Don’t Fear Google Analytics: Get Started with These 5 Reports
Google Analytics is an incredible tool, with a wealth of information available. In fact, there is so much there that when you’re first starting out, it’s easy to get overwhelmed at the scope of it, and not be able to make much use of this magnificent resource.
An illustration of analytics (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Everyone has to start somewhere, so in order to keep things simple, we’ve broken it down to 5 reports within analytics you’ll want to watch. This is manageable, and will give you a glimpse into seeing just how powerful this tool can be for you.
5 Google Analytics reports you’ll want to view
Search queries – Analytics used to show more keyword data than it does now, but a very useful way to get some of this intelligence is by viewing the search queries report. You should have your Google Webmaster account linked to your Analytics for this to work properly. After you do that, you are able to see valuable data such as the keywords you are currently ranking for, the amount of impressions they get, and the click-through rate on that page.
Mobile usage – Knowing how well your pages are doing with mobile devices is important data to know when nearly 50% of all traffic is originating from these.
Referral data – This report shows you which sites are sending you referral traffic. This is good to know, and if that traffic slows in the future you may want to look into why it is happening.
Session information – A report showing you data detailing how much time a visitor spends on your site, and on which pages and how long they are there. Since time on site and page is a big element in the search algorithm, this is highly prized information.
Pageviews and exit pages – The raw number of views a page gets is useful in many ways, and also the pages that people usually exit your site from is equally important.
Keeping a watchful eye on these basics will help you stay informed as to how well your pages are doing, and go a long way toward helping you better optimize your business.
