An Overview of Google Analytics

What is Google Analytics?

A Free web analytics service offered by Google which is a basic analytical tool that tracks and reports website traffic. Anyone having a Google account can access this service. It’s applicable for small and medium-sized retail websites. This Service was launched in November 2005 after acquiring Urchin. It is the most widely used web analytics service on the web. Users can collect information about people through Google analytics dashboard if their websites are linked to social networking sites such as Facebook and twitter. In case you don’t have a Google analytics account you can always sign up freely by typing the url https://www.google.com/analytics/. It’s a free tool that can help you track your digital marketing effectiveness.

Features of Google Analytics

• Adds latest version of Google Analytics JavaScript to every page
• The account can be linked by just log in with Google and selecting the required website.It will automatically include the appropriate code. There is no need to copy and paste any code or know your GA ID.
• Shows a summary dashboard with page views, users, and pages per session and bounce rate for the past 7 days as compared to the previous 7 days.
• You know where your visitors are coming from as it shows the top 5 traffic sources.
• Sign up for alerts via email or Slack when your content is taking off
• Allows you to disable tracking for any role like Admins, or Editors so your analytics represent real visitors
• You can view your dashboards on any device as it is fully optimized and mobile friendly.
• Integration with other Google products, such as Ad Words, Public Data Explorer and Website Optimizer.

How does Google Analytics Work?

Google Analytics puts several lines of tracking code into the code of your website. It records various activities of your users when they visit your website, along with the attributes (such as age, gender, interests) of these users. It sends all that information to the Google Analytics server once the user exits your website. It aggregates the data collected from your website in multiple ways, primarily by four levels such as User level, Session level, Page view level and Event level.

Ria Santhosh