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Both Matomo and Open Web Analytics are web analytics tools and rival Google Analytics in one way or another. And while there are several similarities between these platforms, most importantly, both are Open Source Software. (1) This article will give you an honest evaluation of these two platforms and highlight 7 key features that you should be interested in when choosing your Web Analytics tool, namely: Integration Data Privacy Lightweight Script Ease of use Capability Price Free Trial Period A brief overview of Open web Analytics (OWA) Open Web Analytics (OWA) is a popular open-source Web Analytics Framework (2) that can enable a person to track user interactions with your website or applications. ‍ It uses simple Javascript and PHP APIs to add web analytics to sites. A relatively small company that supports tracking with WordPress (3) and MediaWiki (4), both very popular website frameworks. A brief overview of Matomo Matomo was started in 2007 and was originally named PIWIK. The company was launched and based on the concept of providing free software to users. ‍ Matomo means honesty in Japanese and is an all-in-one open-source analytics platform. ‍ Used by over 1.4 million Websites in more than 190 countries and accessible in more than 50 different languages. Matomo vs. Web Analytics – 7 Key Features Integration. How well do these analytics tools work with the mainstream platforms out there, such as Wix, WordPress, and Shopify? Ask yourself:  Will my chosen Analytics platform play well with others? Will it be difficult to get it to talk to my website framework? ‍ If your web analytics tool doesn’t ‘speak’ to your website or applications, you’ll never be able to measure the success of your site accurately, which could be costly for your business. Matomo Integration ‍ Matamo easily integrates with over 100 different technologies, including Content Managing Systems, Online Shops, Forums, and Frameworks. ‍ This means that if you choose to use Matomo Analytics, the chances are excellent that you’ll be able to analyze website traffic, regardless of the operating system you use. ‍ OWA Integration ‍ Although Open Web Analytics can track and analyze site visitor interaction on any website framework, its support is focused mainly on WordPress and MediaWiki content managing systems. Data sharing Source: Pexels.com‍ ‍ An appropriate alternative heading could easily have been “The cookie issue.” No jokes. ‍ Cookies are files that are created by sites and apps you visit. These files contain bits of personal information such as a Username and Password. ‍ When a user allows cookies, they permit the website owners to streamline their browsing experience by using the stored information to tailor it to your preferences. ‍ But this presents a lucrative financial opportunity to retailers, as they will pay good money to know what people are most interested in. ‍ Google Analytics, for example, tracks the following information as default: -Browser and device information – Mobile vs. Desktop -Referring Website Details – The link or keyword that brought you to a site -Session statistics – Pages view and duration -Approximate geolocation – Town, City, and Country Why cookies can be dangerous First-party cookies are created by the website you’re visiting, while Third-party cookies are created by websites you aren’t necessarily browsing. They are usually associated with the adverts that are displayed on web pages. ‍ This means that your personal data, such as Usernames and Passwords, are recorded and stored in different files, vulnerable to leaks and cyber attacks. ‍ Because of these concerns, there are privacy regulations in place that govern how websites and apps use your data. ‍ So, how do these analytics tools view data ownership? Matomo on Data Privacy Matomo promises 100% data ownership, meaning that your data won’t be shared by any other party for their own advertising purposes. OWA on Data Privacy While not able to directly verify Open Web Analytics views on data sharing, one report (5) suggests that they use cookies on websites where their program has been installed. The Need for Speed Source: Pexels.com‍ ‍ The time a page takes to load directly impacts whether or not visitors will be returning to that site. Everything in the world is so fast-paced and that split-second delay could cause people to click away. ‍ Needless to say then, your Web Analytics tool needs to perform at least as fast as the industry-leading Google Analytics, or simply leave it in the dust. ‍ The faster the loading time, the better for your business. Have a look at this article for an in-depth discussion on How Website Performance Affects Conversions. ‍ As a reference, here are the tracking file sizes of two other Web Analytics tools on the market, Google Analytics, and Abralytics: ‍ Google Analytics uses the Google Tag Manager as a way of integrating their Analytics platform into a site and adds 28KB to your site. This script then downloads another JavaScript file called the Google Analytics Tag with an additional 17.7KB. ‍ That’s a total script size of 45.7kb! ‍ Abralytics boasts a lightweight script and uses a Javascript file that is only 3KB in size. This makes it a Google Analytics alternative that guarantees faster page load speeds. ‍ So, how does the code affect the load speed of the two Web Analytics platforms in question? Matomo Load Speed Matomo.js adds 22.8 KB to the page size of your website. Smaller than Google Analytics, but still large enough to possibly slow your site down. ‍ Matomo has, however, tried to address earlier issues regarding load speed. They offer plug-ins and on-site support to help with faster loading times, but reports (6) suggest that it is still an issue for some clients. ‍ Source: Pexels.com‍ ‍ OWA Load Speed OWA uses simple JavaScript, PHP, or REST-based APIs to add tracking code to your site. ‍ The impact on load speed depends on the type of tracking required and which plug-in is used when installing the tracking code to your website. Usability Who

