Guide To Google Analytics PDF
Guide To Google Analytics PDF
google analytics
executive summary
Expectations have risen for marketing departments’ abilities to track, measure and
optimize different marketing operations. In today’s world of measured marketing,
analyzing data is essential for businesses but can become overwhelming due to the
endless amount of data available. When used effectively, web analytics tools can
help marketing directors make better-informed business decisions by determining
how user search behavior impacts ROI.
The Google Analytics platform has been rebuilt from the ground up in an effort to
make it as intuitive and helpful as possible. Google has added a number of new
value-add features while keeping the old favorites such as eCommerce reporting,
conversion goals and custom reporting. These new features are proving to be more
valuable than anything offered previously by the platform.
As part of the new feature sets, Google provides the option to integrate Webmas-
ter Tools into Google Analytics to access search optimization data and site per-
formance metrics. Multi-Channel Funnels, In-page Analytics, Visitor Flow, Social
Plugins, and other new features will help marketers find new ways to improve their
websites and understand how users interact with them.
This guide will enable digital marketers to measure ROI more efficiently and
accurately, allowing them to make informed decisions using the robust features
in Google Analytics.
» How to filter your profile based on multiple parameters: IP address, subdomains, location, etc.
» Why you should annotate any major events or changes to your Google Analytics account
» Learn newer GA features such as: search engine optimization, visitor flow, site speed
and content experiments
Each of the following sections will address common issues and provide instructions on how to get the most out of
Google Analytics.
It is important to manage user access restrictions to make sure the appropriate email accounts are either intended
to be users or administrators. Check the ‘Users’ tab in the account overview to view the list of email addresses that
can view your analytics profile, as shown below.
4. Under the ‘Profiles’ section, click on the ‘Users’ tab. profile settings.
5. Click ‘+ New User.’ 4. If those tabs did not appear next to ‘Profiles,’ then
the account only has User access.
6. Enter the Email Address of the user you wish to add
to the profile.
7. Select the radio button for the type of role for the
new user.
Figure 1.1
Also, other analytics platforms such as Adobe SiteCatalyst and IBM Coremetrics will not be able to provide keyword
information for searches done when logged into a Google platform. The search term will be identified as “organic”
and coming from Google, but the term will be displayed as “(not provided).” Search terms used to visit your site
through pay-per-click (PPC) ads will still be available.
In July 2012, Firefox started encrypting Google searches by default in the newly released version, Firefox 14. As of
June 2012, Firefox controls roughly 25% of the desktop browser usage share, according to StatCounter.
Google recommends using the asynchronous code because it facilitates faster overall page load times, improved
collection for short visits to script-heavy pages and collects user clicks that occur before the tracking code loads.
It is an improvement on the traditional code used previously.
<script type=”text/javascript”>
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push([‘_setAccount’, ‘UA-XXXXXXX-1’]);
_gaq.push([‘_trackPageview’]);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement(‘script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true;
ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘http://www’) + ‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’;
var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>
The asynchronous code should be placed before the closing </head> tag because the tracking snippet can execute
without blocking other code or content.
If the site chooses to use the traditional JavaScript snippet, it should be placed at the bottom of the page, just
before the closing </body> tag. The traditional code is meant to track after the content has already loaded.
It is okay to have the asynchronous and traditional tracking codes on different pages of your site, but do not place
both the asynchronous and traditional tracking codes on the same page. This will not allow Google Analytics to track
effectively and will result in inaccurate data.
1. Create or Login to a profile with Administrative 7. Copy this tracking code and paste it onto every page
access. To Login, go to www.google.com/analytics you want to track immediately before the closing
and click ‘Sign In.’ </head> tag. The code provided by Google Analytics
is the updated, asynchronous version.
2. Choose the account that you wish to track.
8. View the source code on the site to make sure the
3. Click ‘Admin’ in the top right corner.
account ID (e.g. “UA-1234567-1”) is associated
4. Click on the ‘Tracking Code’ tab. with the proper Google Analytics account.
5. This page shows the Tracking ID Number and asks Note: Tracking subdomains and multiple top-level
if you are tracking (see figure 2.1): domains will need additional lines of tracking
code, which will be provided in the Google Analytics
» A single domain.
account of the main domain.
