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Do you want to increase conversions and ROI? Understanding user behavior and analyzing site traffic via Google Analytics will help! ‍ The catch is, you have to understand and be familiarized with certain terms before you can make use of the data and drive real change in your business. One of those is “Active Users.” Not all GA users fully understand this core metric. ‍ That’s why we’ll focus on it today and find out how to apply it in order to optimize your site.  So, What Are Active Users in Google Analytics?       The term “Active Users” can be a little misleading. Some people think it’s the same thing as a real-time user – someone who is on your site at this moment. ‍ But actually, your active users are different from your real-time users. Active users are those who have engaged in your website over a certain time period. Google Analytics looks at active users in terms of one day, seven days, 14 days, or 30 days. ‍ So, depending on your campaign needs, you can set the time period as daily (default setting), weekly, biweekly, or monthly to use the Active Users report. The default setting simply measures how many users are active on your site every day. ‍ Through the Active Users report, you will see the number of users who visited your site at least once in the last 1, 7, 14, or 28 days in a selected time period. This same report gives you a clear idea of the retention rate of your site, especially if you compare active user counts over time. Definition of a “User” In broad terms, “Users” mean the total number of new as well as returning visitors that get to your website. The numbers in the report are related to the timeframe you specify in Google Analytics. How to Access the Active Users Report To access the Active Users report, simply click on the “Audience” menu in your Google Analytics reporting view. How to Read the Active Users Report In the Active Users report, you’ll see the “Active Users” metric. Basically, there are four different types of Active Users: 1. 1 Day Active Users (Daily Active Users) These are unique users who visited your site at least once on the last day for a selected period of time. 2. 7-Day Active Users (Weekly Active Users) These are unique users who visited your site at least once in the last 7 days for a selected period of time. 3. 14-Day Active Users; and These are unique users who visited your site at least once in the last 14 days for a selected period of time. 4.  28-Day or 30-Day Active Users (Monthly Active Users) These are unique users who visited your site at least once in the last 28 or 30 days for a selected period of time. ‍ Note: 7-day active users may also include 1-day active users. In the same way, 28-day active users may also include 14-day active users.  ‍ Google breaks your website’s active users into four different time frames so it’ll be easier for you to see the number of users visiting your site in a certain period or date range. How to Use the Google Analytics Active Users Report The Google Analytics Active Users report is useful in understanding or analyzing how often users are coming back to your website. The report will also be beneficial in measuring the success of your promotional campaign while it’s still running.  ‍ For instance, you have just started running a promotion a few weeks ago. You hope for new traffic and hope to retain them. This Google Analytics Active Users report will be a great place to get a quick look at how successful your campaign has been. ‍ Hover over the chart and see the different metrics. You’ll also find their ratios to make comparisons. These ratios include: ‍ Daily active users / monthly active users Daily active users / monthly active users Weekly active users / monthly active users ‍ Looking at the active user count data by cohort could also provide you insight on certain points in a client or customer’s life cycle where they stop being active. That way, you can create intentions to retain those uses. ‍ [Recommended Article For You: Google Analytics – Paid vs Free] When to Use Active User Report and When to Use Real-Time Reports Didn’t we say earlier that the “Active Users” metric can be a bit misleading? To remove the confusion, we suggest you use real-time reports if you want to know the number of users that are currently on your site or if you want to validate your tracking. ‍ For instance, you have implemented a tracking event on your site and wanted to check if it is working well. In that case, navigate the Events section and check the real-time reports. ‍ On the other hand, use the Active User report, if you have just recently launched a campaign and wanted to understand its performance. ‍ Pro-Tip: use advanced segments along with Google Analytics Active Users report to see the effect of the active users on the data you are collecting on Google’s web analytics service. Using both would enable you to answer questions, such as are engaged users more active compared to the non-engaged ones? or are users from paid traffic less active than users from email traffic? How Are Google Analytics Users Tracked?     Once you install Google Analytics on your site, it tracks users automatically. The data about each user is stored in your browser as a cookie. That cookie includes the client ID and this is how the platform recognizes your visitors. ‍ If you want to find the unique client ID for a website, simply go to the developer tools > Application> Cookies> and click your domain. Find _ga in the list of your cookies and there you’ll see the Client ID after the second

Aah, yes – the mysterious “Other” found under Google Analytics Traffic Channels. ‍ It has left many analytics newbies scratching their heads in confusion. ‍ Should you ignore it? ‍ Is there any way to see what “other” includes?  ‍ Is there a way to solve the “other” dilemma? ‍ Grab a cup of coffee and let the Abralytics team provide you with all the answers. ‍ ‍ Let’s begin by explaining what the various traffic channels are. What is a Traffic Channel in Google Analytics? A traffic channel or source tells you how a visitor landed on your website. Pretty simple, right? ‍ Why does this matter? ‍ Because knowing where your visitors came from can help you channel your money and efforts in the right place. ‍ For example, if the Acquisition report shows that most users came from Direct Search, you know your offline advertising campaigns are a tremendous success. But, you may need to allocate additional resources to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), so more customers can see you in search. ‍ Acquisition → Overview Page → Top Channels ‍ In the Acquisition Overview report, you’ll find a pie chart and table showing your Traffic Channels. ‍ These can include ‍ Direct: ‍ Direct traffic means the user has typed your URL directly into their browser. It also includes people who have clicked a link to your site