Is it time to declutter your Google Analytics dashboard? Perhaps you’re still seeing data from your college buddy’s blog about homemade sports shakes or the website you created thinking you’ll make millions from a grooming service for Chihuahuas. You may even be a marketing guru handling reports for multiple companies and it’s time to delete property from old clients. ‍ In this article, we will tell you step-by-step how to delete a property in Google Analytics. Fear not! I’m pleased to report the process is quite simple. But first things first… What is a property in Google Analytics? ‍ Graphic created in Canva ‍ A Google Analytics property is a website, blog or mobile application that has a unique Tracking ID in Google Analytics. Google uses this code to track user activity on that particular property to compile useful reports. ‍ How many properties can I add to a Google Analytics account? Each Google Analytics account can have up to 100 properties and each property can have up to 25 views ‍ How to delete a Google Analytics property: Step 1: You must be assigned the role as an Editor to move property to the Trash Can. To check your permissions: Click Admin In the Account column, click Account Access Settings Step 2: Select the property you want to delete from the drop down menu (see screenshot below) Step 3: Click Admin (located at the bottom left hand side of the screen and represented by a cog symbol) Step 3: The second column on the page is the Property Column. Click on Property Settings Step 4: Click Move to Trash Can Step 5: A confirmation screen will appear. Click to confirm and you’ll receive an email from Google informing you that the property was successfully moved into the Trash Can. I made a mistake! Can I restore property once deleted? You can breathe a sigh of relief! Property moved to the Trash Can will stay there for 35 days. After 35 days, however, it will be impossible to undo or retrieve any data attached to the property. While in the Trash Can, no data processing will take place until about 1 hour after the property has been restored. ‍ How to restore a Google Analytics property: ‍ Sign in to Google Analytics Click Admin. In the ACCOUNT column, click Trash Can. Locate the property you wish to restore Click Restore. Photo by Lay Low ‍ How to delete a property from Google Analytics 4: Sign into your Google Analytics account Click Admin In the Property column, select the property you want to delete. In the Property column, click Property Settings. Click Move to Trash Can (next to “Move property”, at upper right of Account Settings screen). How to restore a property on Google Analytics 4: Sign in to your Google Analytics account Click Admin. In the Account column, click Trash Can. Locate the item you want to restore by looking through the table Select the item, and click Restore. ‍ Wait! I heard that you cannot restore property deleted in GA4? Photo by Andrea Piacquadio ‍ Google Analytics 4 (GA4) differs from the standard Universal Google Analytics because it allows you to create so-called Data Streams. When you delete a data stream in GA4, that data is deleted permanently. However, when you move a property to the Trash Can, all the data streams go with it and can be restored if you wish to do so. So what is a data stream? Google defines it as: “A data stream is a flow of data from a customer touchpoint (e.g., app, website) to Analytics. When you create a data stream, Analytics generates a snippet of code that you add to your app or site to collect that data. Data is collected from the time you add the code, and that data forms the basis of your reports.” Final Thoughts Deleting a property in Google Analytics is a simple process. But not everything is quite as straightforward. If you need an easy to use analytics tool which gives you the most relevant data without the jargon, why not give Abralytics a try?

The simple answer to how Matomo compares to Plausible is this: ‍ Matomo is a web analytics tool with a full range of features, similar to Google Analytics. While Plausible is compact and offers the most essential metrics and reports. ‍ However, if you’re here for the meat and potatoes of this comparison, read on! ‍ Something special about both tools is that they’ve embraced open web analytics.  The source code is there for all to see and they encourage their community to get involved,  make improvements and share these with others. ‍ ‍ This article will discuss: ‍ Ease of use Script size Features Cookie Banners & Privacy Price Hosting Customer support ‍ Ease of use Matomo ‍ Source: Matomo‍ ‍ Most of Matomo’s clients report that it is easy to set up and use. Although, this is subjective. ‍ If you’ve been using Google Analytics for a few years and have experience with analytics tools in general, Matomo will be easy to use. ‍ If, on the other hand, you’re a newbie, you will soon find yourself overwhelmed by a large number of reports and mountains of data. ‍ But learning how to use Matomo skillfully just requires a bit of time and effort. If you’re willing to take on the learning curve, you’ll soon be navigating around Matomo like a pro. ‍ Plausible ‍ ‍Source: Plausible ‍ Plausible is a web analytics platform with a  much gentler learning curve. ‍ Their dashboard is simple with all the essential information presented to you on a single page.  With no additional menus or custom reports, you’ll be given all the data you need at a glance. ‍ Plausible analytics is also easy to set up and install. All you need to do is insert their javascript snippet on your site’s pages and it will start collecting info. ‍ Script size & how it affects your site Matomo ‍ The script size of the standard Matomo tracker is 22.8 KB. ‍ There are, however, a few ways you can load the website tracker quicker. (1) ‍ Configure your server so the matomo.js JavaScript tracker file will be cached once it has been loaded Enable GZIP Preload DNS and resource ‍ Plausible ‍ The script size of Plausible is less than 1 KB. ‍ Because it’s a far simpler platform, they can keep the size down and your website loading quicker. ‍ Why does script size matter? ‍ Well, how long are you willing to wait for a page to load while browsing? ‍ According to the stats, a 3-second delay is enough to make visitors press the dreaded back button. ‍ And page load speed is also a significant ranking factor for Google. Site speed could be the difference between you appearing on the first page of search, or not. ‍ Features Matomo ‍ Matomo analytics is not short on features. It is similar to Google Analytics and offers a huge amount of metrics, dimensions and reports. ‍ Here are some of the more unique features offered by Matomo: ‍ Heatmaps ‍ Source: Matomo‍ ‍ Many website owners find it hard to make sense of numbers and percentages. But Heatmaps give you a visual representation of where your visitor’s clicked, spent time and scrolled. ‍ They let you know how engaging your content is, where website visitors experience frustration and what content is grabbing their attention. ‍ SEO keywords ‍ With Matomo, you’ll get a complete list of keywords and phrases that users search for and that bought them to your site. ‍ The Combined Keywords report will give you: ‍ the number of clicks the number of impressions the ClickThrough rate the search result position ‍ Media Analytics ‍ Source: Pexels‍ ‍ In the words of Matomo, “If your business relies on potential customers to watch video or listen to audio content on your website, then you need to know your time and investment spent on creating your media content is paying off.” ‍ Media Analytics tell you how users are engaging with the video and audio files on your site. It tells you what content is being watched, how long it is played for and if it is converting into sales. A/B Testing ‍ A/B testing allows you to test different versions of your site’s pages to see which one leads to the most conversions. For each test, you define what your goals are. For example, to lower bounce rates or to increase the number of page views. ‍ No more guessing which font or CTA is better – You can now make design decisions based on facts. ‍ Plausible ‍ In the words of Plausible themselves, “We built a simple web analytics tool that is focused on the essential website stats and metrics only.” ‍ With Plausible you might not get all the bells and whistles, but you’ll get focused data that can easily be turned into actionable insights. ‍ Their data and reports include: ‍ Unique visitors Page views Bounce rate Most popular pages on your site Most popular sources of traffic Which country your visitors are coming from The devices, operating systems and browsers of website visitors ‍ But don’t underestimate this powerful platform just because it has fewer features. ‍ If you’re new to the world of analytics or simply don’t have the time to learn how to use advanced tools – then Plausible will be the better choice for you. ‍ No frills. No fuss. Cookie Banners & Privacy ‍Source: Pexels ‍ Matomo ‍ Before you go cookieless with Matomo, it will take some work to set it up. You’ll need to anonymize IP addresses, tracking data, location data and disable cookies. ‍ Matomo can be configured by site owners to comply with data protection laws, including GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, LGPD and PECR. ‍ It also comes with a range of advanced privacy features, namely: ‍ Users are not tracked across websites unless this feature is enabled You have 100% ownership of

Google Analytics is a great tool for tracking your website performance. It helps you gauge user interaction with your page or app. The data it provides can be a game-changer for your business. Needless to say, you want this information to be completely transparent and accurate. When you look at your data reports, you want to ensure that what you’re seeing is a true reflection of what is happening on your site. You need to consider blocking specific IP addresses from your google analytics data to achieve this. What is an IP address? Source:  Pexels.com ‍ IP addresses are to the world wide web what postal addresses are to the mailman. When sending a letter to a friend or family member, you include important information on the envelope. Street address, town, city, and zip code. Without this, your post is sure to land up in the bin. An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a series of numbers that allows you to communicate with the rest of the web. Without it, the websites you visit wouldn’t know where to send their data that enable you to view their site. An IP address is displayed as a series of numbers separated by a full stop. There are four number groupings in a series. Each number grouping in the series can be made up of a number ranging from 0 to 255. An example of what an IP address would look like is 196.138.1.28. Source: Pexels.com ‍ These numbers aren’t randomly selected. They are assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). So, when you travel from one place to another, it would be safe to assume that your IP address would also change, as you might be connecting to the world wide web from a cafe wifi router or hotel wifi. Can I stop my Google analytics account from tracking my IP address? The short answer is yes. If you’re using a Universal google analytics account, this will be phrased as IP Anonymization or IP masking. However, with Google analytics 4, this won’t even be necessary as your Google analytics account won’t even be tracking IP addresses. While it doesn’t happen immediately, Google analytics anonymizes your IP addresses as soon as possible. So, how do they do it? Google Analytics will take the last number grouped in an IP address and set them to zero shortly after receiving the data. This would, in effect, mean that the full IP address never gets written into your analytics account. Here’s a visual illustration of what your Google Analytics Account would do to the IP address we used earlier as an example -> 196.138.1.28. = 196.138.1.00. This process of IP anonymization takes place in two sectors of Google analytics, the Java Script tag and the Collection Network. Why would I want to exclude IP addresses? Earlier, we spoke of how important it is for you to receive transparent and accurate reports from your Analytics account. Now, imagine receiving your report and noticing outstanding metrics such as a high amount of page views, hundreds of ad clicks, and fantastic video interactions. You’d be over the moon, and rightly so. But what if you later found out that half of the data came from your staff or web developer, simply testing the site usability or scrolling through pages, tweaking their hard work. Website traffic by your employees is referred to as Internal traffic. Source: Pexels.com ‍ That would be pretty annoying. By masking specific IP addresses, you would be excluding internal traffic from your report. And as there are likely multiple team members working in a company or a site, you should probably apply this to multiple IP addresses. You would effectively filter out any Google analytics data that would cause an inaccurate report. Show me how to do it Depending on the nature of your business, you might want to exclude internal traffic from one or multiple IP addresses. Here’s a look at how to do it: Sign in to Google Analytics. Click on the Admin tab, and navigate to the view in which you want the filter to appear. Navigate to the View column and click on Filters Select Add filter type Click Create a new filter Enter a name for the filter. Select the Predefined filter type Select Exclude from the filter type menu. Select Traffic from the IP addresses in the Source or Destination menu. From the Select Expression menu, select ‘that are equal to’ Enter the IP address that you wish to filter Click Save If you want to exclude multiple IP addresses, you can simply repeat these steps and set up multiple filters. Tip: If you’re not sure what your IP address is, simply type the phrase ‘What is my IP address?’ into Google Search on the device you wish to exclude and it will be displayed in the results bar. Other reasons to set up an IP Filter Source: Pexels.com ‍ “Surveillance is the business model of the Internet” – Bruce Schneier, renowned security technologist. (1) We live in a world where security or a lack thereof is constantly a topic of discussion. People track who you are, where you are, and what you’re doing. The main difference between using a personal IP address from Google and a Public IP address is visibility. The latter leaves you way more exposed to the prying eyes of others as your information is far-reaching. For that reason, you may wish to use a VPN that will display the VPN server location rather than your actual geographical location. If security is a big thing for you or your company, why not check out Abralytics. Abralytics prides itself on putting users’ privacy first. They don’t sell personal information and have gotten rid of cookie banners, which means that they are completely compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and PECR straight out of the box. ‍ Further Reading: What is a metric? What kinds of hits does Google Analytics track? ‍ Sources: https://www.schneier.com ‍