» One domain with multiple subdomains.
» Multiple top-level domains.
Figure 2.1
Digital Relevance™ recommends having the following profiles set up for organizational purposes.
1. “DO NOT TOUCH” profile. This profile is meant to hold all of your historical data just in case data is lost. Do not
apply any goals or filters to it. Once data is lost, it cannot be retrieved. Google Analytics only tracks data starting
from the date you set up the profile.
2. “Master” profile. This is meant to be the main profile used for reporting, filtering and goal conversion
tracking. You will want to set up filters to exclude the IP addresses of those working on your site, as well as
any office IPs.
3. “Organic only” profile. This profile should only have traffic information from organic search. PPC and
referral data should be excluded. This is used for faster reporting and it’s a good way to segment your data.
Step-by-step instructions on how to create this profile are shown below.
4. “PPC only” profile. This profile should only have traffic information from PPC ads. Step-by-step instructions
on how to create this profile are shown below.
5. If you have other subdomains that you wish to track, you should create another profile unique to that
subdomain, one profile unique to the top domain, and let the master profile contain both the domain and
subdomain in the same profile. Google combines domain and subdomain information by default.
You can use filters to restrict your Google Analytics data based on nearly every parameter: a specific IP, a
geographical location, domain and even by keyword. Filtering is essential for maintaining clean profiles because it
allows you to exclude traffic sources that could skew your results and to organize your information more effectively.
Examples of traffic sources you wish to exclude are: your office IP addresses, a development company working on
your site in another country, your marketing manager’s home IP or another vendor you are working with. Filters are
also how you can limit profiles to “organic only” or “ppc only.” Below are step-by-step instructions on how to set up
these filters.
1. Create a new profile following the steps above. 7. Choose the radio button for ‘Custom filter.’
2. Click the ‘Admin’ button in the top right corner. 8. Choose the radio button for ‘Include.’
3. Under the ‘Profiles’ section, click on the ‘Filters’ tab 9. In the ‘Filter Field’ dropdown, choose
(see figure 3.1). ‘Campaign Medium.’
4. Click ‘+ New Filter.’ 10. In the ‘Filter Pattern’ text box, enter ‘organic.’
5. Choose the radio button that says ‘Create new 11. Next to ‘Case Sensitive,’ choose the radio
Filter for Profile.’ button for ‘No.’
Figure 3.1
1. Create a new profile following the steps above. 7. Choose the radio button for ‘Custom filter.’
2. Click the ‘Admin’ button in the top right corner. 8. Choose the radio button for ‘Include.’
3. Under the ‘Profiles’ section, click on the ‘Filters’ tab 9. In the ‘Filter Field’ dropdown, choose
(see figure 3.2). ‘Campaign Medium.’
4. Click ‘+ New Filter.’ 10. In the ‘Filter Pattern’ text box, enter ‘ppc|cpc.’
5. Choose the radio button that says ‘Create new 11. Next to ‘Case Sensitive,’ choose the radio
Filter for Profile.’ button for ‘No.’
Figure 3.2
1. Create a new profile following the steps above. 8. Choose the radio button for ‘Include.’
2. Click the ‘Admin’ button in the top right corner. 9. In the ‘Filter Field’ dropdown, choose ‘Hostname.’
3. Under the ‘Profiles’ section, click on the ‘Filters’ tab. 10. In the ‘Filter Pattern’ text box, enter ‘www\.domain\.
com’ Be sure to replace ‘domain’ with your actual
4. Click ‘+ New Filter.’
domain name.
5. Choose the radio button that says ‘Create new
11. Next to ‘Case Sensitive,’ choose the radio
Filter for Profile.’
button for ‘No.’