on a pdf, Whatsapp message, Facebook Messenger or email. ‍ Paid Search ‍ Traffic that comes from any paid ad that appears in search results. ‍ Display ‍ Traffic that lands on your site after clicking an ad you placed on another website. For example, a banner ad on a blog. ‍ Affiliates ‍ Traffic as a result of affiliate marketing. Your product or service appears on another website with a link to your site. This is done in exchange for a small commission on every item bought. ‍ Organic Search ‍ Visitors who found your site after typing a word or phrase into a search bar. Your page appeared in search results as a relevant match, and the user clicked through to your site. ‍ Source: Pexels ‍ ‍ Social ‍ Users who click through to your site from a social network page or app. This could include LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest, among others. ‍ Referral ‍ Referral traffic comes from backlinks –  when a user lands on your site by clicking a link on another website. ‍ Email ‍ Visitors who land on your site as a result of your email marketing campaigns. ‍ Other ‍ Last but not least, “other” makes a sneaky appearance. So let’s dive in. What is “Other” in Google Analytics? A source is categorized as “other” if Google doesn’t recognize it as belonging to a specific channel. ‍ The source doesn’t play by the (predefined) rules and GA can’t say how these users came to your site. ‍ This can happen when a UTM tag has been placed in an URL incorrectly. ‍ Let’s see how this happens: Incorrect UTM tags ‍ A UTM tag can be created using a UTM Tag Builder. It is a small string of text placed at the end of a URL to help you see exactly which pieces of content are performing well and driving the most traffic to your site. ‍ So while an analytics tool can tell you where your web traffic comes from, a UTM tag tells you which specific posts, pages or ads they clicked on. ‍ So without one, you’ll be able to see that 1000 visitors came from a Social Channel, but you won’t know from which Social Channel. ‍ But when a UTM tag is created incorrectly, it could cause GA to categorize it incorrectly. Instead of ending up under Social, it could be categorized as Other. Here are some common errors when creating UTM tags that are easy to fix: ‍ Mixing lowercase and uppercase letters. Channel definitions are case-sensitive. Inconsistent tagging. For example, using the term “paid” on one tag, but “ad” on another Campaign names that are too long Spelling mistakes Not using Source/Medium consistently Using UTMs for internal links Can you just ignore it? ‍Source: Pexels ‍ You probably shouldn’t. If you chose to ignore the “other” sources, you could miss out on valuable pieces of data. ‍ And like when building a jigsaw puzzle, the larger the number of missing pieces, the less clear the picture becomes. In the same way, the more traffic bucketed under “Other”, the less accurate your data collection is. ‍ If you have a personal site or small business, you may get away with just checking what’s under “Other” on a regular basis. ‍ But the bigger your website is, you’ll want to find a way to sort the problem out. Is there any way to see what “other” includes? Absolutely – Just follow the steps outlined below: ‍ Step 1: Sign into your Google Analytics account ‍ Step 2: Open your Google Analytics Dashboard → ‍ Acquisition → All Traffic → Channels→ Default Channel Grouping column ‍ Step 3: Click on “Other” ‍ ‍Source: Getelevar ‍ Step 4: Change your Secondary Dimension to Medium (Acquisition – Source/medium) ‍ Source: Getelevar‍ ‍ And now you can see where the “Other” traffic originated from. Is there a way to solve the “other” dilemma for good? Yes, depending on your skill level, you could either: ‍ Move them to an existing Google Analytics channel Create a new custom channel grouping ‍ Move them to an existing Google Analytics channel Let’s use #8 on the image above as an example. Follow steps 1- 4 above. Step 5: Identify which channel group each row could belong to. Social Instagram should go under the Social Traffic Channel Step 6: Click on Admin → Channel Settings → Channel Grouping → Default channel grouping settings Step 7: Open the desired channel, which is Social in our example Step 8: Select “Medium” from the

A Dimension in Google Analytics is an attribute or description of data. ‍ Every report in google analytics is made up of Metrics and Dimensions. The dimensions of a report give you different attributes of the data you’ve collected. ‍ For example, a dimension could be the City from which a set of metrics is taken in a report, like Istanbul, New York, or Paris. ‍ A Dimension is different from a metric in that it doesn’t have any numerical value. It simply describes the data set, organizing numerical data into categories. ‍ Studying the dimensions in your reports will help you better understand critical factors like where your website visitors are from, the language they speak, and the platforms or gadgets they use to navigate your website. Primary Dimensions When viewing only one of the default dimensions in Google Analytics, it is considered viewing a primary dimension. ‍ Google Analytics Demo‍ ‍ In the example above, the primary dimension is the country from which a user started a session. ‍ Although this data is valuable, it doesn’t tell you how the users found the website, or how long they viewed individual pages. But by layering different dimensions, you will get a more comprehensive picture. ‍ Examples of default Google Analytics Dimensions include Gender, Age, City, Source / Medium, Keyword, Browser, Device Category, and Operating System. Secondary Dimensions A secondary dimension gives you a more in-depth understanding of the primary dimension. ‍ In the example used above, the primary dimension showed you where your audience originates from. ‍ Google Analytics Demo‍ ‍ The secondary dimension highlighted above tells you what the most popular landing page is (the page on which traffic enters your site). In this example, it is the homepage. How to Create and View Secondary Dimensions As secondary dimensions are already pre-defined by Google, you simply have to add them to your custom report to benefit from the metrics that go along with them. Step 1 In your Google Analytics report, you can view various dimensions on the left-hand drop-down bar. ‍ In our example below the primary dimension is set to Language as part of the GEO funnel. ‍ With this dimension, you’ll be able to see what language users prefer to view content in, as part of our Audience Overview Report. This is because Google Analytics records the Langauge settings in your users’ browser settings. ‍Google Analytics Demo ‍ The dimensions in the example are the languages spoken by your audience: US English, British English, and Chinese. ‍ The Metrics are grouped on the right under Users, New Users and Sessions Tabs. Note that metrics have a numerical value added to them. Step 