Google Analytics IQ Lesson 4: In-Depth Analysis

Google Analytics IQ Lessons

4. In-depth Analysis

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Based on Google’s Conversion University

4.1. Custom reporting
• This is create reports that show the info you
want organized in the way you want to see it
(table form).
• Dimensions are the rows of the table and metrics are
the columns in the table.
• You can have several tabs
• You can add up to 5 dimensions for each: one top
level dimension, and up to four sub dimensions. The
sub-dimensions allow a user to drill down for details.
• Some combinations of metrics and dimensions aren’t
allowed (appear greyed out)
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4.2. Advanced segmentation
• With Advanced Segments, you can quickly isolate and analyze subsets of
your traffic.

• Differences between filtered profiles and advanced segments:
• AS can be applied to historical data
• AS is available across all of your accounts and profles. But, a fltered profle is
only useful for a specifc web property.
• You can compare up to four AS side by side in your reports. In contrast,
fltered profles can only be viewed one at a time.
• It is much easier to create an AS than a fltered profle.

• If you want to permanently affect the data that a profle shows, you
should use a fltered profle.

• And if you want to restrict user access to only a subset of data, the best
way to do this is to set up a fltered profle.

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• Once you’ve applied one or more advanced
segments, you can see the data for the
segments throughout all of your reports.
• You can also change your date range and see
the segments applied to historical data.
• The segments remain applied until you
deselect them or you logof or view reports on
another account or profle.

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• To modify a segment click on ‘Manage your
advanced segments’.
• The list shows predefned default and custom
segments.
• If you want to build on an existing segment
without changing the original segment, you can
click copy.
• To change an existing segment, click edit. You can
only change Custom Segments.

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4.3. Motion Charts
• These allow you to visualize your data in 5 dimensions.

• You select metrics to be represented on the X and Y axis
and by the size and color of the dots. And you can see how
the data changes over time.

• A Motion Chart can help you identfy paterns and
relatonships in your data.

• Access Motion Charts by clicking Visualize. The Visualize
button is available in most reports that show tables.

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4.3. Motion Charts

• Each dot will be a data point from the report. So, for example, if you click Visualize on a Keyword
report, each dot will be a keyword.
• You can mouse over each dot to see its label and by clicking it, you can make the label stay visible.
• In this chart, the X axis is Pages per Visit and the Y axis is Visits. This scale can be linear or logarithmic.
• The color of each dot represents the Average Value.
• The size of the dots represents the bounce rate.
• You can view the data over tme by either dragging the slider or by pressing the Play button. By
selecting Trails and dragging the slider, you can plot the history of one or more data points over time.
• In this Motion Chart, you can see right away that one keyword is much more valuable.
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4.4. Internal Site Search
• Visitors frequently use search boxes as a form of navigaton. By looking at
searches, you can identify:
• missing or hidden content on your site
• improve search results for key phrases
• get ideas for new keywords to use in marketing campaigns.

• To set up SS Tracking, you’ll need to confgure your Profle settings:
1) On the Analytics Settings page, click 'Edit' next to the profle for which you want to track
searches.
2) Look for the Main Website Profle Information section and click Edit.
3) In the Site Search section, select the 'Do Track Site Search' radio button.
4) In the 'Query Parameter' feld, enter the letter, word or words that designate an internal
query parameter (for example, if you search on Google.com, you will see your search query
preceded by 'q=’).
• In large sites, some sections may use diferent query parameters. You may provide up to 5, separating
each with commas.
5) Next, select whether or not you want GA to strip out the query parameter from your URL.
Stripping out the query parameter has the same efect as excluding URL Query Parameters
in your Main Website Profle Settings
• If, in your Site Search settings, you choose to strip the query parameters, you don't have to also
exclude them from your main settings.

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• If you use ‘Categories’ on your site (the ability to use drop-down
menus to narrow a search) you can include them in your search
analytics:

1) Select the 'Yes' radio button under 'Do you use categories for site
search?'

2) Enter your 'Category Parameter' in the feld provided. Enter only
the letters that designate an internal query category.

3) Decide if you want to strip out the category parameters that you
just provided. This has the same efect as excluding URL Query
Parameters in your Main Website Profle Settings so if you choose
to strip the category parameters here, you don't have to exclude
them again from your main settings.

4) Click 'Save Changes' toBased on Google’s Conversion University
fnish. 9

• The SS Overview summarizes the search activity on your site. SS Reports:
• SS Usage compares performance of visitors who use site search vs. those who
don’t.
• Search Terms shows which kw visitors searched.
• Search Refinement: view the kw visitors used to refne their original searches.
• If many searched on a common refnement, modify the results page to present info related to the
refnement.
• Search Navigaton: see where visitors who searched go afer viewing the results
page.
• Start Pages shows how many searches were initiated on each page of your site.
• Use it to fnd out what visitors are searching for from your landing pages so you can improve the
page content (E.g.: if many visitors search "shipping options" from your shopping cart page, you may
want to display it directly).
• Destnaton Pages: tells you where visitors ended up afer an internal search
• SS Categories helps you determine which categories your visitors selected when
performing a search on your site.
• This info helps you understand how visitors use your search engine, which products and categories
are popular, and how successfully visitors fnd what they are looking for.
• Trending: view site search trending patterns over time.
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4.5. Event Tracking and Virtual Pageviews

• Many websites use technologies such as Flash
and Ajax to interact with visitors. These don’t
generate pageviews so the basic web analytics
doesn’t capture them.
• Examples: Ajax-based activities, fle downloads,
video embedding, videogames, Flash, and clicks
on links that take the visitor to another site.