6. Name the Filter, ‘Main Domain Only.’
12. Click ‘Save.’
7. Choose the radio button for ‘Custom filter.’
1. Create a new profile following the steps above. 8. Choose the radio button for ‘Include.’
2. Click the ‘Admin’ button in the top right corner. 9. In the ‘Filter Field’ dropdown, choose ‘Hostname.’
3. Under the ‘Profiles’ section, click on the ‘Filters’ tab. 10. In the ‘Filter Pattern’ text box, enter ‘subdomain\.
domain\.com’ Be sure to replace ‘domain’ and
4. Click ‘+ New Filter.’
‘subdomain’ with your actual site names.
5. Choose the radio button that says ‘Create new
11. Next to ‘Case Sensitive,’ choose the radio
Filter for Profile.’
button for ‘No.’
6. Name the Filter, ‘Subdomain Only.’
12. Click ‘Save.’
7. Choose the radio button for ‘Custom filter.’
In your master profile, you may wish to view your most popular pages. However, by default, Google does not show
the full URL that is receiving traffic. For example, the traffic reports would show visits to “/about-us” or “/services”
instead of “www.domain.com/about-us” or “subdomain.domain.com/services.” The user does not know which
domain the page is associated with. To fix this issue, an advanced filter can be created to show the full URL.
1. Create a new profile following the steps above. 10. In the Field B -> Extract B dropdown, choose
‘Request URI’ and type ‘(.*)’ into the text box.
2. Click the ‘Admin’ button in the top right corner.
11. In the ‘Output To -> Constructor’ dropdown, choose
3. Under the ‘Profiles’ section, click on the ‘Filters’ tab
‘Request URI’ and type ‘$A1$B1’ into the text box.
(see figure 3.3).
12. Choose the radio button for ‘Yes’ next to
4. Click ‘+ New Filter.’
‘Field A Required.’
5. Choose the radio button that says ‘Create new
13. Choose the radio button for ‘No’ next to
Filter for Profile.’
‘Field B Required.’
6. Name the Filter, ‘Show Full URLs.’
14. Choose the radio button for ‘Yes’ next to
7. Choose the radio button for ‘Custom filter.’ ‘Override Output Field.’
8. Choose the radio button for ‘Advanced.’ 15. Next to ‘Case Sensitive,’ choose the radio button for ‘No.’
Figure 3.3
1. Create a new profile following the steps above. 7. Choose the radio button for ‘Predefined Filter.’
2. Click the ‘Admin’ button in the top right corner. 8. In the first dropdown, choose ‘Exclude.’
3. Under the ‘Profiles’ section, click on the ‘Filters’ tab. 9. In the second dropdown, choose ‘traffic from
the IP addresses.’
4. Click ‘+ New Filter.’
10. In the third dropdown, choose ‘that are equal to.’
5. Choose the radio button that says ‘Create new
Filter for Profile.’ 11. Enter the IP address in the text box.
A company may also use a range of IP addresses that are consecutive in number. These IPs can also be excluded
quickly without having to make a new filter for each IP address.
174.165.34.1
174.165.34.2
174.165.34.3
174.165.34.13
The filter pattern that can be used to filter out these IP addresses is: ^174\.165\.34\.([1-9|1[0-3])$
To generate a regular expression like this for a range of IP addresses, please use this tool provided by Google:
http://support.google.com/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55572
This RegEx filter pattern can be used to create a custom filter. Step-by-step instructions are shown on the
following page.
1. Create a new profile following the steps above. 9. In the ‘Filter Field’ dropdown, select ‘Visitor
IP Address.’
2. Click the ‘Admin’ button in the top right corner.
10. Type the ‘Filter Pattern’ into the text box. Filter
3. Under the ‘Profiles’ section, click on the ‘Filters’ tab.
patterns should be a string of RegEx code that
4. Click ‘+ New Filter.’ include the chosen range of IP addresses.
5. Choose the radio button that says ‘Create new Filter Note that filter patterns follow RegEx logic.
for Profile.’