No two data analytics tools are equal. Before making potentially costly decisions, you need to ensure you’ve found an analytics solution that is right for your company.  ‍ There are some critical factors to consider. The analytics solution must:  ‍ Match your business objectives Be cost-effective relative to your business size Support mutual integration with other tools in your Martech stack Offer advanced analytics features, if needed Have an intuitive user interface, and Be data privacy compliant.  ‍ Read on if you are looking for a top-notch tool and want an in-depth Mixpanel vs. Google Analytics comparison before making up your mind.  ‍ This article covers their comparative advantages, core differences and which is the best tool for your business. What Is Mixpanel?   ‍Source: Mixpanel Homepage ‍ Mixpanel helps track a visitor’s interaction with your digital properties, such as web and mobile applications. With this, you can analyze user behavior and enhance your app’s features and user experience. ‍ Some of the services provided by Mixpanel are creating user survey forms and in-app A/B tests. Unique visitors and customer reports can be created based on this data to monitor user interaction and retention. ‍ Some of the core features of Mixpanel are: ‍ Custom Alerts and iOS Apps Data Reporting and Synchronization  Funnel Visualization  Impact Report Generation  Segmentation and Group Analytics  What Is Google Analytics? ‍   ‍Source: GA Dashboard ‍ Google Analytics (GA) is the most widely used web analytics tool for collecting user data.  ‍ Essentially, GA lets you:  ‍ find out where your website gets the most visitors, evaluate the success of your marketing efforts and campaigns, discover patterns and trends in user interactions, and collect user data like gender and demographics. The Core Similarities Between Mixpanel And Google Analytics Data Visualization  ‍ Mixpanel and Google Analytics can help you create dashboards for tracking changes in traffic, conversions, funnels, segment trends, and other data visualization metrics.  ‍ Funnel Tracking  ‍ Both Mixpanel and Google Analytics feature funnel analysis. ‍ Funnel analysis helps to track users in a funnel-based model. It tells you how many users make it through each phase of the funnel while also showing problems and areas of improvement for better conversion.  ‍ Mixpanel funnels allow you to change data, show how users interacted with your website and segment reports based on your audience. Google Analytics enables you to collect data via multi-channel funnels.  Free & Paid Versions  ‍ Both Mixpanel and GA have free and paid versions. Mixpanel has three plans – Free, Growth, and Enterprise. On the other hand, Google Analytics has two versions  – Free and Google Analytics 360.  ‍ Mobile & Web Application Tracking   ‍ Google Analytics and Mixpanel have an event-based model for tracking users across mobile and web applications. So, you have total coverage for your audience in all your digital properties.    ‍Source: Pexels Cloud Hosting  ‍ Hosting of both Mixpanel and Google Analytics is on their cloud servers. Hence, you don’t have to worry about hosting analytics remotely on your server.  Data Reporting  ‍ Both tools report analytics data from your digital properties. With Google Analytics, you can obtain the audience, advertising, and acquisition reports. Meanwhile, you can get product analytics reports from Mixpanel. The Core Differences Between Mixpanel And Google Analytics 1. Pricing Plans ‍ Mixpanel ‍ Mixpanel has three versions – Free, Growth, and Enterprise. ‍ Free: ‍ As you can guess, this version of Mixpanel costs $0. It is the most basic and has limited features compared with the other plans. With it, you can track a hundred thousand users at most.  ‍ Meanwhile, it offers unrestricted data history & seats, a data dictionary, core reports (including Flows), US or EU data residency, monitoring, and alerts.  ‍ This plan is suitable for small businesses that don’t require many advanced analytics features.  ‍ Growth: ‍ The Growth plan begins at $25/month. The actual price you’ll pay for the service depends on your monthly traffic and other advanced features.  ‍ Growth offers everything the Free plan has plus some additional features, including: ‍ unlimited saved reports & cohorts,  impact reports with causal inference,  data modeling, etc.  ‍ If you have a small or medium-sized business that requires some more features than the free version offers, this plan may be the perfect fit for you.  ‍ Enterprise: ‍ The Enterprise plan is custom-based. So, the actual price you’ll pay for the service depends on how you use the analytics tool. Essentially, the number of monthly tracked users and the advanced features used determine the monthly cost.  ‍ This plan includes all features under the Free and Growth plan feature plus some additional tools: advanced access control, experiment & signal reports,  SSO & automated provisioning, etc. ‍ This plan is suitable for large enterprises that require many advanced features and have a large amount of monthly traffic. ‍   Source: Mixpanel‍ ‍ Google Analytics ‍ Google Analytics has two models – Free and Paid (Google Analytics 360) ‍ Free: Universal GA or GA4 ‍ You’ll need to set up a Google Analytics account to access the free plan. The free plan offers real-time data, personalized reports, and advanced segmentation, allowing you to monitor your users and how they engage with your websites. And app tracking and mobile device features help monitor user behavior on mobile apps. ‍ The free version of GA offers tons of metrics that provide more than enough data for most small to medium-sized businesses.  ‍ Paid: Google Analytics 360 ‍ According to OptimizeSmart, the premium version of Google Analytics, also known as Google Analytics 360, starts at $150,000 per year with a service level agreement. ‍ Compared to the freemium version of Google Analytics, the paid version offers better data quality, enhanced data freshness (98 percent, according to whatagraph.com), and higher data accuracy.  ‍ Also included in the premium version are data-driven features, attribution modeling, double-click manager integration, and data processed through Google Big Query.  ‍ Verdict On Pricing Model ‍ Though

