................................................................................... 52
Analyze All Marketing Campaigns ............................................................................................................... 52 How to Track Your Campaigns..................................................................................................................... 52 Linking Adwords to Analytics....................................................................................................................... 53 Why Autotagging? ....................................................................................................................................... 53 How Does Autotagging Works? ................................................................................................................... 54 Appending glicd to the Destination URL...................................................................................................... 54 How to Enable Autotagging ......................................................................................................................... 55 Importing Cost Data from Adwords ............................................................................................................ 55 Data Discrepancies: Expected Behavior ...................................................................................................... 56 Data Discrepancies: Common Issues ........................................................................................................... 56 Tracking Online Marketing .......................................................................................................................... 57 What about Adwords?................................................................................................................................. 57 URL Tagging ................................................................................................................................................. 57 Example 1: Tag vs. No Tag ........................................................................................................................... 58 Example 2: Paid Keywords (Cost Per Click).................................................................................................. 58 Where is the Campaign Information Reflected? ......................................................................................... 59 The URL Builder ........................................................................................................................................... 61 Generating URLs .......................................................................................................................................... 61 Best Practices for Tagging Links................................................................................................................... 62 ANALYSIS FOCUS ADWORDS ........................................................................................................................ 62 GOALS .............................................................................................................................................................. 63 Goals ............................................................................................................................................................ 63 Goals Three Types..................................................................................................................................... 63 Goals in Reports........................................................................................................................................... 63 Funnels ........................................................................................................................................................ 64 Why Define Funnels? ................................................................................................................................... 64 Setting Up Goals .......................................................................................................................................... 64 Goal and Funnel Set-up ............................................................................................................................... 65 Defining URL Destination Goals................................................................................................................... 65 Goal URL Match Types................................................................................................................................. 66 Case Sensitive Setting............................................................................................................................... 67 Defining Threshold Goals ............................................................................................................................ 67 Goal Value ................................................................................................................................................... 67 Goal Conversions vs. Transactions .............................................................................................................. 68
Filter & Goal Tracking .................................................................................................................................. 68 Funnel Reporting ......................................................................................................................................... 68 Reverse Goal Path Reporting ....................................................................................................................... 69 ANALYSIS FOCUS FUNNEL VISUALIZATION ................................................................................................... 71 Funnel Visualization Report......................................................................................................................... 71 Finding the Report and Selecting a Goal ..................................................................................................... 72 Funnel Entrance Pages ................................................................................................................................ 72 Funnel Exit Pages ......................................................................................................................................... 73 Progressing Through the Funnel ................................................................................................................. 73 Understanding the Numbers ....................................................................................................................... 74 FILTERS............................................................................................................................................................. 75 Overview...................................................................................................................................................... 75 How Do Filters Work? .................................................................................................................................. 76 How to Set-up Filters ................................................................................................................................... 76 Predefined Filters ........................................................................................................................................ 77 Best Practices for Filters .............................................................................................................................. 77 Creating Custom Filters ............................................................................................................................... 77 Filter Types .................................................................................................................................................. 78 Example: Search and Replace Filter ............................................................................................................ 79 Filters and Profiles ....................................................................................................................................... 80 Customize Data Views ................................................................................................................................. 80 How to Include Only Google Adwords Traffic ............................................................................................. 81 Tracking Subdomains................................................................................................................................... 81 Best Practices for Filters & Profiles ............................................................................................................. 82 Best Practices for Include and Exclude Filters ............................................................................................. 82 Filtering AdWords Data ............................................................................................................................... 82 One AdWords Account, Multiple URLs ........................................................................................................ 83 Filters for Cost Sources ................................................................................................................................ 83 REGULAR EXPRESSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 84 Regular Expressions (RegEx) ........................................................................................................................ 84 Dot . ............................................................................................................................................................. 84 Backslash \ ................................................................................................................................................... 84 Character Sets and Ranges [] ....................................................................................................................... 85 Quantifiers and Repetition ? + *.................................................................................................................. 85
Grouping ...................................................................................................................................................... 86 Anchors ^ $ .................................................................................................................................................. 87 Shorthand Character Classes \d \s \w ......................................................................................................... 87 RegEx Review ............................................................................................................................................... 88 Common Uses for Regular Expressions ....................................................................................................... 89 RegEx Filters ................................................................................................................................................ 89 RegEx Goals ................................................................................................................................................. 89 RegEx and Tracking Equivalent Pages.......................................................................................................... 90 RegEx Within the Report Interface .............................................................................................................. 90 RegEx Generator of IP Address Ranges ....................................................................................................... 91 Points to Remember .................................................................................................................................... 91 COOKIES ........................................................................................................................................................... 92 What are Cookies?....................................................................................................................................... 92 Persistent vs. Temporary Cookies ............................................................................................................... 92 Cookie-Based Visitor Tracking ..................................................................................................................... 92 The utm First-Party Cookies ........................................................................................................................ 93 Example: Google Analytics Cookies ............................................................................................................. 93 __utma Visitor Identifier .......................................................................................................................... 94 __utmb & __utmc Session Identifiers ...................................................................................................... 95 __utmz Campaign Cookie ......................................................................................................................... 96 __utmz Campaign Values ......................................................................................................................... 98 Campaign Values: From Tagged URL to Cookie ........................................................................................... 98 __utmv Visitor Segmentation ................................................................................................................... 98 E-COMMERCE TRACKING ................................................................................................................................ 99 E-commerce reports .................................................................................................................................... 99 Report Examples .......................................................................................................................................... 99 The E-commerce Tab ................................................................................................................................... 99 HOW TO TRACK E-COMMERCE.................................................................................................................. 100 Three steps ................................................................................................................................................ 100 Step 1: Enable E-commerce Reports ......................................................................................................... 100 Step 2: Add Google Analytics Tracking Code ............................................................................................. 101 Step 3: Add Code to Track Transactions .................................................................................................... 101 Creating the transaction: _addTrans() ...................................................................................................... 102 Providing Product Details: addItem() ........................................................................................................ 102