11. Next to ‘Case Sensitive,’ choose the radio button
6. Name the filter, ‘Exclude IPs.’ for ‘No.’
7. Choose the radio button for ‘Custom filter.’ 12. Click ‘Save.’
For example, if you’re a multinational corporation with both domestic and international target markets, advanced
segmentation allows you to create separate segments to track web traffic from the U.S. and U.K. Then, you can make
the most of your web analytics by analyzing trends and making comparisons between the two markets.
Another great use of advanced segmentation involves segmenting social networks like Twitter, Facebook and
YouTube. By tracking traffic from these sites, you can gain insights into how specific social media campaigns
impact your bottom line.
Other useful types of advanced segmentations could show you the differences between short tail and long tail
search traffic or comparisons between paid and organic traffic.
Google Analytics offers a number of segments by default for quick access to selected data. It is also helpful
to create advanced segments that are customized to track your website’s unique analytical needs.
1. Organic, Non-branded Keywords (see URL below to use the segment on your profile)
Purpose To separate non-branded keywords being used to visit your website.
URL https://www.google.com/analytics/web/permalink?uid=YAq4FE40SkKUGAsBSIXMlA
Tip Make sure to exclude all brand variations and misspellings when customizing this segment.
Put a pipe, “|”, between each keyword when using regular expression match to exclude
branded terms.
Purpose To track how well your site is performing for SEO-targeted keyword categories, including
long-tail variations.
URL https://www.google.com/analytics/web/permalink?uid=mUtGJQVoTCq0jfqKjkQNng
Tip The SEO industry recognizes “phrase” traffic as “exact match” + “Long-Tail” traffic. When
making segments, be sure to specify which type of traffic is being reported and label them
to avoid any confusion.
3. Organic, Exact Match Targeted Campaign Keyword Categories (Not Including Long-Tail)
Purpose To track how well your site is performing for exact-match SEO-targeted keyword categories.
URL https://www.google.com/analytics/web/permalink?uid=KzwVqcOcTxCwaE4dTpwZ8Q
Tip Start your RegEx string with a carrot, “^,” and put all keywords within parentheses with
a pipe between each keyword and a “$” sign at the end. Example:^(keyword|keyword|
keyword)$ This will include only those exact keywords that you have specified within the
string, not including long-tail.
Purpose Google Analytics offers an area for social traffic reporting with default segments already set up,
but you may want to set up your own social segment to track referral traffic from social networks.
URL https://www.google.com/analytics/web/permalink?uid=uKOfrQacTru5NSFPPkOQFw
Tip Decide what websites from which you wish to track referral information and enter them into
the RegEx text box, being sure to escape periods with a backslash. Example: twitter/.com|
facebook\.com|pinterest\.com. Periods are regular expression characters that match
any single character. The backslash is needed so that the segment can treat the period as a
true period, and not a RegEx character.
a beginner’s guide to google analytics | p26
Sharing Segments
When a custom advanced segment is created, it is specific to the username/log-in
account information that created it. Other accounts cannot see the advanced
segment that you create even if both users have administrative access.
However, you can share custom advanced segments with other users without sharing any of your information.
They do not have to be granted access to your account in order to see them. For example, the urls above are
advanced segments that we have created. You can use on your own profiles by copy and pasting the URL into
your browser.
You should be able to use this advanced segment on your own Google Analytics profile.
1. Once you have created an advanced segment that you wish to share, click ‘Admin’ in the upper right corner.
4. You should now see a list of advanced segments that have been created under your account.
6. You will be provided with a URL to share the advanced segment configuration.
Note that you will not be sharing any traffic data. You can paste the URL in an email to whomever you wish
When eCommerce data is linked to GA, the customer transaction costs (conversion values) will be assigned to each
transaction. It would be helpful to assign conversion values to non-eCommerce goals as well. Each of these goals
will be more valuable to some websites than others, so it is important to determine which add the most value to
your business.
Once meaningful goals are set up and after data has been collected over a certain period of time, conversion paths
can be analyzed in greater detail with multi-channel funnels.
When defining URL destination goals, it is important to understand the difference between exact match, head
match and regular expression match. Here are three different scenarios that help explain the difference between
these goal types:
EXACT MATCH
‘Exact Match’ matches the exact goal URL that you specify without exception. There are no unique values in this
URL (the goal URL is the same for every user), so we use ‘Exact Match.’ (Note: to make reporting easier, Google
recommends removing the protocol and hostname from the URL.)