2 Once you’ve chosen the Primary dimension, you’ll be able to view possible secondary dimensions by selecting one from the drop-down list. ‍ Predefined dimension funnels in Google Analytics include Acquisition, Advertising, Behaviour, and Users. ‍ In the example shown we’ll use the Age dimension which is selected under the Users funnel ‍ ‍‍Google Analytics Demo Now we’ll be able to view the age bracket of our users in the different language groups. ‍ ‍Google Analytics Demo ‍ With a side-by-side view of two different dimensions, we get a better understanding of our audience. ‍ But what if I need a secondary dimension, not available in standard Google Analytics reports? ‍ That’s where Custom dimensions come in. How to create and view Custom Dimensions Custom dimensions, much like default dimensions, help you to layer information in a more in-depth way. ‍ These custom reports go a long way in helping you understand your users better as you’re able to hone in on niche-specific data. ‍ But there’s a catch to creating custom dimensions. The device category has to be enabled or alternatively, contain at least one app reporting view. ‍ Custom dimensions also require additional setup in your Google Analytics Account and tracking code. You’ll only be able to view these dimensions after completing the setup process of both these steps. How to create a  Custom Dimension: ‍ Step 1 – Sign in to Google Analytics. ‍ Step 2 – Click Admin, and navigate to the property to which you want to add custom dimensions. ‍ Step 3 – In the Property column, click Custom Definitions > Custom Dimensions. ‍ Step 4 – Click New Custom Dimension. ‍ Step 5 – Add a Name. This can be any string, but use something unique so it’s not confused with any other dimension or metric in your reports. ‍ Step 6 – Select the Scope. Choose to track at the Hit, Session, User, or Product level. ‍ Step 7 – Check the Active box to start collecting data and see the dimension in your reports right away. To create the dimension but have it remain inactive, uncheck the box. ‍ Step 8 – Click Create. How to View Custom Dimensions in Google Analytics ‍ Step 1 After signing in to your Google Analytics account, you’ll be able to view different dimensions on the left-hand drop-down menu. ‍ Let’s use the same example with the primary dimension set to Language as part of the GEO funnel. Step 2 Rather than select one of the predefined dimensions, scroll down to Custom Dimensions. The dimensions that you’ve set up in the 8-step process to create custom dimensions will appear here. ‍ In the example, we chose the Sales region as the Custom Dimension. ‍ ‍Google Analytics Demo Now you’ll be able to view this custom dimension (in blue) alongside one of the standard dimensions (in red) that you already have selected, as depicted below. ‍ Google Analytics Demo‍ ‍ This custom dimension helps you understand in which sales region a particular product is most popular. What is the difference between Dimensions and metrics? In all Google Analytics Reports, Metrics are quantitative measurements and Dimensions are the labels used to describe them. ‍ ‍Google Analytics Demo To put it simply, Metrics are always expressed by numbers (number values,

Google Analytics is a free tool used by businesses to provide insight into who visits their site and what they do there. While a Google Analytics account provides amazingly rich data, you may not always know how to turn the data into actionable steps. This is a real shame, as the insights it provides could mean the difference between an okay site or ad campaign, and an outstanding one that keeps visitors returning for more (or even better, one that results in hard-earned sales). So, this article will answer a few important questions: What is a metric in Google Analytics?  What are some of the most important metrics that I can track? How do these metrics help me with my site performance? ‍ Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels ‍ What is Metrics in Google Analytics?  Every report in Google Analytics is made up of both Metrics and Dimensions.  Metrics are quantitative measurements. Anything that can be measured with a number is a metric in a Google Analytics report. For example, the number of visitors, the average time spent on the site, or the number of pages they visited. Dimensions, on the other hand, organize all these numerical data into categories. An example of this would be the browser, location, or language of traffic to your site. Dimensions are always expressed in non-numerical terms. Primary dimensions are default dimensions automatically added by Google Analytics. You can also add a secondary dimension to narrow your results into smaller categories. How Many Metrics Should I Track? According to supermetrics.com, there are about 500 metrics and dimensions that can be tracked on Google Analytics. But wait, no need to panic! The good news is that not every metric needs to be used to have a successful digital marketing campaign. Each business is different and the metrics you choose to track should be customized to suit your needs. For this reason, we will look at only the Top 10 Metrics we believe every small to medium size business should track. But first, let’s briefly discuss the 4 main categories or reports provided by Google Analytics. Photo by Lukas from Pexels ‍ The 4 Main Categories of Google Analytics Metrics Audience – These user metrics help you understand who your audience is. Acquisition – This is the kind of metric that will help you understand how someone got to your site. Behavior – This metric allows you to determine what users do on your site. Conversions – These metrics track your goals. How many users clicked on that link, signed up for the newsletter, or viewed the discounted deal at the end of the page. Top 10 Google Analytics Metrics for SEO & Ad Campaigns Here are the 10 most relevant Google Analytics metrics that you should be tracking, which category they belong to, and a definition or suggestions on how to analyze them. 1. Number of Users (Audience) Overview: Dashboard → Audience → Overview Definition: This metric tracks how many people visited your website over a specific date range. Why Is This Metric Important? It helps you gauge how successful your marketing efforts are at attracting new and returning visitors. Depending on the type of site you have, repeat visitors are very important. On a blog site, for example, returning visitors show that people find your content engaging and want to read more. How Do I Improve This Metric? Advertise using paid methods, like Google or Facebook Ads Post content on Social media sites like Facebook or Linkedin Encourage first-time visitors to sign up for a newsletter. A monthly newsletter is a subtle reminder that you exist and encourages visitors to return. 