Understanding the average time a user spends on your website helps you see which pages convert better and which content they engage with the most. But how do you measure how long someone stays on a website? If this subject has piqued your interest, then read on. This article covers everything you should know, including: How to track the average time metrics What is the average session duration and how to improve it What is the average time on page and how to improve it What is the average time you should aim for? How Long Does A User Stay On Your Website? You can measure how long a user stays on your website by tracking these two metrics – session duration and time on page. 1. Session Duration  ‍Source: ppcexpo.com Session duration, also time on site, is the total time someone spends on your website in a single session. But, what is a session in Google Analytics? A session is a group of user interactions noted during a specific time frame. After 30 minutes of inactivity, when the user exits, or at midnight a Google Analytics session expires. And it starts when a user accesses a page on your website. What Is Average Session Duration?  Average session duration is the average time spent on your website by all users. Remember that if a user visits your website multiple times over several days or continues their activity on a web page later, they may have multiple sessions. In Google Analytics, go to Audience > Overview to see the average session duration of your website.   ‍Source: hubspot.com How does Google Analytics Calculate Session Duration & Average Session Duration? For Session Duration Google Analytics calculates session duration by noting the timestamps of when a visitor arrives on your landing page (via a search engine or any other channel) and when they leave your website. For example: The session duration of a user that spends 5 minutes on your site before exiting is recorded as 5 minutes. Suppose the same visitor spends extra 7 minutes on another page of your site. The session duration is 12 minutes. ‍ For Average Session Duration It is calculated by dividing the sum of all session durations by the total number of sessions in the same period. For example, four website visitors have session durations as follows: Visitor 1 spent 100 seconds on your website. Visitor 2 spent 80 seconds on your website. Visitor 3 spent 160 seconds on your website. Visitor 4 spent 60 seconds on your website. Google Analytics would add these session durations (100+80+160+60=400) and divide the total (400) by the number of sessions (4) to determine your average session duration. The total is 100 seconds, or 1 minute and 40 seconds. In addition, Analytics may display this as 00:01:40. Are Session Duration And Dwell Time The Same? No, these metrics are certainly not the same! Here is why: Dwell time measures how long a person stays on a single page after clicking on a search result. Google Analytics calculates the dwell time using timestamps that track a user’s actions from the moment they click a link from a search engine until they return to their search results. On the other hand, session duration is the total time your website visitors spend in one session. Note that sessions do not include time spent on exit or bounce pages. So even if a visitor spends a few minutes reviewing a page before leaving, their visit won’t be counted as part of their total time. Does Session Duration Affect Your Website’s Search Engine Ranking? Yes, session duration, or time on site, affects your site’s ranking on a search engine! A good average session duration tells Google that your site’s information is engaging and valuable to users. It suggests that the content you’re putting out deserves the first-page position in search because it gives users what they want. How To Use Session Duration In Google Analytics Source: Pexels ‍ When checking your on-site time metrics, remember that they cannot answer all your questions on user behavior and how they interact with your content. Simply telling you that most people spend three minutes on your website, for example, does not give crucial insights. The metric does not indicate the specifics! For instance – users didn’t like the content, the page took too long to load, they were annoyed by the adverts, or the next steps weren’t clear. You can do the following to make the most of the session duration metric.  First, segment the users into cohorts depending on their session durations. With this, you can see how well you are guiding visitors on how to move down the conversion funnel. If you see that many users follow the conversion funnel faster than you expected, it can mean they bypass some crucial processes or have found a shortcut. Alternately, if you find that more people are spending more time on a particular page of your website than planned, there could be something confusing that is making it take longer for customers to navigate. ‍ “Google Analytics was too complicated. I save 2 hours every week with Abralytics.” Ryan McK – Founder of Subversive Design Agency Start your 30-day free trial No credit card required Cancel anytime How To Improve Your Website’s Session Duration Here are some strategies that can help to improve the session duration of your website: Publish High-Quality Content Make sure to capture and hold your readers’ attention no matter what content you use on your website. And choose a voice that accurately describes your business and information that will interest your audience. For example, you can include pages that tell users where your products are made and how to use the products on your website. Include Relevant Keywords Even if your website has excellent content, it won’t matter if the target audience cannot find it. Using the right keywords impacts your position in search and, therefore, your visibility. So, it’s essential to use

There are literally hundreds of metrics you can track on Google Analytics. However, not all of them are crucial to your website performance. ‍ So, it is vital to separate the wheat from the chaff. ‍ Are you wondering what the most important Google Analytics metrics are? Then, read on. ‍ This article covers everything you need to know about the most important metrics to track on Google Analytics, how they affect your website and why you should monitor them. What Is A Metric In Google Analytics?    ‍Source: Unsplash A metric is a numerical value assigned to show how a website performs relating to a specific dimension. So, a metric is a quantitative measure of data expressed in percent (%), Dollars ($), time, and numbers.  For example, the bounce rate of a page is the ratio of the number of bounces (single-page sessions) to the total session number.  As mentioned, there are literally hundreds of metrics and dimensions on Google Analytics that tell you about your website performance.  As a digital marketer or business owner, you need to keep an eye on the most critical metrics to gain insight into what works or not in your marketing funnel. Ultimately, these metrics paired with dimensions can help you see what you need to tweak for the success of your marketing campaigns.  What Are Dimensions In Google Analytics?  Dimensions are a description or characteristics of an aspect of your website data. They provide information about the attributes of your website visitors.  For example, instead of measuring just users (metrics), you can measure users by gender (dimension) or user by location (dimension). In most analytics report tables, dimension data are the rows and metrics data are the columns. Both metrics and dimensions work together to give you comprehensive information about your website, who your users are, and how they discovered your content.  Top 10 Most Important Google Analytics Metrics Without further ado, here are the ten most essential Google Analytics metrics to track for any industry: 1. Users ‍   ‍Source: Google Analytics dashboard   In Google Analytics, users are people who start a session on your website. ‍ You can use this metric to determine whether or not you’re attracting the right kind of visitors based on the type of website you run and your objectives.  ‍ You can assess the Users metric under Audience > Overview. ‍ The Overview Section also includes information like new users, sessions, number of sessions per user, page views, pages per session, average session duration, bounce rate, etc.  ‍ There are two categories of users – new users and returning visitors.  What Are New Users vs. Returning Users? ‍   ‍Source: Google Analytics dashboard New users are people who visit your site for the first time.  On the other hand, returning users are visitors who have previously started a session on your website. ‍ How does Google Analytics differentiate between new and returning users?  Google Analytics uses cookies to differentiate user data. It uses a tool called Google Tracking Snippet to check for the tracking code (cookie) on the browser of your site visitors. ‍ For new users, the cookie will not be present. But the cookie will be there for returning users. ‍ It is important to remember that the “User” metric on Google Analytics is not 100% accurate.   ‍ The analytics tool counts the same user as separate users if they visit a website using different devices or browsers, erase or disable cookies, or switch to Incognito or Private browsing. 2. Sessions ‍   Source: ppcexpo.com    ‍ A session is how much time users spend interacting with your site and what they do when they’re there.  ‍ For example, a single session may include several website visits, events, social interactions, and eCommerce purchases.  ‍ Moreover, a user can open more than one session. These sessions can happen all on one day or spread out over a few days, weeks, or even months. As soon as a session closes, the user can start another.    How Long Does A Session Last? ‍ There are two determiners of the duration of a session – time and campaign change.  ‍ Time-based Expiration A session expires after 30 minutes of inactivity by default, but you may change this time frame so that it can last from a few seconds to many hours. ‍ Also, every session ends by midnight. So, if a user opens your website at 11:50 pm on July 7 and engages with your site till 12:15 am on July 8, Google Analytics counts the number of sessions as 2. This is because the first session ended at midnight on July 7, and the second session started on July 8.  ‍ Campaign Change  Google Analytics starts a new session each time a user’s campaign provider changes. Meanwhile, a campaign is any traffic source that brings users to your website – ads, search engines, social media, etc. ‍ So, an existing session ends when a user leaves your website via one campaign and enters using another.  ‍ What Is Average Session Duration? ‍ The Average Session Duration tells you how long visitors spend on your website on average. Google Analytics starts tracking a session as soon as a user enters your website and keeps track until the session is over.  3. Source/Medium And Channels ‍ The Source metric tells you from which channel users visit your website. ‍ On the other hand, the Medium metric represents the broad category of user access methods, such as organic traffic, pay-per-click (PPC), etc.  ‍ Also, the Channels metric is a group of traffic sources that use the same medium, such as Organic Search, Direct, Social, Paid Search, Email, etc. Overall Traffic and Traffic Sources ‍   Source: monsterinsights.com‍ ‍ Website traffic is the total number of people that visit your website within a specific time. ‍ And traffic sources give an account of how users found your website. They help to understand your audience and where to channel

Every website talks. Before data analytics, we couldn’t hear the voices of our websites. But how do you know what your website is saying? Simple – Event tracking! Event tracking gives you a picture of how users engage with your website and business. Do you want to know more? Then, read on as we explore everything you need to know, including what it is, why you should track events, how to manage events data, and other relevant FAQs you may have. What Are Events In Google Analytics? Events are specific forms of user interactions with parts of a website that you can track in Google Analytics. For example:‍ Menus Buttons Videos Podcasts Gadgets External links Lightbox Scroll bar Images Forms, etc. ‍ Source: Pexels‍ ‍ Generally, users carry out actions on a website using a mouse, keyboard, form, or frame. So, the four types of events in Google Analytics are: Mouse Events Keyboard Events Form Events Frame Events ‍ Meanwhile, there are two categories of Google Analytics events: Events that result in pageviews when they occur: For example, a user clicks on a link to your blog (or any internal link) from your landing page. ‍ Events that do not result in pageviews when they occur: Examples of this include: File downloads Watching a video Log-ins Clicking an image Scrolling through a web page Loading pop-ups, light boxes, Ajax, JavaScript, and Flash contents What Is Google Analytics Event Tracking?‍ Event tracking in Google Analytics is tracking user interaction with elements of your website. Essentially, it monitors and records key user actions on your website. Google Analytics event tracking data includes: Total events and average events per session on your website Total events relating to events categories and individual events Session data, such as pages per session and session duration, for events and each event category E-commerce data like eCommerce conversion rate and average order value for events and event categories. Examples Of Event Tracking Reports In Google Analytics ‍ Source: Google Analytics Demo Event Overview Report The Overview report compiles vital event data, such as the overall number of events, top event categories, the number of events per session, etc. Top Event Report‍ You can switch between your event categories, actions, and labels in the Top Events report. This report is crucial for digging further into research on a specific event category. Event Pages Report‍ The Event Pages report displays the pages where events are triggered. In this section, we can examine the top pages that drive events. ‍ Events Flow Report The Events Flow Report shows you the order that viewers trigger events on your website. It shows you the path they take as they move from one event to the next and helps you to determine which content engages your audience the most. How Event Tracking Works ‍ Source: GA Sample Event ‍ Events in Google Analytics have four main elements. They are also a part of the event tracking code. Google Analytics uses these codes to track user interactions and group them into event reports. ‍ Here is how each of the four elements of event tracking affects your website: Events Category (mandatory): this is the title given to a group of events, such as videos, call-to-action buttons, e-commerce, etc. Event Action (mandatory): this is the type of user engagement you want to track, such as form button clicks, play button