Recording the Transaction: _trackTrans() ................................................................................................. 103 Secure Pages .............................................................................................................................................. 103 Shopping Carts on Other Domains or Subdomains ................................................................................... 104 REVENUE METRICS ........................................................................................................................................ 105 Goal Value ................................................................................................................................................. 105 Revenue ..................................................................................................................................................... 105 Goal Value + Revenue................................................................................................................................ 106 What is $ Index? ........................................................................................................................................ 106 $ Index Calculation .................................................................................................................................... 106 Important Points about $ Index ................................................................................................................ 107 TRACKING DOMAINS AND SUBDOMAINS ..................................................................................................... 108 Understanding Domains ............................................................................................................................ 108 Tracking Across Domains Doesnt Happen Automatically ........................................................................ 108 The _link() Method .................................................................................................................................... 108 Tracking Across Domains (Step 1) ............................................................................................................. 109 Tracking Across Domains (Step 2) ............................................................................................................. 109 Forms and _linkByPost() Method .............................................................................................................. 110 Subdomains ............................................................................................................................................... 110 Tracking Subdomains Using _setDomainName() ...................................................................................... 111 Best Practice #1 for Tracking Subdomains ................................................................................................ 111 Best Practice #2 for Tracking Subdomains ................................................................................................ 112 Multiple Domains with Subdomains (Step 1) ............................................................................................ 112 Multiple Domains with Subdomains (Step 2) ............................................................................................ 113 CUSTOM REPORTING..................................................................................................................................... 114 Designing a Custom Report ....................................................................................................................... 114 Creating a Custom Report ......................................................................................................................... 114 Adding a Title and Tabs ............................................................................................................................. 115 Adding Metrics .......................................................................................................................................... 115 Adding Dimensions .................................................................................................................................... 116 Previewing and Saving the Report............................................................................................................. 116 Viewing and Accessing the Report ............................................................................................................ 117 Deleting a Report....................................................................................................................................... 117 Editing a Report ......................................................................................................................................... 118 ADVANCED SEGMENTATION ......................................................................................................................... 119
What are Advanced Segments? ................................................................................................................ 119 Advanced Segments vs. Filtered Profiles ................................................................................................... 119 Applying and Advanced Segment .............................................................................................................. 120 Creating an Advanced Segment ................................................................................................................ 120 Modifying an Advanced Segment.............................................................................................................. 122 Adding Conditions to a Segment ............................................................................................................... 123 MOTION CHARTS ........................................................................................................................................... 124 What are Motion Charts? .......................................................................................................................... 124 Accessing Motion Charts ........................................................................................................................... 124 What Youll See on the Motion Chart........................................................................................................ 124 How To Select Metrics ............................................................................................................................... 125 How To View Data Over Time.................................................................................................................... 126 Plotting a Data Points History .................................................................................................................. 126 Saving a Motion Chart ............................................................................................................................... 126 Example Visualization: Keywords .............................................................................................................. 126 INTERNAL SITE SEARCH ................................................................................................................................. 128 Internal Site Search Reporting ................................................................................................................... 128 Why is Internal Site Search Important?..................................................................................................... 128 Setting Up Site Search ............................................................................................................................... 128 Identifying Your Query Parameter(s) ........................................................................................................ 130 Setting Up Site Search ............................................................................................................................... 130 Site Search Categories ............................................................................................................................... 131 Where to Find Site Search in Your Reports ............................................................................................... 131 Site Search Overview ................................................................................................................................. 132 Site Search Usage ...................................................................................................................................... 133 Site Search Terms ...................................................................................................................................... 133 Other Analysis Options with Search Terms ............................................................................................... 134 Site Search Start Pages .............................................................................................................................. 135 Site Search Destination Pages ................................................................................................................... 136 Site Search Categories ............................................................................................................................... 136 Site Search Trending .................................................................................................................................. 137 You May Wonder .................................................................................................................................... 137 TRACKING SITE INTERACTIONS ...................................................................................................................... 138 Web Analytics and Interactive Activities ................................................................................................... 138
Virtual Pageviews ...................................................................................................................................... 138 Example Code ............................................................................................................................................ 139 Use of Virtual Pageviews ........................................................................................................................... 139 Best Practices for Creating Virtual Pageviews ........................................................................................... 140 Event Tracking ........................................................................................................................................... 140 Call _trackEvent() to Register an Event ..................................................................................................... 141 Example: Tracking a Flash Video Player .................................................................................................... 141 Categories .................................................................................................................................................. 142 Actions ....................................................................................................................................................... 143 Labels ......................................................................................................................................................... 143 Values ........................................................................................................................................................ 144 Total Events vs. Unique Events .................................................................................................................. 144 Best Practices for Setting Up Event Tracking ............................................................................................ 145 Advantages of Event Tracking over Virtual Pageviews.............................................................................. 145 ADDITIONAL CUSTOMIZATIONS .................................................................................................................... 146 How to Change Session Timeout Value ..................................................................................................... 146 How to Change Campaign Expiration ........................................................................................................ 146 How to Change Campaign Precedence ..................................................................................................... 147 How to Add Search Engines....................................................................................................................... 147 How to Treat Certain Keywords as Direct ................................................................................................. 148 Treat Certain Referring Sites as Direct ...................................................................................................... 149
A few features
Google Analytics has been designed to meet the needs of novice users as well as web analytics experts. Some of the features include: Map Overlay which can help you understand how to best target campaigns by geographic region AdWords Integration which makes it easy to track AdWords campaigns and allows you to use Google Analytics from your AdWords interface Internal Site Search which allows you to track how people use the search box on your site Benchmarking so that you can see whether your site usage metrics underperform or outperform those of your industry vertical. Funnel Visualization so that you can optimize your checkout and conversion click-paths
What happens if
Google Analytics uses only first-party cookies, which are considered safe and non-intrusive by most internet users today. Although many people block third-party cookies from being set by their web browsers, this wont affect Google Analytics. Someone who blocks all cookies, however, wont be tracked by Google Analytics since all the data is passed to the Google Analytics servers via the first-party cookies. Someone who deletes their cookies will still be tracked, but theyll be identified as a new visitor to the site and Google Analytics wont be able to attribute their conversions to a prior referring campaign. People delete cookies for many reasons, one of which is to prevent personal data from being captured or reported. But, note that Google Analytics does not report on personally identifiable information. Youll learn more about cookies as they relate to Google Analytics in a later module. A much less common scenario is that a visitor to your site has disabled JavaScript on his or her browser. A visitor who disables JavaScript wont be tracked since the Google Analytics Tracking Code cannot be executed. Cached pages are saved on a visitors local machine and so theyre not served by the webserver. Google Analytics will still track visits to cached pages as long as the visitor is connected to the internet. JavaScript errors occur when an element of a web pages script contains an error or fails to execute correctly. If an error occurs before the Google Analytics Tracking Code is executed, the visit to the page wont be tracked. In general, no reporting tool can ever be 100% accurate. Youll get the most out of web analytics if you focus on trends. Knowing that 20% more visitors converted following a marketing campaign is more powerful than knowing that exactly 10 people visited your site today.
Data confidentiality
All data collected by Google Analytics is anonymous, including where visitors comes from, how the visitors navigate through the site, and other actions they may perform. No personally identifiable information is collected. Google does not share Analytics data with any 3rd parties. Furthermore, Google optimization, support, and sales staff may only access a clients data with the clients permission. You can give permission verbally, over email or through a support ticket that asks for help with a problem or asks a question about your data. You may elect to share your Google Analytics data with other Google products, and Google will use the data to improve the products and services we provide you. Electing to share your data Anonymously with Google and others allows you to use benchmarking. To provide benchmarking, Google removes all identifiable information about your website, then combines the data with hundreds of other anonymous sites in comparable industries and reports them in an aggregate form. If you select "do not share my Google Analytics data", you will not be able to use benchmarking and may not have access to specific ads-related features such as Conversion Optimizer. Again, regardless of your Data Sharing selections, Google does not share Analytics data with any 3rd parties.
INTERFACE NAVIGATION
Initial screen
Understanding the Google Analytics interface will help you find and analyze information more effectively. When you first login to your Google Analytics account, youll see a screen similar to the one on the slide. In this example, the user has access to three Google Analytics accounts. Click on the name of the account you would like to access.
Analytics settings
This takes you to the account-specific page where you manage the set-up and configuration of your account and profiles. You can toggle to your other Analytics accounts using the drop-down menu at the top right of the page. Each profile for the selected account is displayed under Website Profiles. From this screen you can access reports for each profile. You can also edit configuration settings, add filters, add or change user permissions, and add or remove profiles altogether.
Report interface
Click the View Reports link for a profile, and youll be taken to the dashboard for that profile. A sample dashboard is shown on the slide. We've called out the user interface features that are available on all reports. Your report navigation, scheduled email settings, Help links, data export options, and the calendar.
Note that there are several places to find help information. The Help link on the top right of the page takes you to the Google Analytics Help Center. Also, on the left margin of the page, youll see a Help Resources box with links.
Dashboard
The dashboard is where you put all the summary information about your site that you want to see at a glance. To add a report to the dashboard, just go to the report you want to add and then click Add to Dashboard. On the dashboard itself, you can position the report summaries however you like and delete the ones you don't need.
Report structure
In the left hand navigation, you'll see that your reports are organized into categories: Visitors, Traffic Sources, Content, Goals, and Ecommerce. If you dont have an ecommerce site or dont have ecommerce reporting enabled, you wont see the ecommerce section in your navigation. To view reports, click on any of the categories and the reports available within that category will appear. Some reports contain additional sub-reports, like the AdWords report under Traffic Sources. Click the arrow to see the sub-reports.
Multi-Line Graphs
You can also compare two metrics on the same graph to see how they are correlated. Click the arrow in the top left of the graph. Then, click the Compare Two Metrics link and select which two metrics you want to compare.
Graph Roll-Over
You can roll your mouse over the graph and see actual numbers
Email reports
Next to the Export button, youll see an Email button. Click it and youll see a screen with two tabs: Send Now, and Schedule. You can schedule reports to be delivered daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly. You also have the option to select what format to send them in, such as PDF or CSV.
The email scheduling feature provides an easy way to automatically distribute specific report data to the people who need it.
Curriculum links
The Overview reports in each section contain a set of Curriculum links. You can use these links to quickly find information that you need. In some cases, these links access reports that are not available from the left report navigation.