2. Demographics  (Audience) Overview: Dashboard → Audience → Overview Definition: This metric tells you more about your visitors by age and gender. Why Is This Metric Important? Knowing your audience helps you to direct your marketing efforts to the right platforms where they spend most of their on-screen time. How Do I Improve This Metric? If most users are over 50, consider using larger text and making your website easier to navigate If most users are in their early 20s, you may choose to use platforms like Instagram or TikTok for paid advertising 3. Average Session Duration (Audience) Overview Dashboard → Audience → Overview In-depth Analysis: Dashboard → Audience → Behavior → Engagement Definition: This metric tracks the average time a user spends on a website in any single session. The period begins when the user enters the website to either the point they leave or after 30 minutes of inactivity. ‍ Note though that page time is only included if the user moves on to another page on the same website. So a user may spend 10 minutes on the first page, but if they don’t move to another page, the session time = 0.00 (these are considered as bounced sessions). In the same way, the time spent on the last page they visit is also omitted. ‍ There are ways around this, but If nothing else, listen to the experts who say a good average session duration should be between 2-3 minutes.  Why Is This Metric Important? If the average session duration is low, this is an indication that either visitors are not finding what they are looking for, your site provides a bad user experience, or lacks engaging content. How Do I Improve This Metric? Add videos to your website pages to keep users there for longer Provide links to other pages of your site Using images to break up huge chunks of text will make the article easier to read 4. Average Pages per Session (Audience) Overview: Dashboard → Audience → Overview In-depth Analysis: Dashboard → Audience → Behavior → Session Quality ‍ Definition: This refers to the average number of individual pages viewed in a single session. This metric is calculated by dividing the number of page views by the total number of sessions. Why Is This Metric Important? If visitors view several pages per session,

What Referral Traffic Is In Google Analytics Have you ever felt lost in the labyrinth of Google Analytics, especially when trying to pinpoint exactly where your traffic is coming from? Navigating the maze of menus and options can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack, leaving you frustrated and unsure if you’re making the most of your traffic data. According to Google, Referral traffic is identified as visitors that arrive at your site from direct links on other websites rather than directly or through searches. Referral traffic is crucial yet often misunderstood. Many marketers share this common predicament, struggling to translate referral traffic into actionable insights. That’s where Abralytics can come in—offering a streamlined, user-friendly alternative that simplifies your analytics needs. Understanding Referral Traffic: Why It Matters Referral traffic isn’t just another metric in Google Analytics; it’s a window into the effectiveness of your online partnerships and the external perceptions of your brand. Recognizing the sources that bring visitors to your site can help you identify which partnerships are fruitful and which platforms you might be overlooking. Here’s what we’ll cover to demystify referral traffic and maximize its potential: Definition and Importance: What referral traffic is and why it should matter to you. Identifying Referral Sources: How to find and analyze your referral traffic data in Google Analytics. Leveraging Referral Traffic: Strategies to optimize and increase traffic from referrals. Abralytics Advantage: How Abralytics simplifies tracking and enhances the insights from referral traffic. Next, we’ll dive into the core of referral traffic, starting with its fundamental definition and importance. You’ll learn not just to track but also to leverage this data to forge stronger relationships and boost your digital marketing strategy. Understanding Referral Traffic: Definition and Why It’s Crucial Many marketers overlook referral traffic, focusing instead on direct visits or search engine traffic. However, understanding where your visitors come from can reveal which external sites are boosting your traffic and which might be leeching your credibility without providing value. Here’s how to make the most of this data: Start by filtering your Google Analytics to view referral traffic sources. This gives you a clear picture of which websites link to your page and how their audiences engage with your content. This information is vital for recognizing high-value partnerships. For instance, a high number of visitors from a niche blog could indicate a strong alignment with that audience, suggesting potential for deeper collaboration or targeted content. Evaluate the quality of traffic from each referral source based on metrics like session duration, bounce rate, and conversions. This assessment helps you distinguish between sources that drive engaged visitors and those that don’t. Create a simple dashboard in Google Analytics to track these metrics regularly, allowing you to quickly spot trends and adjust your strategy accordingly. Use the data to tweak existing campaigns or to inspire new initiatives. For example, if a particular referral source regularly leads to high conversions, consider investing more in similar channels or exploring co-marketing opportunities. A/B testing different referral strategies can help refine what works best for your audience, potentially increasing both traffic and conversion rates. Referral traffic isn’t just a metric to monitor; it’s a strategic tool that, when understood and utilized properly, can significantly enhance your online presence and marketing effectiveness. ‍ Identifying Referral Sources: Navigating Google Analytics Uncovering where your referral traffic originates can seem daunting, but it’s a crucial step in harnessing the full potential of your digital strategy. Here’s how you can effectively identify and evaluate your referral sources: Source: Google Analytics Demo Account Begin by accessing the ‘Acquisition’ section in Google Analytics, then navigate to ‘Traffic Acquisition’ and search ‘Referral’. This report lists the domains that have sent traffic to your website, providing a straightforward view of your referral landscape. Viewing this data allows you to see not just who is sending traffic, but also how much they’re sending, which can be pivotal in assessing the value of your external relationships. For each referral source, analyze key metrics such as page views, average session duration, and bounce rates. These indicators help determine the engagement and quality of the traffic coming from each referring site. You could use a visualization, like a heatmap, to quickly identify which sources are most valuable based on