Google Analytics - what is it and what is it used for?

Google Analytics is an analytical tool that gives every user access to the statistics of their website. Among other things, GA tracks website traffic, the locations from which users arrive on the website, which devices they use and what exactly they do on the website. On the basis of this data, we can, for example, successively choose where to place advertisements, conduct remarketing and optimise the performance of the website. To use this tool, simply familiarise yourself with the types of reports that Google Analytics generates - for marketers, this is an invaluable aid that you too can benefit from.

Google Analytics - what is it? First steps with the tool

Google Analytics is a free traffic analysis tool that allows you to monitor statistics on websites and applications. The service premiered in 2005, and as of 2020 Universal Analytics has been replaced by Google Analytics 4. The newer version differs from the older version in, among other things, its measurement model, more accurate recognition of users on different devices and offers more advanced reports.

GA has a simple interface so that any user can easily analyse reports after a short tutorial. In addition, the tool has an Application Programming Interface so that it can be integrated with other tools.

In order to use GA, you must have a Google account, from which you can create a Google Analytics account. Logging in takes literally a moment. The next step is to implement the Google Analytics tracking code on your website and set up your account.

The code contains the Google Analytics tracking ID and should be placed on every subpage of the website - at the beginning or end of the head section. Statistics are only collected from those sub-pages where the Google Analytics code is implemented. You can add the Google Analytics tag:

• via Google Tag Manager;
• using a plug-in (e.g. GA Dashboard for WP);
• By hand.

You can verify the correct implementation of the code with the Google Tag Assistance plug-in for Chrome, for example. When everything is working correctly, you can finally start monitoring the site. You can also give different account permissions to another person, which is useful when the site is administered by an employee or an external company.

How does Google Analytics work?

This tool works thanks to a GA code that uses JavaScript tags from which cookies are generated. It is in these that user information is stored, which is then modified on Google's servers so that reports can be generated from it.

On the GA homepage, to the right, you will find menus and panels with data from the last 30 minutes and graphs with data on users: number of total users, new users, average engagement time, conversions and revenue for the last 7 days.

In the menu on the left, under the tab "Customisation", you can generate tailor-made customisations. The tab at the very bottom of the menu - "Administration" - is used to grant rights to other users and, for example, to link Google Ads with Google Analytics. You will find out what the basic reports are in the next paragraph.

What reports do you find in GA?

There are three tabs in Google Analytics: "Real time", "Overview" and "Events".

• Real Time - in this tab you will find reports on what is currently happening on the site, how many users are visiting it, which pages they are on and which devices they are viewing the site on.
• Overview - the second tab provides a report on users, their behaviour, demographics, technology and, in the case of e-commerce, data on this in the tab of the same name.
• Events - the last tab is the conversion and target reports; the latter are divided into three segments: acquisition, engagement and retention.

How to use Google Analytics effectively?

Admittedly, all the reports we have in the default settings are sufficient to be able to analyse website traffic and its sources. However, by configuring the settings appropriately, it is possible to generate even clearer summaries, arranged according to individual needs.

The ability to set predefined filters allows us to extract the data that interests us precisely in order to get a better view of users. Filters allow us to selectively obtain reports on a selected sub-page on our site, all locations that are sources of traffic and a selected geographical location. In addition, they also present data on traffic from selected channels and domains.

As you can see, the benefits of using GA are many, and you will definitely be able to handle this tool. If you need detailed information on all its elements, you can visit Google's support page.