Report tabs
Most reports provide tabs that show different sets of data. The Site Usage tab shows metrics such as the number of pages viewed per visit, the average time on site, and the bounce rate. The Goal Conversion tab shows the conversion rates for each of your goals. If youve enabled ecommerce reporting on your Profile Settings page, youll also see an Ecommerce tab. This tab shows metrics such as Ecommerce revenue, number of transactions, and average value.
The AdWords Campaigns reports have an additional tab called Clicks. This tab contains AdWords related metrics such as clicks, cost, revenue per click and ROI.
Quick segmentation
You can segment table data in different ways using the Dimension pulldown menu. So, for example, if you want to see the traffic in your keywords report broken out by City, you just select City from the pulldown menu.
Keyword reports
In the Keywords and Search Engines reports, you have the option to analyze just paid, just non-paid traffic, or all search traffic. Simply click on the links above the scorecard to make your selection.
Hourly reporting
Some reports allow you to view results by hour. On these reports, you can select the view you want by clicking on the clock button in the top right corner next to Graph By.
Report views
There are five different Views available in most reports. The first icon organizes your report data into a table. This is the default view for many reports. The second icon allows you to create a pie-chart based on any one of the metrics in the report. The third icon shows a bar-graph based on any metric you select. The fourth icon is the comparison bar graph view. It allows you to quickly see whether each entry in the table is performing above or below average. The fifth icon allows you to instantly see a summary report with graphs for the traffic youre analyzing.
Sorting data
Columns within tables can be sorted in both ascending and descending order simply by clicking on the column heading. The arrows next to the heading title indicate the order in which the results are listed. A down arrow indicates descending order and an upward arrow indicates ascending order.
Find Box
You can use the Find box at the bottom left of your reports to narrow or refine your results. For example, if you are looking at the All Traffic Sources report and you want to only see traffic from the Google domain, you can type in Google and select containing. Or, to exclude all traffic from the Google domain, you would select excluding.
Be sure to replace the "x"s in the code with your unique Google Analytics account number and property index, which will be explained in the next slide.
The number immediately following the UA dash is your unique Google Analytics account number, and the number following the last dash is the property index. Review the lesson on accounts and profiles to learn about the property index. This section of the tracking code automatically detects secure versus non-secure pages. So, you can use the same tracking code on both https and http pages.
Youll need to make modifications to your tracking code. While this isnt covered in the course, you can learn how by following the link shown in the slide.
Verifying Installation
Checking reports for Data
Once youve installed your tracking code, it usually takes about 24 hours for data to appear in your reports. The best way to verify that you are receiving data is to simply look at your reports. Go to the Top Content report in the Content section and make sure that you see Pageview numbers for each of your pages.
If you find the Google Analytics tracking code on your page, then it is likely that Google Analytics has been successfully installed on your site. Repeat this process across several pages on your site to make sure that your installation is complete.
But, when you look at pageviews in the context of other metrics, you start to get clearer picture. For example, look at the bounce rate. Half of the time that people entered the site through this page, they left the site without looking at any other pages. This page is very important. By comparing the pageviews to the site average, we can see that this page accounts for over 28% of all the pageviews. How has the performance of this page changed over time?
This page is receiving 20% fewer visits than it did last week and people are spending 10% less time on it. And last week, the bounce rate was only 24% -- now its double that number. So, putting data into context can help us ask the right questions and decide on a course of action. Lets look at another example.
The bounce rate for the first title is nearly 20% higher than the site average. The red bar shows that its performing worse than the site average.
Comparing two days of traffic, we find that -- although several sources sent an increasing number of visitors to the site -- only Google organic and Google referral had a significant impact on revenue. Therefore, we know that although other campaigns increased overall traffic, they did not bring in purchasers. This kind of information can help you decide where to focus your promotion and site content resources.
Visit
A visit -- or session -- is a period of interaction between a web browser and a website. Closing the browser or staying inactive for more than 30 minutes ends the visit. For example, lets say that a visitor is browsing the Google Store, a site that uses Google Analytics. He gets to the second page, and then gets a phone call. He talks on the phone for 31 minutes, during which he does not click anywhere else on the site. After his call, he continues where he left off. Google Analytics will count this as a second visit, or a new session. Note that throughout these modules, the words visit and session may be used interchangeably.
Visitor
A visitor is uniquely identified by a Google Analytics visitor cookie which assigns a random visitor ID to the user, and combines it with the timestamp of the visitors first visit. The combination of the random visitor ID and the timestamp establish a Unique ID for that visitor. Youll learn more about the visitor cookie in a subsequent module.
Time metrics
Time on page
To calculate Time on Page, Google Analytics compares the timestamps of the visited pages. For example, in the slide, the visitor saw page A, then page B, and then left the site.
The Time on Page for page A is calculated by subtracting the page A timestamp from the page B timestamp. So, the Time on Page for page A is 1 minute and 15 seconds. In order for this calculation to take place, the Google Analytics Tracking Code must be executed on both pages. The Time on Page for page B is 0 seconds, because there is no subsequent timestamp that Google Analytics can use to calculate the actual Time on Page.
Time on Site
Now, suppose the visitor continued on to a third page before exiting.
The second page now has a Time on Page of 1 minute 10 seconds. The Time on Site is now calculated as 2 minutes and 25 seconds.
Flash-based sites
Some sites make extensive use of Flash or other interactive technologies. Often, these kinds of sites dont load new pages frequently and all the user interaction takes place on a single page. As a result, its common for sites like this to have high bounce rates and low average times on site. If you have such a site, you may wish to set up your tracking so that virtual pageviews or events are generated as the user performs various activities. You can learn how to do this in the module on Event Tracking and Virtual Pageviews.
You can see whether a few visits are skewing your Average Time on Site upward or downward.
Traffic Sources
Traffic Sources Reports
The reports in the Traffic Sources section show you where your traffic is coming from on the internet. You can compare your traffic sources against each other to find out which sources send you the highest quality traffic.
Understanding which search engines send you qualified traffic can help you select the search engines on which you want to advertise.
In the slide, although blogger.com sent the most traffic, it has an 88% bounce rate. A bounce rate this high suggests that the site isnt relevant to what the visitor is looking for. By clicking the compare to site average icon and selecting a comparison metric, you can see which sources outperform and underperform the site average. So here, for example, if we select Bounce Rate as our comparison metric. we can see that the two most popular sources of traffic underperform the site average. One note about bounce rate, if your site is a blog, bounce rate may not be relevant. With blogs, its common for people to look at a single page and then leave.
You may sometimes see _referrals_ from google.com. These can come from Google Groups posts or static pages on other Google sites.
Keyword Report
The Keywords report is very useful for understanding what visitors were expecting to find on your site. Keywords with a high bounce rate tell you where you failed to meet that expectation. You can isolate your paid search engine traffic by clicking the Paid link. By doing this, youll limit the report to just showing your AdWords traffic and paid traffic from other search engines. If you have paid keywords with a high bounce rate, you should evaluate whether your landing pages are relevant enough and you might also want to consider whether you should continue to buy those keywords. Remember, you can use the Goal Conversion and Ecommerce tabs to compare the performance of keywords in terms of conversions and revenue. For example, in the slide example, the google kids phrase has a 86% bounce rate. Lets find out what landing page is being used.
We start by clicking on the google kids entry in the table. This takes us to the Keyword report for google kids.
To find out which landing page is being used for this keyword, well select Landing Page from the Dimension pulldown menu. We can now see which landing page is being used and evaluate its relevance to the keyword. This report can be particularly helpful if multiple landing pages are being used.
You can find out which landing pages are responsible for the poor performance and send the keyword traffic to the most effective landing page. Be sure to also check the bounce rates for organic, non-paid keywords. This information can offer insights into how to best focus your search engine optimization efforts.
Campaign Attribution
As long as you have defined goals and track ecommerce transactions, you can use the metrics on the Goal Conversion and Ecommerce tabs to assess the performance of any campaign. By default, Google Analytics attributes a conversion or sale to the campaign that most recently preceded the conversion or sale.