engagement metrics. This visual tool highlights areas of success and opportunities for improvement. Identifying and analyzing your referral sources in Google Analytics allows you to not only understand where your traffic comes from but also how to engage these visitors effectively. By focusing on data-driven insights, you can optimize your marketing efforts to leverage the most beneficial partnerships and channels. ‍ Leveraging Referral Traffic: Enhancing Your Marketing Strategy Once you understand where your referral traffic is coming from and how it behaves on your site, the next step is leveraging this information to optimize your marketing efforts. Here’s how you can actively use referral data to boost your traffic and conversions: Identify which referral sources bring the most valuable traffic—those with high engagement and conversion rates—and focus on building stronger relationships with these partners. This might involve more collaborative content, joint promotions, or shared campaigns. Consider reaching out to these partners for guest blogging opportunities or joint webinars, which can further engage their audience and bring more qualified traffic to your site. Analyze the content preferences of visitors from different referral sources and tailor your content to better suit their interests. This targeted approach can significantly increase relevancy and engagement. If visitors from a particular tech blog engage more with your software tutorials, consider creating more content in this vein or even developing specific features or services based on this feedback. Optimize the paths that visitors take once they arrive via referral links. Ensure that the landing pages are highly relevant and offer clear, actionable information aligned with the interests of the referral traffic. You might create customized landing pages for visitors from specific referral sources. These pages could highlight information or offers that are especially relevant to that

Whatever your industry – healthcare, automotive, travel, or beyond – Analytics can help you get a better understanding of your client behaviour and will help improve your ROI. Surprisingly, many websites with Google Analytics installed don’t have their Goals set up. In this article, we’ll take you through the goals available in Google Analytics and how to use them. We’re excited to share with you everything you need to know about GA Goals and to improve your online business with data-driven decisions. Let’s get started! First, What are Google Analytics Goals? Goals in Google Analytics help you track the different actions performed by users on your website. These actions include visiting a page, submitting a form, buying a product, etc. They also measure the conversion rates of certain goals you set in place. Tracking website goals that are aligned with your business goals can help you understand your marketing effectiveness and profitability. This means, before you can determine the effectiveness of your goals, you first have to determine the kind of actions you want your website visitors to make. Do you want them to make a purchase? To watch a video? Or perhaps to request a quote? These goals are trackable in Analytics. Just click the “Admin” tab. In the View column, click “Goals.” They can be applied to know how many pages users view in a session, the specific pages they visit, or the events they trigger while on your website. Read on to know which goals are available in Google Analytics. Where to Find Google Analytics Goals (Setting Up Your Goals) 1. Go to Google Analytics standard reports 2. In the top right portion, click the “Admin” button 3. Click on “Goals” 4. To set your Goal sets, click “+ New Goal” or Import from Gallery so you can create a new goal. You can also click on an existing goal and simply edit its configuration. The Three Basic Options for Creating Goals in Google Analytics Creating Custom Goals Creating Smart Goals Using a Goal template If you choose option 3. That is, using a Goal template, just select a template from the list and click “Next Step” so you continue setting up your goal. The templates available in Google analytics will help you set actionable goals that follow the standard business objectives. Before saving one goal, you can edit any template field, such as Engagement, Inquiry, Acquisition, or Revenue. Here’s a complete breakdown of the Google Analytics goals you want to build so you can start tracking the metrics that will lead to the success of your business! 5 Google Analytics Goal Types That Are Important To Your Business 1. Destination Goals Destination goals allow you to track users whenever they land on a specific page on your website. Simply enter the URL of any page as your goal and GA will track it as a conversion whenever someone visits that page! Simple, isn’t it? But, how is this destination goal useful for you? Well, this is perfect for tracking how many visitors land on your order confirmation pages, thank you pages, or add-to-cart pages, to name a few. For example, you have a Thank You page on your website. This is the page that a visitor sees after they signed up for your email newsletter. If you set up a destination goal for this URL, you can see the number of people who have subscribed to your newsletter by simply counting the page views. Setting the Destination Goal As you set up the destination goal, there are different settings you can change. First, match the URL type and select from the following: Begins with – If you have more than one page to track, then use Begins with to track all your links. This is also best to use if you have set up custom URLs with UTM tags or codes for your campaigns. Equals to – If you have a specific page to track, then you can select Equals to then add the web address (www.example.com/order-completed  or /order-completed, for tracking. Regular expression – This provides more flexibility when it comes to defining URLs and is ideal if you want to specify segments, filters, UTM codes, subdomains, and more by yourself. Case Sensitive If uppercase or lowercase characters in your URL go to more than one page, make sure to check the case-sensitive box. Usually, it is best to leave this box unchecked. Goal Funnels In URL Destination Goals, this part is useful as it allows you to see how many people move through every step of the marketing process. You will know which page needs fixing, how many people abandon the funnel at a certain step, and many more. A funnel is a series of web pages that lead up to the goal destination. For instance, it may include steps in your eCommerce website’s checkout process that lead to the Thank You page (or goal). But be careful with goal funnels. That’s because they only work when you need your visitors to move through a series of web pages. Keep in mind that visitors seldom follow a clear path when visiting a website. So, creating a goal funnel may not help your business make sense of how visitors are moving from one page to another. Also, Google Analytics tracks visitors in the funnel by default even if people jump into the middle. There you go! Once you have selected the URL match for your destination goal, you may also assign a monetary value for conversion. You can do that in the Value option. This is best for eCommerce websites so it’s easy to track purchases. Once you verified a destination goal and are satisfied with all the settings, click the “Save” button. 2. Duration Goals Duration goals allow you to determine how much time visitors are spending on your website. These goals are useful if you want to track user engagement. For instance, you can see how many users actually stay on the site