• You can track these with Virtual Pageviews or
Event Tracking.

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• Virtual Pageviews can be created to represent practically any kind
of activity or interaction you want.

• It’s “virtual” because you’re telling Google Analytics to register a
pageview even though no new page has actually been loaded.

• You’ll see these virtual pageviews alongside ordinary pageviews in
the Top Content and Content Drilldown reports.

• Simply call _trackPageview() and provide any name you want as
the argument.

• Provide a “filename” argument that identfies the event e.g.:
_gaq.push([‘trackPageview’,’/events/playvideo’])

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• It’s a good idea to adopt a clear naming
convention for your virtual pageviews. You might,
for example, group virtual pageviews into
categories by giving them a virtual subdirectory.

• Also, since virtual pageviews appear along with
standard pageviews in reports, you may wish to
create a duplicate profile where you flter out
the virtual pageviews.

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• The other way to track non-pageview interactions is to use Event Tracking.
Advantages:
• You won’t generate an extra pageview.
• Easy to organize into categories, actions, and provide labels and even values for each event
you track.

• All of your events show up in the Event Tracking reports within the Content
secton.

• Just call the _trackEvent() method each time you want to register an event. The
full specifcation for the _trackEvent() method is:
• _trackEvent(category, action, optional_label, optional_value)
• Flash example: the _trackEvent will be called each time a visitor releases the Play button:

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• Let’s look at each of the arguments to _trackEvent. The
strings that you provide for the frst 3 arguments, Category,
Action, and Label, govern how the events will be organized in
your reports.

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• Category is a name that you supply as a means to group objects --
which are usually user interface elements that you want to track.
• If you have games and videos on your site, you’d probably want to have a
“Games” category and “Videos” category.

• Acton is the name you want to give to the type of interaction
you’re tracking.
• So, for example, for Videos, you’d probably want to track how many times
your visitors pressed Play.

• The Label argument is optional. A Label allows you to provide
additional information for for the event you are tracking.
• For example, the name of the movie that was played or name of the fle
downloaded.

• Value is the fourth, and optional, argument to _trackEvent().
• Unlike the other arguments which are all strings, Value is an integer. You
can use it to assign a numeric value to a tracked page object.
• To call _trackEvent() without a value, simply omit the argument.
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• Total Events is simply the total number of times an event
occurs (number of times _trackEvent was called).

• Unique Events, each event is only counted 1 per visit.

• Remember these best practces:
• Determine in advance all of the kinds of events you’ll
want to track.
• Try to create a hierarchy of Categories, Actions, and Labels
that will grow with your needs. Work with your report
users to make sure that the hierarchy makes sense.
• Use a clear and consistent naming conventon
• A maximum of 500 events per visit will be tracked. So,
avoid tracking highly repetitive events.
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• Advantages of Event Tracking over Virtual Pageviews:

• Using trackEvent() allows you to analyze event based interactons in
much greater detail than is possible using virtual pageviews.
• For example, instead of just seeing how many times a movie was played on your
site, you can analyze how people use your video player, and see how diferent
events correlate with site usage and ecommerce metrics.

• Also, by tracking events separately from pageviews, you won’t infate
your pageview count.

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4.6. Additional Customizations
• In Google Analytics, a visit—or session—is defned by 30 minutes of
inactivity, or when a user quits the browser.
• You can change the 30 minute default by calling
setSessionCookieTimeout and specify a new timeout value in
milliseconds:

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• By default, a conversion can be attributed to a campaign that is up to 6
months old, but you can change this: call _setCampaignCookieTimeout()
and specify your new campaign length in milliseconds.

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• GA attributes conversions to the most recently referred
campaign.
• To attribute conversion to the first campaign, tag all
campaign links with utm_nooverride=1.
• Note that the utm_nooverride setting can be used in conjunction with autotagging.

• GA automatically tracks referrals from over 30 search
engines. But, if you want to add a search engine, you can do it
by calling _addOrganic() in your GA Tracking Code:
1) Perform a search in the search engine and look at the URL of the search results
page.
2) In the URL, look for the keyword you searched -- it should be preceded by a
letter and an equal sign. This letter is the query variable for the search engine.
3) Add a call to _addOrganic in your GA Tracking Code. The frst argument is the
name of the search engine. The second argument is the query variable.

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• You may wish to treat traffic that results from certain search
keywords as Direct.
• Simply add a call to _addIgnoredOrganic() in your GA
Tracking Code. Specify the keyword as the argument.

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• You can also treat referrals from certain sites as Direct traffic
instead of as referrals.
• For each site that you want to exclude as a referral and treat
as Direct, add a call to _addIgnoredRef() in your GATC:

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Google Analytics IQ Lesson 4: In-Depth Analysis

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Google Analytics IQ Lesson 4: In-Depth Analysis