For example, if a visitor clicks on an AdWords ad (Campaign 1 in the first session) and then later returns via a referral to purchase something (Referrer 1 in the second session), the referral will get credit for the sale. However, if instead the visitor returns directly, then the AdWords ad (Campaign 1) will still get credit for the sale. To prevent a specific referral or campaign from overriding a prior campaign, simply append utm_nooverride=1 to all referring campaign links as shown in the slide. This ensures that the conversion is always attributed to the original referrer (or first campaign the user clicked on). Therefore, in the example above, the original campaign will continue to get credit for the conversion. If a visitor returns via a link without the utm_nooverride, as in the third example, that campaign will get credit for the sale since it overwrites all previous referring campaigns.
Content Reports
Top Content, Content by Title, Content Drilldown
The first three reports listed in the Content section all show the same information, but each report organizes it differently. The Top Content report lists each page that received traffic. The Content by Title report groups your pages according to Title tag. You can click on a title to see the pages that share that title. The Content Drilldown report groups pages according to directory. You can click on a directory to see the pages in the directory.
Navigation Analysis
Navigation Summary
Navigation Analysis reports can help you understand how people move through your site. The reports are listed on the Content Overview page. Theyre also available from a pulldown menu when you drill down to a page detail report. The first of these -- Navigation Summary --- can help you see how people arrived at a specific page and where they went afterwards.
Percent Entrances shows how frequently the page was a landing page. Percent Previous Pages shows how frequently visitors came to the page after viewing another page on the site. Percent Exits shows how frequently visits ended on this page. Percent Next Pages shows how frequently visitors continued on to another page on the site. The list of pages that were viewed immediately before the page or pages is shown in the left column. The list of pages that were viewed immediately after the page or pages is shown in the right column.
Youll now see the Entrance Paths report for your landing page. In the middle column, youll see all the possible clicks people made on the page. Choose the link that represents the Purchase page. In the right hand column, youll now see all the pages visitors went to after the Purchase page. By looking at this list, youll be able to see how many visits ended up on the Purchase Completion page. This report can show you if the landing page is doing the job you designed it for.
Analytics Accounts
If you have access to multiple Analytics accounts, you can access each account from the My Analytics Account drop-down list. For example, if other administrators have added you to their accounts, youll see a list of those accounts in the drop down.
So, when should you create a new account? If you manage the analytics services for several websites which belong to different organizations, youll generally want to create a new account for each organization. Well discuss this best practice in a few minutes. You are permitted to create up to 25 analytics accounts per Google username. However, you can be added as an administrator to an unlimited number of accounts. If youre using Analytics from your AdWords account, you wont see this drop-down. Youll only see it if you are signed in from google.com/analytics.
User Manager
To give other users access to your Google Analytics account, you use the User Manager, which you can access here from the Analytics Settings page.
Inside the User Manager, you can view all of the users who currently have access to your account.
Modifying Access
To edit the access settings for an existing user, go to the User Manager and click Edit next to the user. You can change their Access Type, and you can add or remove access to specific profiles. Select the profiles you would like to remove report access to and click on the Remove button.
Profiles
On your Analytics Settings page, you can see a list of the profiles that belong to the account youve selected. Youll generally have a separate profile for every domain that you track. You might also have profiles that correspond to subdomains. Or you might set up a profile that only includes data for a filtered subset of traffic of one of your domains. Profiles are very flexible -- they are basically just a set of rules that define what data is to be included in the reports.
Using Profiles
Here are some typical examples of profiles you might set up: You might have a profile that only contains traffic data for a specific subdomain. You might have a profile that tracks only a certain part of a site or that only tracks a certain kind of traffic. And you might have profiles each of which has a separate set of reports. You could give some users access to one of these profiles and other users access to another profile.
The result would be that each user would only see reports that apply to them.
Profile definition
A profile consists of settings that define the reports that you see. These include user access, goals, and filter settings. When you create a profile, you have the option of creating a profile for a new domain or an existing domain. Here is a schematic showing an Analytics account with three profiles. The first two profiles are tracking domain A, and the third profile is tracking domain B. Notice the tracking code number for each profile. The longer number, represented by Xs, is the Google Analytics account number--all three profiles have the same account number.
Next you see that Profiles 1 and 2 each have a dash 1, while Profile 3 has a dash 2. This smaller number is the property number. Profiles 1 and 2 are tracking the same domain and have the same property number. They can be referred to as duplicate profiles. Profile 3 is tracking a different domain, and has a different property number.
Now you may wonder, why would I create duplicate profiles? You might want to apply filters to your duplicate profile so that it contains a subset of data. So, for example, you might filter the data in Profile 2 so that it only includes AdWords visitors to domain A. In addition, you might want to give certain users access only to Profile 2. This has the effect of only allowing these users to see AdWords traffic to domain A.
Edit Profile
To edit a profile, click the Edit settings link for the profile on the Analytics Settings page. You must be an Administrator in order to edit a profile. Using the edit link next to Main Website Profile information, you can configure various profile settings such as the default page, e-commerce reporting, and site search tracking.
You can also configure the profile to exclude query string parameters such as session IDs from the URLs that appear in the report interface.
Removing Profiles
To remove a profile, you can simply click the Delete link next to the profile on the Analytics Settings page. Youll need to be an Administrator to do this.
Be careful that you are deleting the correct profile, because you wont be able to recover the historical data for the profile once its been deleted.
The tags are campaign variables that you append to the end of your URLs.
When you link your accounts, you should enable "Destination URL Autotagging. This option allows you to differentiate your paid ads from organic search listings and referrals and allows you to see detailed campaign information in the AdWords section of your Traffic Sources reports. Your cost data -- the information about clicks and keyword spending -- will be applied once you link your accounts. If you don't want cost data imported into a particular profile, you can edit the profile settings and de-select the cost data option -- after you've completed the linking process. Be aware that you can only link one Analytics account to one AdWords account. For administration purposes, you will want to create a new Analytics account for each associated AdWords account. Note that once you have linked an Analytics and AdWords account the time zone in Google Analytics will automatically take that of the AdWords Account (if they are different).
Why Autotagging?
Autotagging your links is important because it helps Analytics differentiate the traffic coming from Google paid listings, outlined in green on the slide, and traffic coming from Google organic listings, which are outlined in red. If autotagging is not enabled, your Analytics reports will show that the clicks from the sponsored listings and the organic listings are both coming from the same source: google organic. By default, Analytics considers them both to be from Google organic search results.
So, enabling autotagging allows you to see which referrals to your site came from your paid Google campaigns and which ones came from Google organic search results.
When linking your AdWords account to Analytics for the first time, youll be prompted to automatically select Destination URL Autotagging and Cost Data Import. If you want to change your autotagging settings later, you can do so by editing your AdWords account preferences.
Make sure both your AdWords and Analytics accounts are set to the same currency so that ROI data is accurately calculated. Recall that when linking your AdWords account to your Analytics account, your cost data will be applied to all of your profiles. If you don't want cost data imported into a particular profile, you can edit the profile settings. Within the "Edit Profile Information" screen, find the "Apply Cost Data" checkbox. De-select this checkbox. And finally, note that Google Analytics is only able to import cost data from AdWords, and not from other ad networks.
URL Tagging
There are five variables you can use when tagging URLs. To tag a URL, you add a question mark to the end of the URL, followed by your tag, as shown in the slide. The variables and values are listed as pairs separated by an equals sign. Each variable-value pair is separated by an ampersand. Lets look at each variable. You should use utm_source to identify the specific website or publication that is sending the traffic. Use utm_medium to identify the kind of advertising medium -- for example, cpc for cost per click, or email for an email newsletter. Use utm_campaign to identify the name of the campaign -- for example, this could be the product name or it might be a slogan.
You should always use these three variables when tagging a link. You can use them in any order you want. If you're tagging paid CPC campaigns, you should also use utm_term to specify the keyword. And, you can differentiate versions of a link -- for example, if you have two call-to-action links within the same email message, you can use utm_content to differentiate them so that you can tell which version is most effective.
The first link does not have a tag. Traffic from this link will show up in your reports as a referral from yoursite.com. There wont be any campaign information. The second link has a tag. Traffic from this link will show up with a source of yoursite, and it will show as a banner, instead of a referral. Also, youll see this traffic reflected under summerpromo in your Campaigns report.