So you’ve finally managed to differentiate your metrics from dimensions, and sessions from web page views. And now you’re scratching your head wondering what on earth a Google Analytics hit is? Fear not, the Abralytics team has come to the rescue once again. In this article, we’ll consider the following: What is a Google Analytics hit? What are the 7 categories of hits sent to the Google Analytics servers? Is there such a thing as a hit limit? Where do you find the number of hits sent from your website, blog, or app? ‍ Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels ‍ What Is a Hit in Google Analytics? A hit is any interaction between a user and your website. Google Analytics can monitor this data by attaching a tracking code to website pages. When a tracking code is triggered, a “hit” is sent to Google Analytics servers which in turn analyzes them and turns them into useful reports. Your unique tracking code will need to be added to the HTML of your website. To find your code, open up Google Analytics→Admin→Tracking info→Tracking code The Seven Hits Tracked by Google Analytics Source: Abralytics‍ ‍ * The Social Interaction & E-commerce hits will need to be set up in Google Analytics. Social Interaction: Acquisition → Social → Plug-ins  E-commerce: Admin → Ecommerce settings ‍ What Are Google Analytics Hit Limits? ‍ Photo by Mikael Blomkvist from Pexels The free version of Google Analytics limits the number of hits which can be processed per  property (property is a website, blog, or app). Property limit – 10 million hits per property per month Session user limit – 500 hits per session User level limit – 200,000 hits per day per user Timing hit limit (include site speed hits) – 10,000 hits or 1% of the total number of page views per day Concurrent limit – Limits the number of hits that can be sent concurrently and differs according to the tracker used. Wait, What Happens When I’ve Reached My Hit Limit? Once the limits are reached, Google Analytics will likely implement client sampling to reduce the amount of data sent to Google Analytics, as well as request you to sign up for the paid version called Google Analytics 360.  At this stage, you either settle for less than perfect data taken from samples, fork out a lot of money for the paid version, or will need to consider using an alternative web analytic software. How Can I See the Total Hits on My Property? Because there are limitations, it’s great to know how many hits are taking place on your website or app and plan accordingly. These numbers can easily be found if you open up Google Analytics, click on Admin → Property Settings → Property Hit Volume Source: Google Analytics demo version I’m Still Lost – Is There a Simpler Alternative to Google Analytics? Absolutely! If you’re done with the jargon and complicated reports, consider signing up for Abralytics. It’s easy to install and delivers all the relevant information 20% of the time. A simple report is conveniently delivered to your inbox either daily, weekly, or monthly.

  What is Website Traffic? Website traffic refers to the users that visit a Website. Each time a user arrives on one of your landing pages, it is counted as a visitor to your site.  ‍ These visits are often spoken of as sessions in Google Analytics. Why it’s important to Track Website Traffic Your website traffic is a good indicator of the overall success of your site. The higher the traffic, the more potential you have for conversions.  ‍ On the other hand, if your website’s traffic is low, you might want to focus more on your SEO efforts to try up the visitors to your website. ‍ Keeping a close eye on the different metrics of website traffic will tell you what people are looking for on your pages and allow you to tailor your content to suit their needs. ‍ Not paying attention to your website traffic could be likened to a shop owner not caring about the empty seats and deserted tables in his coffee shop.  ‍ If he doesn’t pick up on what prevents people from entering his shop, he could suffer great financial loss. ‍ No patrons = No Sales Key metrics to Track Website Traffic When you think about measuring website traffic, there are a few essential metrics in website analytics you want to examine closely. These metrics will also tell you much about user behavior or how people interact with your pages. Total visits Sessions or visits are metrics used to estimate the total number of times someone visits your website and navigates around it.  ‍ These are critical metrics, especially in digital marketing. That’s because they are used along with the conversion rate to measure an online store’s performance. ‍ If you use a Google Analytics Account to analyze your website traffic, this metric will be tracked by default and displayed on the dashboard, as seen in the screenshot below. ‍   GA Dashboard‍ ‍ Although the metric appears as default, it can also be adjusted when navigating to Audience > Overview. That will allow users to compare Sessions with other metrics, such as the bounce rate. ‍ Google Analytics logs a session from the moment a user interacts with a website and stops counting the session after 30 minutes of inactivity with the website. Pages per visit This is a good metric to gauge how engaging your website is to visitors. ‍ When a visitor arrives on a landing page, it could be seen as only the first step of the desired response.  ‍ Abralytics have a nice way of displaying page views using a line chart, as seen below. ‍   Abralytics Demo‍ ‍ Users can see the Total Page Views in a separate tab, or view a breakdown of page views by the pre-determined time, whether by day, week, or month. ‍ Why is it important to know how many pages are viewed each visit? ‍ Well, you want conversions, don’t you? ‍ You want people to scroll through various pages of your product line, not just visit one page and then move on to a different website. ‍ Therefore, if you see that the pages per visit metric is too low, you could adjust the way they navigate through your site. Perhaps building internal links would help with the conversion rates.  ‍ The more pages visited per session, the higher the probability of generating revenue. Average visit duration DataBox says a good average session duration is anything above three minutes. (2) ‍ This metric will tell how long, on average, your visitors are staying on your website. You can’t improve average visit duration with catchy titles or marketing campaigns. ‍ To improve your visit duration metric, you’ll need to ensure that your content grabs enough attention the keep users interested if you want them to stay on a web page for longer. ‍ There’s also something to say about the format of your content. Short paragraphs make it easier for site visitors to stay engaged, while interesting photos break up the monotony of longer pieces. ‍ You could also add videos to your pages that people find interesting and informative to watch. You can also toggle your Analytics report to display how much time visitors spend on each page. Bounce rate Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who leave the site after viewing only one page. ‍ This metric is only important if you have a site that requires visitors to move from one page to the next and not if your website consists of one scrollable page. ‍ Bounce rates could indicate that visitors aren’t finding the information they are looking for or find the site frustrating to use. ‍ So, what is a reasonable bounce rate for my site? ‍ Semrush addressed this question in a recent blog post, citing: ‍ “A bounce rate of 56% to 70% is on the high side, although there could be a good reason for this, and 41% to 55% would be considered an average bounce rate. An optimal bounce rate would be in the 26% to 40% range.”  (4) ‍ If you want to improve the bounce rate on your site, you should ensure that the pages people visit meet their expectations. When a user visits a page and finds what they’re looking for, they’ll be more likely to navigate through your site rather than click away. ‍ By monitoring the bounce rate metric, we can get a good idea of the user behavior, identifying what people are interested in or not. Traffic sources This metric measures which sources are driving traffic to your website.  ‍ Different channels fall under this metric, namely: Direct traffic: These are visitors to your site that arrive by typing your website directly into their browser Referral traffic: Visitors that visit your website from another website Organic Search traffic: Visitors that click on your website by searching a keyword in a search engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) Paid search traffic:

There are over a hundred metrics that you can look up on Google Analytics to get an idea of how well your website is performing. ‍ While it’s impossible to keep an eye on all of them, you must pay attention to the crucial ones. ‍ But what are the most important KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to track on Google Analytics? ‍ Read on as we get you through everything you need about them, including: ‍ What are KPIs? What are the 5 most critical KPIs to track? How can you improve each KPI? FAQs ‍ What Are Google Analytics KPIs? ‍ ‍Source: Google Analytics Dashboard ‍ Google Analytics KPIs are metrics that tell us about a website’s performance. They help monitor and analyze your visitors’ actions and give critical insights into what works and what doesn’t on your site. ‍ As a digital marketer, Google Analytics KPIs can show you the part of your marketing funnel that needs tweaking for better conversion. ‍ They include Bounce Rate, Number of Sessions and Users, Pageview & Unique Pageview, Pages per Session, Organic vs. Paid Session, Cost Per Acquisition, Top Landing Pages, etc. Top 5 Most Important Google Analytics KPIs 1. Bounce Rate ‍ ‍Source: hotjar.com  ‍ Do you want to know if your website meets the needs of its users? Or how many users leave your landing pages without engaging your content further?  ‍ One excellent way to do this is to check your bounce rate. What Is A Bounce? ‍ A bounce occurs when a website visitor lands on a page and does nothing else before exiting. ‍ That is, the website user does not trigger any request to the Google Analytics server before leaving the page. ‍ A bounce is also known as a single-page session. ‍ For example, when a new user visits your website homepage from a search engine and does nothing else like click on an internal link or interact with your content significantly before they exit. Then, you can say the user ‘bounced’ from your website. What Is Bounce Rate in Google Analytics? ‍ The bounce rate in Google Analytics indicates the number of sessions that result in a bounce. In other words, it tells you how many sessions start and end on the same page. How To Calculate Bounce Rate For A Website And Web Pages ‍ The bounce rate for a website is the ratio of the number of single-page sessions (bounces) to the total number of sessions. ‍ Website Bounce Rate = the number of single-page sessions (bounces)/ total number of sessions. ‍ For example, if your website has 100 sessions in total and the number of single-page sessions is 10. Then, the bounce rate for your website is 10%. ‍ For a page, the same rule applies. But let’s define the bounce rate for a page. ‍ The bounce rate for a page is the ratio of the number of single-page sessions (bounces) that start and end on the page to the total number of sessions that continue from the page. ‍ Page Bounce Rate = the number of single-page sessions (bounces) on the page/ total number of sessions starting from the page. Is the Bounce Rate the same as the Exit Rate? ‍ No, while bounce rate measures ONLY single-page sessions, exit rate covers how often visitors exit after viewing any number of pages. Why Is Bounce Rate Important? ‍ Bounce rate helps you understand how users interact with the individual pages on your website so you can make better marketing decisions and decide which pages to optimize. ‍ Moreover, bounce rate provides information about your landing page to determine if you need to invest resources on a new page or optimize your existing page for a better user experience. ‍ Also, bounce rate by any browser is another key metric that tells you how your website behaves on various browsers. If your website has an issue with a browser version, it will affect your overall conversion rate and the time users spend on your page. How To Reduce Your Bounce Rate ‍ In Google Analytics, a high bounce rate does not necessarily mean your website is not doing great. However, here are some measures to take to reduce your website’s bounce rate: ‍ Improved Page Load Time ‍ The page load time of your website is key to determining if a user will stay on your website or leave without interacting with your content. ‍ For example, if a website visitor has to wait for too long (more than three seconds) before viewing your content, there is a high chance of bouncing due to a poor user experience. ‍ Make Navigation Easy ‍ Visitors should be able to navigate the site easily. ‍ There should be a sense of direction in the organization of the pages of your website and the contents. Have a  simple navigation menu, an internal search function and create a site map for your visitors. 