Google Analytics on Your Website
[01]
Login to Google
We install Google Analytics on to most of the websites we build so all you have to do is login to Google and find your Analytics...
Go to www.google.co.uk (or www.google.com if you prefer).
There's a series of links at the top of the page. Click the 'Sign In' link at the top right.
[02]
Enter your email address and password in the boxes provided. Click the 'Sign In' button.
If you gave us access to an existing Google account we will have installed your Analytics there. If not we will have created a new Google account for you and given you the email address and password to login.
[03]
You're now back at Google's home page but logged in this time and Google shows your name at the top right.
Click the small arrow to the right of your name at the top right and then click 'Account Settings'.
[04]
Google Account Page
This is your Google account page. It gives access to your Google profile and to the Google products you use, now including Analytics.
Click the 'Analytics' link under 'My Products' on the left.
[05]
Analytics Home
This is your Google Analytics home page and will show all the websites you have permission to see - typically just your own.
Click the 'View Report' link in the middle.
[06]
Dashboard
Now we're looking at your Google Analytics dashboard and for the first time you see some useful information about your website. This graph shows how many visitors your site has had in the last month.
To begin with the graph will be flat like this as a brand new site won't have had many visitors yet!
The menu on the left lets you drill down to see more information about your website. Click the 'Visitors' link first.
[07]
Visitors
This page shows information about your site's visitors: how many were new rather than returning visitors and a good deal of technical information about their computers.
Bounce rate is a very useful value. It tells what percentage of visitors left after seeing just one page. A high bounce rate indicates that visitors don't think your site is relevant or useful to them. A bounce rate of less than 50% is considered good.
Click the 'Traffic Sources' link next.
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Traffic Sources
This page shows where your visitors came from, not geographically but which websites sent them to yours. If you have paid to have a directory listing, yell.com perhaps, or up-my-street, this page will show whether you are getting your money's worth!
The traffic sources page also shows how many visitors came from search engines and even what they typed into the search engine to find you. Wouldn't it be interesting to find out what people typed in who DIDN'T find you!!!
Click the 'Content' link next.
[09]
Content
Here you can see which pages people looked at most. If your website shows products or services that you sell then here is some wonderful marketing information, as it tells you which products or services your visitors are most interested in. Of course it might also tell you that your search engine optimisation has some holes in it!
On the right hand side of this page, under the heading 'Click Patterns' is a link called 'site overlay'. This shows your website but with small bar graphs superimposed which tell you what percentage of visitors clicked each link to leave this page.
This page is just a VERY brief intro to Google Analytics - whole books can be written about it. Search Google for more and you'll not be disappointed!
And please don't hesitate to contact us if you need any further help.