Google Analytics Q&A: Everything you need to know

Google Analytics is a free and highly versatile tool that allows you to better understand who’s using your website and how. Effective use of Google Analytics allows you to build a better online user experience for your customers and keep them coming back for more. Here’s what you need to know.

How can I use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use my website?

Google Analytics describes visitor behaviour in terms of four ‘goals’: destination, duration, pages/screens per visit, and events.

• Destination tells you which pages were viewed.
• Duration tells you how long they were viewed for.
• Pages/screens per visit tells you how many pages each visitor looked at in a single visit, so you can understand how engaged they were with your site.
• Events tells you what visitors did while on your site – whether they clicked on ads, played video or audio, or shared something they found using social media.

Combined, these ‘goals’ can help you build a picture of what visitors like and don’t like about your site – what they are interested in, what keeps them on the page and what drives them away.

How can I use Google Analytics to keep people coming back?

Google Analytics includes a keyword report, so you can see which search engine terms are driving visitors to your site. Knowing what keywords visitors are using to find your site is important for enhancing the effectiveness of your website metadata and your use of keywords in page content.

Also pay attention to your referrals, which can be found under the channels report. This function tells you which other websites are driving traffic to your site, so you can assess the effectiveness of ads and/or third-party relationships with other sites.

How can I share Google Analytics data with stakeholders?

Sharing Google Analytics data with stakeholders is easy. At the top of each Google Analytics data page is an email button that allows you to export and email the data on that page to stakeholders. You can export the data in a range of formats.

Data exports can also be automated so they are sent out to relevant stakeholders at regular intervals (weekly, monthly, etc.).

How do I add Google Analytics to my website?

Adding Google Analytics to your website is easy. Sign up for free at the Google Analytics website and follow the steps as directed by the setup process. At the end of the setup you’ll receive some code (UA Code number) that will need to be added to the backend of your website.

Bloomtools customers can easily add this code their websites by following a few simple steps.  How to set up Google Analytics for Bloomtools customers