2. Goal Conversion Rate ‍ ‍‍Source: hotjar.com   Do users carry out the desired target action? Are you wondering why some users do and others don’t?  ‍ You can find the answers to these questions with the goal conversion rate. First, let’s define goals, goal conversion, and goal conversion rate. What Are Goals? ‍ Goals are target actions you intend for your website visitors, like sign-ups, purchases, adds-to cart, etc. Hence, every website must have one or more clearly defined goals. What Is Goal Conversion? ‍ Goal conversion, on the other hand, occurs when your web users carry out the desired target actions. That is, it happens when your visitors complete a goal. For example, when they sign up for a newsletter, purchase, add a product to a cart, etc. What Is Goal Conversion Rate? ‍ Goal conversion rate is the ratio of the number of completed goals (goal conversion) to the total number of sessions in percentage. The goal conversion rate tells you the number of completed target

You’ve done it! Hours and hours of work have finally come to an end and your brand new website or mobile app is now live. Much like a first-time parent, you want to show off your new ‘baby.’ But will this pride and joy of yours truly be successful? And how will visitors engage with your site? Are the clicking points too tricky for them to find? Do they scroll down to the desired point on a page? Are users navigating between pages in the way you intended them? These interactions are known as events in Google Analytics. Granted, there are many different kinds of events, but in this article, we’re talking about button clicks when we refer to events. Web developers and business owners need to know the answers to the questions mentioned above. You see, understanding the success rate of these events helps you build a strong, reliable website that users find easy to navigate and achieves the desired result. Before we discuss tracking button clicks, let’s first figure a few things out: Is there any other software that I need to familiarize myself with before I can track button clicks? What are some examples of button clicks that can be followed? Which of these events or buttons are the most important ones I should follow? How do I start tracking them? So then, let’s begin with familiarizing ourselves with the software. Google Tag Manager Source: Pexels.com‍ Google tag manager is a Tag Management System (TMS) developed by Google and originally released in 2012. At the time of writing, the most up-to-date paid version of this software is Tag Manager 360, while the free version, Google Tag Manager, would be more suitable for small businesses. This software allows users to configure and immediately use tags on a given website. The free Google Tag Manager account boasts multi-user support, rule-based triggers, and support for Google and Non-Google Tags. However, it has a limit of three workspaces available for simultaneous tagging projects. Take the time to read about tag manager and study its features before setting up your event tracking parameters. (1) Pro tip: Tag manager works best when used in conjunction with Google Chrome, so make sure you adjust your browser settings if needed. What are some button clicks that I could track with Google tag manager? Source: Pexels.com‍ Depending on the nature of your business and the design of your website or app, there will be various button clicks available for tracking. If you have an e-commerce web page, you will focus your button tracking on call-to-action events. You want to track how many users follow through with a purchase or how far they browse on your site before they lose interest. Name your buttons appropriately – Add to cart / Get it now / Subscribe / Book Now / Submit button. By using the tag configuration setting in your Tag Manager, you’d be able to name each button click and understand your website visitors better. Not all websites would be tracking the same user clicks. That is because pages and apps are designed with different reasons in mind. A blog post geared heavily toward advertising would be tracking outbound link clicks or perhaps file downloads. You’d also want to track video engagement so you could set up an event tag that would let you know which video’s have success on your page and adjust accordingly. Source: Pexels.com ‍ How do I set up the tracking? Once you’re familiar with the Google Tag Manager, you can use it to track your button clicks. It’s a bit of a process to set it up, but the same steps are used for any new tag or click event you’ll set up in the future, so it’s not too painful. Here’s a step-by-step guide. Enable click variables in Google Tag Manager Once you’ve logged in to your Google Tag Manager workspace, navigate to variables and click on configure. Tag manager has a selection of built-in variables to choose from and they will appear on the pop-up page. For example, you can choose from any or all of the following: Click element Click Classes Click ID Click Target Click Url Click Test Pay attention to your selection here, as Tag Manager uses this to identify the click parameters for each button you intend to track. Configure Click elements as Triggers You now need to configure these click elements to create a trigger. Do that by navigating to triggers in your tag manager workspace. Click on add new trigger, select all elements and click on all clicks. It’s helpful to select all clicks at this stage, even though you won’t necessarily want to track all button clicks during your data sampling in Google Analytics. This is because you need to first identify the unique parameters of the individual button you intend to track. You can come back to this step later on and adjust as needed. Set a variable for the button click to be tracked Google tag manager workspace will now give you the option to preview the changes you’ve just made. Preview mode is a convenient feature in Tag Manager as it allows you to browse a site and preview all the changes you’ve made before you hit save and the changes are published. You can then use this debugging feature to inspect the order in which your tags fired. So, click on preview and then enter your domain URL values to begin the debugger. Your set button will then appear in the domain tab. Click on it. Once you click on it, you will see the debugger running. The debugger will then monitor all actions performed by the trigger fires. The intention of this exercise is to find and set parameters for each button click. Source: Pexels.com ‍ Adjust the trigger accordingly in Tag Manager Think of these triggers as listening to your website. It detects specific actions like submissions, button clicks, and page views. The trigger will then