Google Analytics A beginners guide
What is Google Analytics? “Google Analytics is not magic. It’s not some mystical force that will automatically generate traffic to your site.“ Ledford and Tyler Google analytics is: • A tool to understand how visitors behave when they visit your site • Software that generates metrics (measurements) • No substitute for usability testing! • Limited and not as accurate as you first think
Behaviour / site content / pages Only pages generated by the University's Content Management System (CMS), called Polopoly, are covered by the University Google Analytics account.
Page views Google definition: “Pageviews is the total number of pages viewed. Repeated views of a single page are counted.” • Replaced the page counter • Valuable because they tell us which pages are hit more often • General indicator of demand for a page • Recorded when page is opened in users browser • Includes clicking refresh • Includes click on back button and returning to page • Increase page views by • Encouraging other to link to your pages • Improving search engine optimization
SEO example from Mark Bothamley Academic Technology Approval Scheme http://www.sheffield.ac.uk / ssid / international / immigration / atas would be better as... Academic Technology Approval Scheme http://www.sheffield.ac.uk / ssid / international / immigration / academic-technology-approval-scheme Google would index this higher. To prove the point the Government's website uses this URL - https://www.gov.uk/academic-technology-approval-scheme It is ranked No.1 for the phrase "Academic Technology Approval Scheme".
Unique page views Google definition: “Unique Pageviews is the number of visits during which the specified page was viewed at least once. A unique pageview is counted for each page URL + page Title combination.” • A unique pageview aggregates pageviews that are generated by the same user during the same session. • With unique page views, you eliminate the factor of multiple views of the same page within a single session • Unique views are user sessions per page, with each session potentially representing multiple views of the page but a minimum of one view per session.
Bounce rate Google definition: “Bounce rate is the percentage of visits that go only one page before exiting a site.” • This is the number of single page visits to your site • Under 50% is a good bounce rate (depending on page) Bounce happens because users: • Poor referrals (clicking the back button ) • Direct links from other websites • • Email link • Search engine traffic • Following an external link • Loyal users (bookmarks) • Improve bounce rate by: • Reviewing site design • Make sure keywords that reflect page purpose
Average time on page Google definition: “Average Time on Page is the average amount of time visitors spent viewing a specified page or set of pages.” • The average page visit lasts a little less than a minute (Neilsen 2011) • If somebody spends four minutes on your page is that good or bad? Does it reflect the user: searching for something that is hard to find? • • not finding something and giving up? • finding what they need before giving up? • reading or scanning the page? • Time how long it takes to read your page • How does this compare with average time on page • Does it suggest how far down the page a reader would get • Time how long you spend on other people’s pages
Other useful metrics on Google Analytics “What should you watch? You should be monitoring the business objectives of your site. You do have some don’t you?“ Boag (2014) • Users by Country (Audience / Geo / location) • New versus returning visitors (Audience /behaviour /new vs returning) • Operating systems (Audience /technology/browser and OS) • Mobile device (Audience /mobile/devices) • Real time (Real time/content) • Average page load time (Behaviour/site speed/page timings) • How people get to site (Acquisition /all traffic) • Site keywords (Acquisition / Keywords)
References University Google Analytics Page http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/web/seo/analytics Ledford and Tyler (2007) “Google Analytics 2.0”, Wiley Publishing Inc. How Long Do Users Stay on Web Pages? by Jakob Nielsen on September 12, 2011 http://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-long-do-users-stay-on-web-pages/ Reduce Bounce Rates: Fight for the Second Click by Jakob Nielsen on June 30, 2008 http://www.nngroup.com/articles/reduce-bounce-rates/ Are you getting the basics of analytics right? By Paul Boag Tue 15 Apr 14 http://boagworld.com/content-strategy/are-you-getting-the-basics-of- analytics-right/
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