In the first example, no tag has been provided and autotagging is disabled. In this case, you wont see this traffic in your AdWords reports. The second example shows how to manually tag an AdWords link. This traffic will show up in your AdWords reports, but information will be limited to campaign and keyword. You must specify cpc as your medium and google as your source in order to see this traffic in your AdWords reports. You should also specify cpc as your medium when tagging paid search campaigns from other search engines. The third example shows what an AdWords autotagged URL might look like once AdWords has appended the g-c-l-i-d variable to the end of the URL. This traffic will show up in your AdWords reports and youll see complete AdWords information.
Term Terms that youve used will show up in the Keywords report.
You can also segment on any of these variables. For example, to see all of the sources in California from which you received traffic, you could go to the Map Overlay report, drill down to California, and segment by Source.
The URL builder can only construct one URL at a time, so you probably wont want to use it to construct every URL for every campaign.
Generating URLs
If you have a large number of URLs to tag, you can use spreadsheets to automate the process. Generate a sample URL in the URL Builder and create a simple spreadsheet formula.
GOALS
Goals
Defining site goals and tracking goal conversions is one of the best ways to assess how well your site meets its business objectives. You should always try to define at least one goal for a website. So what is a goal? In Google Analytics, a goal represents an activity or a level of interaction with your website thats important to the success of your business. Some examples of goals are an account signup, a request for a sales call, or even that the visitor spent a certain amount of time on the website.
Goals in Reports
You can see total conversions and conversion rates for each of your goals in your reports.
Funnels
For each URL Destination goal that you define, you can also define a funnel. A funnel is the set of steps, or pages, that you expect visitors to visit on their way to complete the conversion. A sales checkout process is a good example of a funnel. And the page where the visitor enters credit card information is an example of one of the funnel steps. So, the goal page signals the end of the activity -- such as a thank you or confirmation page -- and the funnel steps are the pages that visitors encounter on their way to the goal.
Setting Up Goals
To set up a goal, first go the Analytics Settings page and edit the the profile for which you want to configure a goal.
You can also enter a name for the Goal -- here weve entered Completed Order. This name will appear in your conversion reports. Defining a funnel is optional. To define your funnel steps, you add the URLs of the pages leading up to the goal URL. Just as with goals, you dont have to enter the entire URL of a funnel step -- just the request URI is fine. Provide a name for each step in the funnel -- here weve entered Select gift card for Step 1. The names you enter will appear in your reports.
Head Match is the default. It indicates that the URL of the page visited must match what you enter for the Goal URL, but if there is any additional data at the end of their URL then the goal will still be counted. For example, some websites append a product ID or a visitor ID or some other parameter to the end of the URL. Head Match will ignore these. Heres another example, illustrated on this slide: If you want every page in a subdirectory to be counted as a goal, then you could enter the subdirectory as the goal and select Head Match.
Exact Match means that the URL of the page visited must exactly match what you enter for the Goal URL. In contrast to Head Match, which can be used to match every page in a subdirectory, Exact Match can only be used to match one single page. Also notice that Exact Match does not match the second pageview, /offer1/signup.html?query=hats because of the extra query parameter at the end. Regular Expression Match gives you the most flexibility. For example, if you want to count any sign-up page as a goal, and sign-up pages can occur in various subdirectories, you can create a regular expression that will match any sign-up page in any subdirectory. Regular Expressions will be covered in a later module.
When you use Regular Expression Match, the value you enter as the goal URL as well as each of the funnel steps will be read as a Regular Expression. Remember that regardless of which option you choose, Google Analytics is only matching Request URIs. In other words, the domain name is ignored.
Goal Value
The Goal Value field allows you to specify a monetary value for goal. You should only do this for nonecommerce goals. By setting a goal value, you make it possible for Google Analytics to calculate metrics like average per-visitvalue and ROI. These metrics will help you measure the monetary value of a non-ecommerce site.
Just think about how much each goal conversion is worth to your business. So, for example, if your sales team can close sales on 10% of the people who request to be contacted via your site, and your average transaction is $500, you might assign $50 or 10% of $500 to your "Contact Me" goal. Again, to avoid inflating revenue results, you should only provide values for non-ecommerce goals.
Funnel Reporting
If you define a funnel for a goal, Google Analytics populates the Funnel Visualization report, shown here. On the left, you can see how visitors enter your funnel. On the right, you can see where they leave the funnel and where they go. The middle shows you how visitors progress through the funnel -- how many of them continue on to each step.
In this example, we can see that there were 9,283 entrances at the top of the funnel and 187 completed orders, at the bottom of the funnel. This report is very useful for identifying the pages from which visitors abandon your conversion funnel.
In this example, we can see that 96 of the conversions -- or about 15% of them -- resulted from the first navigation path thats shown. This is a great report for identifying funnels that you hadnt considered before and it can give you great ideas for designing a more effective site.
In this example, we can see that there were 9,283 entrances at the top of the funnel and 187 completed orders at the bottom of the funnel. This report is very useful for identifying the pages from which visitors abandon your conversion funnel.
The remaining 2,418 times, the person either left the funnel for another page or left the site entirely. This data is valuable because you can use it to see what pages of your site may need to be altered. For instance, in this example, you might want to improve the design of the the View Shopping Cart page so that more visitors log in and continue. You can also see that only 41% of visits to the Login page continue on to the Place Order page. So, the Login page may also need improvements.
FILTERS
Overview
Google Analytics filters provide you with an extremely flexible way of defining what data is included in your reports and how it appears. You can use them to customize your reports so that data that you deem useful is highlighted in interesting ways. Filters can also help you clean up your data so that it is easier to read. There are two types of filters in Google Analytics: predefined filters custom filters
You can use the Filter manager to create new filters, to edit their settings, and to delete them. To apply filters to a profile, you edit the profile.
Predefined Filters
Google Analytics provides three commonly used predefined filters -- youll see these filters under the Filter Type drop-down when you are creating your filters. The first filter called Exclude all traffic from a domain excludes traffic from the domain that you specify in the Domain field directly below the Filter Type dropdown. If you apply this filter, Google Analytics will apply a reverse lookup with each visitors IP address to determine if the visitor is coming in from a domain that should be filtered out. Domains usually represent the ISP of your visitor although larger companies generally have their IP addresses mapped to their domain name. The second filter, Exclude all traffic from an IP address, removes traffic from addresses entered into the IP address field. This filter is generally used to exclude your internal company traffic. The third filter, Include only traffic to a subdirectory, causes your profile to only report traffic to a specified directory on your site. This is typically used on a profile that is created to track one part of a website.
Each custom filter has three main parts. The first part of a custom filter is Filter Types. There are six filter types available and each one serves a specific purpose. Well look at these in a minute. The second part is the Filter Field. There are numerous fields you can use to create your filter. Examples of some commonly used fields are the Request URI and Visitor Country fields. The complete list of fields can be found through the link shown here or you can search for filter fields in the Analytics Help Center. The third part of a custom filter is the Filter Pattern. This is the text string that is used to attempt to match pageview data. The pattern that you provide is applied to the field and, if it matches any part of the field, it returns a positive result and causes an action to occur. Youll need to use POSIX Regular Expressions to create the filter pattern. Learn more in the module on Regular Expressions.
Filter Types
Heres a chart that describes the filter types.
Exclude and Include filters are the most common types. They allow you to segment your data in many different ways. Theyre frequently used to filter out or filter in traffic from a particular state or country. Lowercase and Uppercase filters do not require a filter pattern, only a filter field. Lowercase and Uppercase filters are very useful for consolidating line items in a report. Lets say, for example, that you see multiple entries in your reports for a keyword or a URL, and the only difference between the multiple entries is that sometimes the URL or keyword appears with a different combination of uppercase and lowercase letters. You can use the Lowercase and Uppercase filters to consolidate these multiple entries into a single entry. Search and Replace filters replace one piece of data with another. They are often used to replace long URL strings with a shorter string that is easier to read and identify in your reports. You can use Advanced filters to remove unnecessary data, replace one field with another, or combine elements from multiple filter fields. For example, a best practice when tracking multiple subdomains in a single profile is to append the subdomain name to the page names. You can do this by creating an advanced filter that appends Hostname to Request URI. Let's look at an example of a Search and Replace filter.
This is a simplified example to give you an idea of how you can use filters.