HEAD MATCH
Example: The URL for a completed goal has unique values at the end of the URL, as follows:
http://www.domain.com/careers.cgi?page=1&id=543202
http://www.domain.com/careers.cgi?page=1&id=781203
http://www.domain.com/careers.cgi?page=1&id=605561
‘Head Match’ matches the goal URL from the beginning of the string up to and including the last character you
specify. For this goal URL, you have unique values that are specific to each user, but you want to track the goal so
that all of these conversions are counted. You can leave out the unique values and specify.
Example: The URL for a completed goal has unique values for each visitor in the middle of the URL, as follows:
http://www.domain.com/careers.cfm/sid/9/id/54320211/page2#mini
http://www.domain.com/careers.cfm/sid/10/id/781203/page2#mini
http://www.domain.com/careers.cfm/sid/3/id/6051/page2#mini
Since there are unique values in the middle of the URL, and ‘page2#mini’ is necessary to define the goal, you cannot
use ‘Head Match.’ You need to specify that those unique numbers can be anything, so you use a regular expression
to match this goal.
2. Click the ‘Admin’ button in the top right corner. 8. Optional: Enter a goal value associated with a
Figure 5.1
1. Login to a Google Analytics profile. The user does 7. Next to ‘Attachments,’ select the type of document
not need to have admin access. you wish to send.
2. Select the report you wish to send automatically Note: Reports can be sent as a .csv, .tsv, .tsv for
3. Click ‘Email’ on the gray ribbon towards the top. 8. Next to ‘Frequency,’ select the time interval in which
to send the report and specify the day of the week
4. A pop-up will be shown, asking for more information
you wish to send it.
(see figure 6.1).
9. You may also specify how long to leave the
5. Specify the email address that will be receiving
automatic email active. Select the number
the report(s).
of months from the drop-down.
6. Add a Subject line.
10. Add a description and click ‘Send.’
Figure 6.1
2. Select a Standard Report that has an ‘Overview’ 7. Click the ‘Shared’ radio button if you wish all users
timeline chart (see figure 6.2). with access to see the note, or click the ‘Private’
radio button to keep the annotation hidden to only
3. Just below the dates of the graph, there is a
your login.
small triangle indicating a hidden dropdown.
8. Click ‘Save’ Note: You can view other annotations by
4. Click on the triangle dropdown.
clicking on the tiny word bubble icon on the bottom
5. On the right hand side of the dropdown, click of the ‘Overview’ timeline chart.
‘+ Create new annotation.’
Figure 6.2
When eCommerce tracking is set up, it allows for an in-depth analysis of most of the key eCommerce metrics
such as revenue generation on a product level, individual product performance, conversion rates, average order
values and more. Analyzing these metrics provides information that can drive decisions, which could later result in
significant performance gains. Access to this information also makes understanding customer behavior and product
interaction much easier. It allows site owners to identify key areas for improvement.
Note: If a site uses a subdomain during the shopping cart transaction process, the Google Analytics profile needs
to have tracking enabled for the subdomain. Otherwise, the eCommerce data will not be accurate. Check to be sure
that tracking is enabled for subdomains by selecting the ‘Admin’ button and then clicking on the ‘Tracking Code’ tab.
Select ‘One domain with multiple subdomains’ to answer the first question, and then add the tracking code to all
associated subdomains.
1. Click on ‘Admin’ in the upper-right corner. 4. Click ‘Apply.’ eCommerce tracking is now enabled,
but there are still a few steps that are custom for
2. Under the ‘Profiles’ tab, select ‘Profile Settings.’
implementation with the ga.js eCommerce methods.
