A beginner's guide to Google Analytics, part 1

< A general guide to online statistics : A beginner's guide to Google Analytics, part 2 >

Google Analytics is a free tool that provides statistics for your blog or website.  This guide looks at some of the basics to help you get started with this handy tool.

Before you start

You'll need to create a Google Analytics account.  Refer to the Google Analytics Installation Guide for how to do this.  Follow the instructions in step 1 and step 4.  Make sure you follow through these steps within Google Analytics and copy the code that you are given - don't copy the code displayed in the Installation Guide.

If you want to track more than one site, there's a shorter guide for adding the additional sites.

You may find that you cannot insert the Analytics code on your site, particularly if you have a hosted blog, e.g. yourname.blogprovider.com.  In this case it might be best to double-check with your blog provider if it's possible to use Google Analytics with them.  If you're unsure, leave a comment with your URL and I'll see what I can find out.

If you have been able to install the code on your site then it can take up to 24 hours before you have any statistics to look at.  In that case, I'd suggest that you bookmark this tutorial and return in a day or two.  It's probably a good idea to try editing your template again to ensure that the code is in place - otherwise you won't have any statistics when you come back!

Orientation

To access Google Analytics, use the following link: http://www.google.com/analytics/home/
Top Tip: Bookmark this link so you can access it easily in future.  Ideally, create a folder in your Favourites (Internet Explorer) or Bookmarks (Firefox) called "Website Admin" and bookmark the site there.  If you do this, you can store other handy sites in this folder too.

You'll need to log in if you haven't done so already.  Once you've logged in, you'll see the following screen:



This is deliberately a small screenshot because I'm just showing what the layout of the screen is like.  This is the easiest way to ensure you're on the same page as me.

Here's what you're looking for before you go any further:



The Status column should say "Receiving Data Conversion Goals".  The number is not important at this stage.  The important thing is the tick and the status message.  If you don't see this, then either you still need to wait for the first statistics to be generated, or the code isn't working.

Once you have this status message, click on "View Reports" to start looking at your site statistics.

The Dashboard

After clicking on View Reports, you'll see the Dashboard.  There's quite a bit of information on it, so I've split it into two screenshots.  Let's have a quick look around.  (Note: All of the statistics shown are the real stats for benbarden.com.)



The graph shown on the Dashboard represents the number of visits.  A visit occurs when someone finds your site.  Each time someone comes to your site, it counts as 1 visit.  The same person can generate many visits if they come to your site many times.

We'll do some more with the graph a bit later.  Until then, bear in mind that the current statistics are for a specific date range - in this case, February 24th to March 25th.

Beneath the graph you'll see a summary of your statistics, under "Site Usage".  We've already covered visits - in the period shown, my site had 8,917 visits.  You can also see the number of pageviews.  Whenever someone views a page on your site, such as the home page or one blog entry, that counts as one page view.  If the person then looks at another page, that will count as an additional page view.  So in the period shown, my site had 15,626 pageviews.

Next is a handy ratio - the average number of pages per visit, in this case 1.75.  If you're not familiar with how this works, think of a simpler example.  If a site has 5,000 visits and 10,000 pageviews, that's an average of 2 pages per visit.  5,000 visits and 5,000 pageviews would given an average of 1 page per visit.  It's a good way of seeing how much people are looking at when they visit.

Over to the right you'll see a bounce rate figure.  This refers to the percentage of people who visited your site and immediately moved on without looking at any other pages.  A bounce rate of 100% would mean that everyone who found your site left without clicking anywhere else on your site.

Average time on site is fairly self-explanatory - it shows the duration that people stayed on your site before moving on.  In my case this is 2 minutes.  Finally, the percentage of new visits refers to the number of people who found your site for the first time.

All of these statistics provide additional information - just click on the links.

Now onto the next part of the Dashboard:



The Visitors Overview graph shows you how many different people came to your site in the period shown.  This is not the same as one person generating multiple visits.  Each visitor is a different person, or in some cases a search engine.

The Map Overlay shows the location of your visitors by country.  Traffic Sources Overview show how people found your site, and Content Overview shows the most popular content on your site.  A single forward slash "/" refers to your home page.

Working with the graphs

Hovering over one of the circles on a graph will display a box with the number for that day.  The visits graph would show the number of visits for the day, the visitors graph would show the number of visitors, and so on.

In the top-right corner of the graph you'll see a date range.  Click on the arrow on the right-hand side to expand the options.  To change the date range, you can click on the calendar, type in the date range boxes, or use the Timeline link.  In the following screenshot, I've used the calendar to select a date range from January 1st to March 25th.



When you've selected the date range you wish to use, click on the Apply button and the graph will be updated.  Or click on the Cancel link to go back to where you were before.  See below for a screenshot of the graph I ended up with.



This is a really good way to analyse your statistics over many months.  Also, you'll see that if you move to the other screens in Analytics, the date range will be remembered.

The navigation menu

The menu on the left-hand side of the screen will always be there, but it changes as you move around in Analytics.  Use the Dashboard link at the top to come back here in future.

There's a lot in Analytics!

But don't be overwhelmed - take it one step at a time.  This guide is really just the beginning.  I've explained some of the terms so the next parts of this guide may be a little easier to follow.  Either way I hope you'll subscribe to my site so you'll be able to follow the guide to the end.

What do you think?

Did you find this guide helpful?
Will you be reading the future instalments?

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