By setting up multiple profiles and applying filters creatively to each of them, you have a great deal of reporting and analysis flexibility. Again, you use the Filter manager to create and manage filters. To apply filters to a profile, you edit the profile.
Or, for example, you might want to set up a profile that only inlcudes Google AdWords traffic. Well look at how to do this in the next slide. Remember, you always want to maintain a profile that contains all of your data. Thats Profile 1 in the chart.
Tracking Subdomains
Lets look at how you can use profiles and filters to track subdomains. If your subdomains are totally separate businesses, and you have no need for reports that include cumulative traffic to both, then you could simply create a unique profile for each subdomain. To do this, youd install the dash 1 version of your tracking code on your Subdomain A pages, and the dash 2 version of your tracking code on your Subdomain B pages.
But what if you want to analyze the traffic aggregated across both subdomains? In this case, you could set up at 3 duplicate profiles. Then, youd apply an Include filter to two of the profiles. Profile 1 includes all traffic to both subdomains. Profile 2 only includes traffic to subdomain A. Profile 3 only includes traffic to subdomain B.
In this scenario, youd install identical tracking code on every page of the site regardless of subdomain.
Because, when you apply cost data from an AdWords account, data from the entire account is applied to each profile - Google Analytics doesnt automatically match campaigns to specific profiles.
Without a filter, the Clicks tab on each profile would include $100 worth of cost data instead of just the $50 you spent for that site. So, for each profile that should include a subset of your AdWords data, youll need to create a custom include filter.
REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
Regular Expressions (RegEx)
A regular expression is a set of characters and metacharacters that are used to match text in a specified pattern. You can use regular expressions to configure flexible goals and powerful filters. For example, if you want to create a filter that filters out a range of IP addresses, youll need to enter a string that describes the range of the IP addresses that you want excluded from your traffic. Lets start off by looking at each metacharacter. Metacharacters are characters that have special meanings in regular expressions.
Dot .
Use the dot as a wildcard to match any single character. The operative word here is single, as the regex would NOT match Act 10, Scene 3. The dot only allows one character, and the number ten contains two characters -- a 1 and a 0. How would you write a regular expression that would match Act 10, Scene 3? You could use two dots. To make your regex more flexible, and match EITHER Act 1, Scene 3 or Act 10, Scene 3, you could use a quantifier like the + sign. But well talk about repetition a bit later in this module.
Backslash \
Backslashes allow you to use special characters, such as the dot, as though they were literal characters. Enter the backslash immediately before each metacharacter you would like to escape. U.S. Holiday written this way with periods after the U and the S would match a number of unintended strings, including UPS. Holiday, U.Sb Holiday, and U3Sg Holiday. Remember that the dot is a special character that matches with any single character, so if you want to treat a dot like a regular dot, you have to escape it with the backslash. Youll use backslashes a lot, because dots are used so frequently in precisely the strings you are trying to match, like URLs and IP addresses. For example, if you are creating a filter to exclude an IP address, remember to escape the dots.
There is a regex you can write to match all of these variations. The question mark used here is another quantifier, like the + sign mentioned earlier. Again, well talk about repetition in the next slide. You can either individually list all the characters you want to match, as we did in the first example, or you can specify a range. Use a hyphen inside a character set to specify a range. So instead of typing square bracket 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9, you can type square bracket 0 dash 9. And, you can negate a match using a caret after the opening square bracket. Typing square bracket caret zero dash nine will exclude all numbers from matching. Note that later in this module, you will see the caret used a different wayas an anchor. The use of the caret shown here is specific to character sets, and the negating behaviour occurs only when the caret is used after the opening square bracket in a character set.
You can also SPECIFY repetition using a minimum and maximum number inside curly brackets. Recall that a dot matches any single character. What would you use to match a wildcard of indeterminate length? Dot star will match a string of any size. Dot star is an easy way to say match anything, and is commonly used in Google Analytics goals and filters.
Grouping
It is handy to use the parentheses and the pipe symbol (also known as the OR symbol) together. Basically, you can just list the strings you want to match, separating each string with a pipe symbol -- and enclosing the whole list in parentheses. Here, weve listed four variations of US that well accept as a match for US Holiday.
If its not in the list, it wont get matched. Thats why US Holiday wont get matched if one of the periods is missing. In our list, weve accounted for both periods missing, but not for just one period missing. Using question marks, the second regex in the slide will match all of the above.
Anchors ^ $
The caret signals the beginning of an expression. In order to match, the string must BEGIN with what the regex specifies. The dollar sign says, if there are any more characters after the END of this string, then its not a match. So, caret US means start with US. US Holiday matches, but Next Monday is a US Holiday does not match. Holiday$ means end with Holiday. US Holiday still matches, but US Holiday Schedule does not match. Anchors can be useful when specifying an IP address. Take a look at these examples.
RegEx Review
Lets review. In the example on the slide, weve created an expression that will match the strings Google or Yahoo, regardless of whether or not Google and Yahoo are capitalized.
Here, weve created an expression that will match URLs for internet and theatrical movie trailers. The first part of the expression indicates that the URL can begin with anything. Then the expression specifies that the URL must end with index.php?dl=video/trailers/ and then either internet or theatrical. The $ sign ensures that any URLs that are any longer than this wont get included in the match.
RegEx Filters
Heres an example of a custom filter that uses a very simple regular expression.
RegEx Goals
Heres a regular expression used to define a goal URL.
Using a regular expression allows you to track them as one funnel step rather than tracking each page or action individually. Learn how goals and funnels work in the module on goals.
Points to Remember
Youll find a number of useful applications for regex as you use Google Analytics. But, its important that you think through all the implications of each expression that you use when you set up a filter or a goal. Its easy to make a mistake and not get the data or the result youre looking for. Set up a duplicate profile to test your regex statements. After enough data has been collected, check your results and make sure theyre what you expect. Remember to always maintain a backup profile that includes all your data. There are lots of regex resources on the web. To get started, just search for regex.
COOKIES
What are Cookies?
Some web sites store information about you or your computer in a small file called a cookie. The cookie is stored on your hard drive. Sites that run Google Analytics issue first party cookies that allow the site to uniquely, but anonymously, identify individual visitors. So, when a visitor returns to a site that runs Google Analytics, the site is able to remember that the visitor has been to the site before and Google Analytics will only count that visitor once in unique visitor calculations. There are two types of cookies: First-party cookies are set by the domain being visited. Only the web site that created a first-party cookie can read it. This is the kind of cookie used for Google Analytics tracking. Third-party cookies are set by third party sites -- basically sites other than the site being visited.
Users can choose whether to allow some, none, or all types of cookies to be set on their computers. However, if a user does not allow cookies at all, they may not be able to view some Web sites or take advantage of customization features.
First party cookies, which are the kind used for Google Analytics, are allowed by a majority of visitors. Cookie tracking makes it possible to correlate shopping cart transactions with search campaign information, and perform other visitor analysis. Remember -- websites only have access to the information that you provide. Websites cant get your email address or access to any information on your computer unless you provide it. And since Google Analytics only uses first party cookies, Google Analytics cookies can only be read by the website that created them.
The __utmv cookie is optional, and will only be set if the _setVar() method is called. You will learn about _setVar() in the module on Custom Visitor Segmentation. All of the Google Analytics cookies are persistent except for one. The __utmc cookie is a temporary cookie that is destroyed when the visitor quits the browser. Each of the other Google Analytics cookies has an expiration date set in the future, meaning that the cookie will persist on the users computer until it expires, or until the user deletes it from their computer.
Heres an example of the cookies set by the Google Store. You can see that __utma, __utmb, __utmc, and __utmz have been set. Well learn more about each cookie shortly. First, lets try a brief experiment. Which of the sites that youve visited are using Google Analytics? To find out, open your browsers cookie window. Youll usually find it under your browsers Options or Preferences. Now, in the cookies window, search for underscore underscore u-t-m. You should see all the different Google Analytics cookies set by all the sites that youve visited that use Google Analytics. All cookies are browser-specific. So, if youve already been to a site, but you open a different browser to visit that site again, another set of Google Analytics cookies will be set. Now, before we continue, search for the Google Store cookies by typing the domain name googlestore.com into the Cookies search box. If youve never visited the Google Store, go to googlestore.com now so that cookies are created.
