What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a free web analytics solution. Google analytics tracks your visitors and their actions on your website.

Why Should I use Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a great way to measure the effectiveness of your website and SEO efforts. Google Analytics also offers AdWords integration to track your PPC campaigns.

How Do I Start Using Google Analytics?

You will need to have a registered Gmail account. To sign up for free: mail.google.com.

To set up analytics: http://www.google.com/analytics and select ‘Access Analytics’.

During set up you will be provided with a tracking code that will need to be inserted into all pages of your website, typically your webmaster will add this code.

Key Analytic Reports (Left Pane Navigation)

Visitors

• Visitors- Number of people visiting your website in a given time frame (you can select the time frame)
• New vs. Returning Visitors- This report shows you how much of your traffic is from new visitors and how much is from users who previously visited your site.
• Bounce Rate- This percentage represents the amount of users who leave your site from that page, meaning they do not click on any other links and visit any other pages on your website. The lower your bounce rate- the better the page.
• Location- See which cities are driving traffic to your website. Analyze this data and see if your target cities are listed. If not, you may need to revisit your SEO and Marketing plans.
• Language- Is your practice bilingual? You may want to look at this report and see the various languages of your visitors.
• Mobile Devices- This report provides the number of users who visit your site via mobile phones (iPhones, Androids, etc) and tablets (iPads, eReaders). The Internet is becoming increasingly mobile and a mobile website is almost imperative.

Advertising- AdWords Integration

• Campaigns and Keywords- This report provides visits and bounce rates by campaign and AdWords keywords.
• Dayparts- Tracks when users clicked on your ads. Use this data when scheduling PPC ad delivery.
• Keyword Positioning- This report measures the correlation between your AdWords keyword and its position on the search results page. This can help you decide what to spend per PPC keyword.
• Matched Search Queries- This report displays the users search query that resulted in your PPC listing.

Traffic Sources

• All Traffic- This report shows the sources used by visitors arriving at your site. Specifically it shows the search engine and the means (Organic (non-paid) or Paid Search (PPC)), Direct (user typing your website into the browser, and referrals.
• Referrals- Sources that sent the user directly to your site. For example you might see LawInfo.com on your Referral list. This means that a user was on LawInfo.com and clicked on a link for your website.

Content

• Pages- This report measures user engagement by the pages on your site.
• Landing Pages- Measures user engagement by landing page (the first page your user lands on)
• In Page Analytics- This data shows how users interact with your homepage and pages within. You will be able to see which pieces of your website users find most interesting.