clicks, etc. Event Label (optional): this is a means to include extra details about specific website elements to define a special event, such as a product name, video title, or URL. Event Value (optional): refers to the process of giving an event a numerical value, such as a download time or a monetary amount. Setting Up Event Tracking From Your Google Analytics Account With Google Tag Manager Here is a step-by-step guide on how you can set up event tracking from your GA account so you can collect and analyze event data: Step 1: Choose The Parameters You Want To Track In Google Tag Manager To achieve this, carry out the following set of actions:‍ Go to the dashboard of your Google Tag Manager (GTM). Then, select “Variables” > “Configure”. A list of the parameters you can track on your website is on the right. Under Clicks, Forms, and Videos, double-check each parameter. After checking all necessary fields, you can click “X” to close the window and return to the Overview menu on the left. Step 2: Add A New Tag To Your Google Tag Manager ‍ The next set of actions are necessary to do this: As your tag type, choose Google Analytics: Universal Analytics by clicking on “Add a new tag.” Next, change the track type to Event. Step 3: Add A New Tag To Your Google Tag Manager‍ The components of the event category, action, label, and value play a role in this. By using the “+” button, you can manually fill out these fields or built-in variables. Meanwhile, you can specify whether or not to count a session containing this interaction as a bounce by using the ‘Non-interaction hit’ parameter. Important to note: If you choose “True,” GA will classify a session as a bounce when a visitor lands on a page, triggers the event (for instance, by submitting a contact form), and then leaves. Selecting “False” will prevent that session from being a bounce. If you haven’t done so, you may need to set up a variable in the Google Analytics Settings box. Click “New Variable…” if you can’t find one to choose. ‍ After this, enter your GA tracking ID in the Tracking ID field. Then click “Save.” ‍ Note: By selecting Admin in the bottom left corner, then Tracking Info (under Property) > Tracking Code, you can access your tracking ID in your Google Analytics account. Your ID will be on top of the screen. ‍ Step 4: Set Up Triggering Events To do this, follow the next series of actions: After configuring the fields, select the “Triggering” section.

Staring at data sheets can be overwhelming to some. Even blurry at times. ‍ We’re not all cut out to sit and stare at a screen, trying to figure out what the most important metrics are and what it all means in the greater scope of things. Thats why I created a simple, GA4 alternative. ‍ But page views by URL is an essential metric that you want to stay on top of. It allows you to see how many views specific pages have received. And the higher your website traffic, the more potential business you’re generating. ‍ Before we get into how you check page views with your Google Analytics account, let’s discuss the difference between page views and unique page views. What is a Page View in Google Analytics? Google defines it as “a view of a page on your site that is being tracked by the Analytics tracking code.” (1) That means that each time a website visitor refreshes or reloads after arriving at the site, the visit is counted as an additional view. A new pageview is also recorded if the user navigates away from the site and then returns later during the same session. In simple terms, although your analytics report will show you the number of page views, that won’t necessarily tell you how many individual users have visited your site. Many of these page views could be from one user browsing the internet. Ok, but how is a Unique Page view different? “A unique pageview, as seen in the Content Overview report, aggregates pageviews that are generated by the same user during the same session.” (2) That means if one person views a certain page multiple times during a single session, navigating away and back to that site, Google Analytics will continue to count it as one view in your Analytics Report. Thus, this is a more accurate way of tracking how many individual visitors have arrived on a particular page. Why is it important to understand the difference? As a business or website owner, you want to know how many users navigate your website’s pages. It’ll give you a clear indication if people are happy with your content or if you need to improve your site content to have better user engagement. To illustrate: A single user might be loading the same page over and over again, let’s say ten times. This means that he will generate a page view report of 10. But that doesn’t mean you have ten different visitors to your site. Unique page views are calculated in a completely different way. This means that even if that one user loaded a specific page 10 times, only one unique pageview would be counted. For this reason, page views will always outnumber unique page views. It’s important to keep in mind that your page views report in Google Analytics has more to do with measuring internal user behavior on your website than marketing or traffic acquisition. Understanding visitor behavior, especially with your landing pages, will help you make the needed changes to your website to bring success. There is also often a direct correlation between user interaction and revenue generated by your business. We can mainly categorize pages into two different categories, content and money. Content Pages Source: Pexels.com‍ As the name suggests, content pages lend users information about topics they are interested in. These are the types of pages visitors land on when researching a subject. An example of this could be a blog post or a product description on your website. Money Pages Source: Pexels.com‍ Money pages are the kind of website pages you can use to sell your product. They have call-to-action tabs embedded and ultimately bring you revenue. Examples of these are Product, Portfolio, and Service Pages. Show me how to check page views by URL Firstly, log in to your Google Analytics Account. ‍ On your Analytics Dashboard, navigate to Audience > Overview report From the Behaviour dropdown bar, select Site Content ‍ Here you’ll have the option of viewing the pages report of a Specific page, a Top-performing page, or All pages on your site. ‍ Select the desired pageviews report and it will pop up. As mentioned at the outset, data can be very complex and leave you scratching your head rather than leaping for joy. ‍ If so, you should consider creating a custom dashboard to display your data and metrics in an easy-to-understand way. ‍ “Google Analytics was too complicated. I save 2 hours every week with Abralytics.” Ryan McK – Founder of Subversive Design Agency Start your 30-day free trial No credit card required Cancel anytime ‍ Create a dashboard Although tables are helpful, they are often hard to understand in Google Analytics. Simple visualization helps us gain better insight. Set up a dashboard according to the information you want