Select the Google Store __utma cookie. In the cookie information, note the Content and expiration date for the cookie.
The first number in the content of every Google Analytics cookie is called the domain hash. It represents the domain that you visited and that set these cookies. Google Analytics applies an algorithm to the domain and outputs a unique numeric code that represents the domain. Each Google Analytics cookie set by the domain will begin with this number. The next number is a random unique ID. The three subsequent numbers are timestamps. They represent the time of the initial visit, the beginning of your previous session, and the beginning of your current session. The timestamps represent the number of seconds since January 1, 1970. Notice that the last three timestamps are the same. What does this tell you? The last number, the session counter, can give you the answer. The last number tells you the number of times you have visited this site. This number will increment each time you visit the site. The session counter here is 1, and the last three timestamps are all the same because this is your first visit to the site.
The random unique ID combined with the first timestamp make up the visitor ID that Google Analytics uses to identify unique visitors to the site. These details allow Google Analytics to calculate the number of unique visitors and number of visits. Look at your Google Store __utma cookie. How many times have you visited the Google Store? If you think youve visited more times than is indicated by the cookie, remember that the cookie only includes the number of times you visited from this computer using this browser. Also, if you have cleared your cookies at some point, it is only counting from the last time you cleared your cookies. When does this cookie expire? You should see that the date is two years from last the time you visited.
The key difference between the two cookies is that __utmb is a persistent cookie with an expiration date that is set 30 minutes after it is created. While __utmc is a temporary cookie that is destroyed as soon as the visitor quits the browser. Lets review what you know about a session, or visit, in Google Analytics. First note that the terms session and visit are used interchangeably. A session is defined by 30 minutes of inactivity or if a visitor quits the browser.
Each time the visitor navigates to a new page and the JavaScript in the Google Analytics Tracking Code is executed, the __utmb cookie is refreshed and set to expire in 30 minutes. This is how a session can be 2 hours long. As long as the visitor remains active on the site, the session remains active. But if the visitor stays on a page for more than 30 minutes, the __utmb cookie will be destroyed. The next time the visitor loads a page, Google Analytics wont find a__utmb cookie. Instead, a new __utmb cookie is created and, from the standpoint of tracking, this is a new session.
So, why is the __utmc cookie needed? Lets say a visitor quits and starts the browser and comes back right away to the same site. Since the __utmc cookie was destroyed, Google Analytics will know that this is a new session. So, to summarize, when the visitor loads a page, the JavaScript in the Google Analytics Tracking Code checks for both the __utmb and __utmc cookies. If either one is missing, it notes this as a new session, and creates whichever cookie-- __utmb, __utmc, or both-- was missing. Note that it is possible to adjust this behavior. With a small customization to the Google Analytics Tracking code, you can make the session timeout length anything you want. Youll learn about this in the Code Customizations module.
The first number is the domain hash, as with the other Google Analytics cookies. The second number is a timestamp. The third and fourth numbers are the session number and campaign number, respectively. The session number increments for every session during which the campaign cookie gets overwritten. The campaign number increments every time you arrive at the site via a different campaign or organic search, even if it is within the same session.
The __utmz cookie has a six month timeout, meaning that a visit will be attributed to a particular campaign for up to six months, or until the __utmz cookie is overwritten with another value. You can modify the six month timeout and you can change the rules which govern when the __utmz cookie value is overwritten. Youll learn how in the Code Customizations module. The __utmz data shown here would show up in your All Traffic Sources report as coming from the source / medium google / organic. Now, in your browsers cookie window, select the __utmz cookie from your visit to googlestore.com. Assuming that it was a direct visit, youll see utmcsr=(direct) and utmcmd=(none). Your visit will show up in the Google Stores Google Analytics account as coming from the source / medium direct / none.
For example, the utmcsr value in the __utmz cookie is the source, or the value that was assigned to utm_source in the tagged link.
E-COMMERCE TRACKING
E-commerce reports
If your site sells products or services online, you can use Google Analytics ecommerce reporting to track sales activity and performance. The Ecommerce reports show you your sites transactions, revenue, and many other commerce-related metrics. The Overview report and the top level navigation are shown here. Many of the reports allow you to drill down and segment for in-depth analysis.
Report Examples
Some examples of the kind of information you can get from the e-commerce reports include: the products that were purchased from your online store your sales revenue your e-commerce conversion rate, and the number of times people visited your site before purchasing
In the first part of the code, there is a call to the _addTrans() method. The call to _addTrans() tells Google Analytics that a transaction has occurred. The arguments to _addTrans() provide details about the transaction -- for example an Order ID, the total order amount, and the amount of tax charged. After the call to _addTrans(), there must be at least one call to the _addItem() method. This call provides Google Analytics with details about the specific item purchased. Finally, there is a call to the trackTrans() method which sends all the data to Google Analytics. Lets look at each method in more detail.
Secure Pages
Generally, youll be placing ecommerce tracking code on a secure shopping cart page. The standard Google Analytics Tracking Code automatically detects when an https protocol is being used. So you wont need to add any special tracking code for secure pages.
REVENUE METRICS
Goal Value
The Goal Conversion tab displays a metric called Per Visit Goal Value. This metric is calculated based on the goal values that you set on the Goal Settings page.
Revenue
The Ecommerce tab displays three revenue related metrics: Revenue, Average Value, and Per Visit Value .
These metrics are calculated using the revenue that is recorded by your Google Analytics e-commerce code. So, what is the difference between Per Visit Value and Per Visit Goal Value on the Goal Conversion tab? Per Visit Value is calculated using e-commerce revenue. Per Visit Goal Value is calculated using static goal values.
In the Content reports, the $ Index metric is also based on the sum total of Goal Value and Ecommerce Revenue.
What is $ Index?
The $ Index metric appears in most of the Content reports and it allows you to identify the pages that have the most impact on site profitability. A single $ Index value by itself doesnt tell you much -- its most useful as a way of ranking pages. By sorting your pages from highest $ Index value to lowest $ Index value, youll be able to identify your most important pages. Lets look at how $ Index is calculated.
$ Index Calculation
The calculation for $ Index assigns the highest values to pages that are frequently viewed prior to high value conversions or transactions.
In contrast, pages that arent viewed prior to conversions or transactions will have the lowest $ Index values. To calculate the $ Index for a page, total ecommerce revenue and goal value is divided by the number of unique times the page was viewed prior to the conversion or transaction. For example, lets say that there were 4 visits to your site and 2 visits resulted in a $100 purchase. So, you made a total of $200 from these four visits. If on every one of these visits, the visitor entered your site through the home page, the $ Index value for your home page would be $200 divided by 4 page views. So the $ Index value would be $50. On the 2 visits that included a purchase, the visitor also went to your Features page before purchasing. So, the $ Index value for your Features page would be $200 divided by 2 page views. The $ Index for your Features page would be $100.
Call _setDomainName() with an argument of none. Call _setAllowLinker() with an argument of true.
Subdomains
You may also sometimes need to track across multiple subdomains. A subdomain is part of a larger domain and frequently each subdomain contains the pages for a specific department or offering. For example, Google.com has several subdomains such as news.google.com, sites.google.com, and maps.google.com. Since Google Analytics uses first-party cookies, cookies set on a subdomain can not automatically be read on the main domain, and vice versa. As with multiple domains, you need to explicitly share the cookie information between subdomains or youll lose session information. If you dont share cookie information between your subdomains, it may appear as though your own site is a referrer since only one domain is recognized as the main domain.
A side effect of using this method is that your reports may not differentiate between visits to identically named pages within the various subdomains. So, for example, visits to maps.google.com/home.html and mail.google.com/home.html would be interpreted as visits to a single page. To correct this, youll need to set up an advanced filter. Well explain this in a minute.
Your master profile has no filters, and each of the other two has an Include filter. Profile 1 includes all traffic to both subdomains. Profile 2 includes only traffic to subdomain A. Profile 3 includes only traffic to subdomain B.
Note that you dont need to use _link() or _linkByPost() in links between subdomains within the same domain. Again, you should create separate profiles in your account for each primary domain and/or each subdomain. You can easily do this by using an Include filter based on the hostname field.