3. Next to ‘E-Commerce tracking,’ select ‘Yes, an When implementing eCommerce tracking, please
E-Commerce Site’ from the dropdown. follow guidelines and processes found at
https://developers.google.com/analytics/
devguides/collection/gajs/gaTrackingEcommerce
After eCommerce tracking has been enabled for the website’s profile, you will need to ensure that your shopping
cart’s receipt page sends the eCommerce tracking data to Google Analytics. This requires adding customized
tracking code to your shopping cart pages. This can be done in a variety of ways, such as a server-side include, a
module that comes with your content system, or it can be hand-coded into your HTML code.
By default, Google attributes conversions to the most recent referring campaign (last-touch attribution), but you may
want to look at all of the different marketing channels that were used to visit your site before a conversion took place.
At a glance, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the data provided, and in some cases, “(not provided),” but there are a
few different ways to compare marketing channels that can impact actual business decisions.
For example, there are many reasons that marketers should use this feature for attribution modeling:
First Touch Attribution: 100% of the conversion value is attributed to the first referring
marketing channel.
Last Touch Attribution: 100% of the conversion value is attributed to the last referring
marketing channel.
Linear Model: Equal credit is given to each interaction on the path to a conversion and
attributes it to each marketing channel.
Position-based Model: Assigns a greater weight to the first and last interactions and
is adjusted based on the remaining positions in between.
By comparing these different models, you can gain insight into which models are most relevant to your needs and
goals in order to measure the value of your campaign. For more information on selecting the right attribution model
for your business, visit http://www.slingshotseo.com/resources/e-books/valuing-digital-marketing-channels-with-
attribution-models/ and take our Campaign Model Assessment.
Note: Goals will need to be set up in order to have conversion data in the Multi-Channel Funnels Report.
There are nine default segments provided by Google, but it is also useful to create user-defined conversion
segments to examine specific user behavior.
Purpose: This segment includes only conversions where the first interaction was an organic, non-branded
keyword. It is a true measure of the impact of organic search as the start of the conversion process.
Conversion Segments may not be shared across accounts yet, so below is a screenshot of how the segment
should be set up.
Purpose: This segment helps you identify how far along the conversion funnel branded terms are being used.
1.
2.
Purpose: What is the value of a Twitter follower or a Facebook fan? This segment can get you closer to the answer
to this question by looking at the percentage of interactions from social media that influence conversions.
3.
This feature shows how well your site is performing in search engine results pages, and provides you with the
number of impressions and clicks your site received, the average position of your site for various keywords and
the click-through-rate (CTR).
It also provides this information for comparing different countries that are searching for your site and compares the
performance of different landing pages.
In the example below, our conversion goal was how many users downloaded our old Google Analytics Guide after
coming to our GA Guide landing page. We can see the number of users who dropped off and those who downloaded
the guide. It is a useful feature to see if you are converting as many visitors as you would like, and illustrates the
importance of conversion rate optimization (CRO).
It shows you how well particular pages are performing on your site by
comparing page load times, pageviews, bounce rates, and exit percent.
Content Experiments
1. Enter the URL for the page you want to improve. experiment. However, if your experiment is drastic
Click ‘Start Experimenting.’ and risky, you might want to include only a small
proportion of your site’s visitors.”
2. Next, choose which variation page you would like to
compare against. You may enter multiple variation 6. Select the desired percentage, add notes, and click
pages, but they each must have a separate URL. ‘Next Step.’
3. Name each variation and click ‘Next Step.’ 7. This last step informs you that a small amount of
experiment code must be added to the page. You
4. Set the experiment options for the page by selecting
can either implement the code yourself, or send
a pre-defined Conversion Goal or creating a new Goal.
instructions to your webmaster.
This will be the Experiment’s objective metric.
8. After you have updated your pages with the
5. You may choose to include only a certain
experiment code, click ‘Next’ to validate the code,
percentage of users in the experiment. Google
review your configuration, and run the experiment.
advises, “If you want quicker results, you might want
to include a higher proportion of your visitors in the
Running experiments like this can help determine what layout and design is best for converting visitors on your site.
It gives you visitor data so you no longer have to guess which page would perform better.
SEOmoz Blog
The SEOmoz community frequently includes clever Google Analytics tips and tricks that are worth checking out.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog
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