to understand most from your report in Google Analytics. If you set it up correctly, the data can be viewable in a single window or historical – Week by week, month by month, and so on. Too much going on? It’s often said that there is beauty in simplicity. ‍ Most people don’t want to sit and figure out how to view their own website traffic in complicated reports, let alone create a custom dashboard themselves. ‍ So, here’s a top tip: ‍ Abralytics has always been keen on simplifying things for the everyday user. And their approach to page views is no different. ‍ Apart from giving you a custom report, they set it up in an easy-to-understand way that displays Total page Views / Unique Visitors and Average Session Length, as seen below. ‍ Screenshot: Abralytics.com/demo‍ ‍ If you’re interested in slightly more in-depth reporting, showing on which days you generated the most traffic, you’ll have this custom dashboard available for viewing: ‍Screenshot: Abralytics.com/demo‍ So why not look at Abralytics as a real alternative to Google Analytics. Affordability and simplicity are perfectly balanced to give you the

‍ ‍”Free” is an enticing word, especially when it comes to tools that promise to enhance your business insights. But when we peel back the layers of Google Analytics, is it really as cost-free as it appears? Many users find themselves grappling with hidden expenses of Google Analytics 4—not just in monetary terms but also in time and complexity. The real cost of using Google Analytics often goes unnoticed until you’re deep into its setup and ongoing maintenance. From the hours spent learning its intricate system to the potential need for paid add-ons to reach deeper insights, what starts as a free tool can evolve into a significant investment. These hidden costs can take a toll, making you wonder if the price of “free” is too high. ‍ Exploring the Cost of Google Analytics and the Value of GA4 Alternatives While the allure of a “free” tool like Google Analytics can be strong, understanding what you actually get—and what you don’t—is crucial for making informed decisions about the analytics tools you choose to deploy. This post aims to peel back the layers of Google Analytics, revealing both its strengths and limitations, and introduce why a straightforward GA4 alternative like Abralytics might be the smarter choice for your needs. In this exploration, we will cover several key topics: What is Google Analytics? – A brief introduction to the tool and its core functionalities. Why do you need an analytics tool? – Discussing the importance of analytics in modern digital marketing. How does Google Analytics work? – Diving into the mechanics of how Google Analytics gathers and processes data. Pricing – Is Google Analytics free to use? – Unpacking the real costs associated with using Google Analytics. Is the Free version sufficient? – Evaluating whether the free version of Google Analytics meets the typical business’s needs. Key differences – Highlighting the major differences between the free and paid version of Google Analytics. Understanding data in GA4 – Explaining how data is handled in the latest iteration, Google Analytics 4. Why Abralytics is a good GA4 alternative – Introducing Abralytics and its benefits over GA4. Each of these sections will equip you with the knowledge to critically assess whether Google Analytics is the right tool for your business or whether a simpler, more transparent solution like Abralytics could better serve your needs. Stay tuned as we delve into these topics, starting with a comprehensive look at what Google Analytics is and why an analytics tool is indispensable in today’s digital landscape. ‍ What is Google Analytics? Google Analytics is a tool which allows you to track and monitor website traffic, as well as determine how well your website is performing. Once analyzed, it creates easy-to-read reports that you can use to make key decisions related to your digital marketing campaign. What information is provided in a report? Number of visitors to your site or your mobile apps Better insights into who your visitors are Which Google Ad directed them to your website Conversion rates, such as an online purchase or a sign-up to a newsletter User behavior such as session duration and pages per session. Track sales activity and performance on e-commerce sites Overall site performance, such as page-loading times Insight into which marketing channels are most effective, and much more Source: Photo by Timur Saglambilek from Pexels ‍ Why do you need an analytics tool? In the past, business owners were able to physically see their customers. Valuable information was gained by that simple meet and greet. You could tell what age group they fall into, their background, their likes and dislikes. Heck, you could tell how likely they were to return to your shop by the way they shut the door behind them. Source: Amina Filkins · Photography – Pexels ‍ But times have changed. Each day, more people are trading their shopping trolleys for mousepads. Familiar faces have become anonymous shoppers. Google Analytics is a tool that helps you understand who your digital customers are and provides deeper insights into how they behave. The reporting tools help you to assess which of your marketing campaigns are having the most impact. You can better understand which platforms are most popular with your customers and which ads are generating the most leads. This understanding helps you to put your money where your clicks are, so to speak. How does Google Analytics work? The first step is to create a Google Analytics account on google.com/analytics. Then, to get any data from your website into Google Analytics, you must place a global site tag on your site. This is known as your Google Analytics tracking code. The program will then start collecting data and compile reports made up of metrics and dimensions. Anything that can be measured with a number is a metric. For example, the number of visitors and the average time spent on the site. A dimension breaks the numbers into smaller segments, like the number of visitors directed to the site via Google ads or time spent on a specific page. ‍Source: Pixabay Pexel Pricing – Is Google Analytics free to use? Google Analytics (GA) comes both as a free and paid version, called Google Analytics 360 (GA360).  Small businesses can use the free service without paying a monthly charge, but if you want more advanced features, you will need to subscribe to Google 360 and pay a recurring fee. Is the Free version sufficient? For most companies, yes. The free version of Google Analytics is made for individuals, as well as small and medium companies. It provides the most important metrics which help you to make key decisions related to your digital marketing campaign. You’ll have just about everything you need to know about who your customers are and how they behave. At which point will you need to move to the paid version? The truth is, unless you’re a large enterprise using multiple tools to track your website activity, it’s unlikely you’ll ever need to upgrade. Photo by