CUSTOM REPORTING
Designing a Custom Report
You can create reports that show exactly the information you want to see, organized in the way you want to see it. When creating a custom report, think of a table.
Dimensions are the rows of the table and metrics are the columns in the table. This report has two dimensions -- in green -- and four metrics in blue. So, the report will show pageviews, bounces, visits, and revenue for each source and keyword.
Youll see a help article link and links to sample reports. Click Create new custom report to build a new report.
Adding Metrics
The next step is to select the metrics and dimensions you want. Use the search box to find metrics and dimensions. You can also click a menu item to expand it and browse all of the available metrics or dimensions. To add a metric or dimension to the report, simply drag and drop it into the table.
Adding Dimensions
Here is a report with four metrics. Now, lets add dimensions. You can add up to 5 dimensions for each custom report one top level dimension, and up to four sub dimensions. The sub-dimensions allow a user to drill down to more detailed data. Some combinations of metrics and dimensions arent allowed. If you see a metric or dimension greyed out, its because the combination isnt available. Review the chart available in the Google Analytics Help Center for an overview of permitted combinations: http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?answer=99174
Now we can compare search keyword performance for the Google search engine.
Deleting a Report
Click on the Custom Reporting menu link to access the Custom Reporting Overview page shown in the slide. Here you can see a list of saved custom reports and you can edit or delete any of them. Click Edit to modify the report.
Editing a Report
By editing a report, you can add, remove or modify metrics and dimensions, add tabs, and change the name of the report. Creating a new tab allows you to drag a different set of metrics onto the report. To experiment with this, click Add Tab. Here we've created a new tab called Visitors.
ADVANCED SEGMENTATION
What are Advanced Segments?
With Advanced Segments, you can quickly isolate and analyze subsets of your traffic. You can create an advanced segment that only includes visits that meet a specific set of criteria. So, for example you can create an advanced segment that only includes visits from a certain geographic region or visits during which more than $100 was spent.
Once youve applied one or more advanced segments, you can see the data for the segments throughout all of your reports. You can also change your date range and see the segments applied to historical data. The segments remain applied until you deselect them or you logoff or view reports on another account or profile.
Now youll see a screen that looks like this. Using this screen, you ca combine one or more logical statements to define a segment.
To include only visits during more than $100 was spent, first look for the metric Revenue. Its usually easiest to type what you are looking for into the search box, but you can also browse the complete list of metrics and dimensions. Now, drag the metric into the work area. Select the condition Greater than and specify 100. By clicking Test Segment, you can see that 25 visits meet the condition.
You can add additional logic, but for now, lets just name and save the segment.
The segment will now appear in the Custom Segments area of the Advanced Segments pulldown.
This screen lists both the predefined default segments and your custom segments. If you want to build on an existing segment without changing the original segment, you can click copy next to the segment you want to build off of. But if you want to change an existing segment, click edit. You can only change Custom Segments. Lets click edit next to the custom segment we just created.
In this case, we only want to include visits that meet both conditions -- revenue that exceeded $100 and coming from California. So, lets click Add And statement. Now, we can drag Region into the added condition and specify that Region must match California.
By clicking Test Segment, we can see that there were 25 visits with purchases of more than $100. Over 7000 visits from California, and 6 visits which match both conditions. Finally, rename the segment if you wish and then save it. The original segment is replaced by the new one and you can now apply it to your reports.
MOTION CHARTS
What are Motion Charts?
Motion Charts allow you to visualize your data in 5 dimensions. You select metrics to be represented on the X and Y axis and by the size and color of the dots. And you can see how the data changes over time. A Motion Chart can help you identify patterns and relationships in your data that you might otherwise miss.
In this Motion Chart, you can see right away that one keyword is much more valuable than the others.
The keyword on the right is clearly valuable because it brings in so much revenue. But the low conversion rate suggests that it would be better to attract this traffic organically rather than through paid search. Both keywords are attracting mostly new visitors, so it might make sense to create promotional programs for existing customers.
In the Site Search section, select the 'Do Track Site Search' radio button. In the 'Query Parameter' field, enter the letter, word or words that designate an internal query parameter. To find out what the query parameter is, perform a search on your site. Normally when a user searches on your site, their query can be found in the URL. For example, if you search on Google.com, you will see your search query preceded by 'q='. Therefore, Google's query parameter would be 'q.' In the example above, the query parameter is 'q,' and the query was 'Google Analytics.
Just above the pie-chart, youll notice two dropdown menus. if you select Goal Conversion Rate in the leftmost dropdown, you can see how visits that included search compare to visits that did not include search with respect to conversions. And, you can click the ecommerce tab to see how revenue and other ecommerce metrics differ for visits with and without site search.
Where did visitors who search on a specific term start the search from, and where did they go after searching? To find this information, go to the Search Terms report for a specific keyword, and select Search Navigation from the Analyze dropdown menu. Below the graph, youll see three columns. The table on the left shows the pages from which visitors began their searches. The icon in the middle represents the search results page and the table on the right shows the pages people visited immediately after the Search Results page. To use the report, click one of the entries in the table on the left. You can now see where those people who began their search on the page you selected ended up.
Virtual Pageviews
You can create a virtual pageview to represent practically any kind of activity or interaction you want. You simply call _trackPageview() and provide any name you want as the argument. Its virtual because youre telling Google Analytics to register a pageview even though no new page has actually been loaded. Youll see these virtual pageviews alongside ordinary pageviews in the Top Content and Content Drilldown reports.
Example Code
If you look at the Google Analytics Tracking Code, youll notice that it calls _trackPageview(). This lets Google Analytics know that the browser has loaded a page. When you call _trackPageview(), however, youll want to provide an argument that specifies a virtual pagename for the event youre tracking.
In each of these cases, were simply calling _trackPageview() to register a virtual pageview.
Event Tracking
The other way to track non-pageview interactions is to use Event Tracking. One advantage of using Event Tracking is that you wont generate an extra pageview each time an interaction occurs. Another advantage is that you can easily organize your events into categories, actions, and provide labels and even values for each event you track. All of your events show up in the Event Tracking reports within the Content section.
In this example, _trackEvent will get called each time the visitor releases the Play button on the video player. _trackEvent will register an event with a category name of Videos, an Action name of Play, and a Label of Movie Drama. Lets look at each of the arguments to _trackEvent.
The strings that you provide for the first 3 arguments, Category, Action, and Label, govern how the events will be organized in your reports. So, youll want to think carefully about how you want to structure your events.
Categories
Category is a name that you supply as a means to group objects -- which are usually user interface elements that you want to track. So, for example, if you have games and videos on your site, youd probably want to have a Games category and Videos category. The Categories report in the Event Tracking section will show you all the user interface elements with which your visitors interacted.
Actions
Action is the name you want to give to the type of interaction youre tracking. So, for example, for Videos, youd probably want to track how many times your visitors pressed Play.
The Actions report in the Event Tracking section will show you the interactions that occurred.
Labels
The Label argument is optional. A Label allows you to provide additional information for for the event you are tracking. For example, if you are tracking video plays, you might use the Label argument to specify the name of the movie that was played.
Or, for file downloads, you might use it for the name of the file being downloaded. The Labels report in the Event Tracking section will show you the Labels of of the events that occurred.
Values
Value is the fourth, and optional, argument to _trackEvent(). Unlike the other arguments which are all strings, Value is an integer. You can use it to assign a numeric value to a tracked page object. Youll then be able to see a sum total of these values in the Event Value column of your Event Tracking reports. Youll also be able to see an average of these values in the Avg. Value column of your Event Tracking reports. So, you might, for example, specify a dollar value when a specific playback marker is reached on your video player. To call _trackEvent() without a value, simply omit the argument.
So, if during a single visit, a visitor presses Play 5 times on the same movie, Total Events will be incremented by 5. But Unique Events will only be incremented by 1, because for Unique Events, a particular event is only counted once per visit.
ADDITIONAL CUSTOMIZATIONS
How to Change Session Timeout Value
In Google Analytics, a visitor sessionis defined by 30 minutes of inactivity, or when a user quits the browser. You can change the 30 minute default by calling setSessionCookieTimeout as shown in the slide. Simply specify a new timeout value in milliseconds as the argument to _setSessionCookieTimeout().