Measuring Success with Google Analytics

[ No Google Analytics book can be perfect, so check the list of book corrections and typos. ]

The following content is taken from the opening sections of the book

Introduction
Although the birth of web happened August 1991, it did not become commercial until around 1995. In those early days it was kind of fun to have a spinning logo, a few pictures and your contact details as the basis of your online presence. My first web site was just that – no more than my curriculum vitae online at the University of Bristol. Then companies decided to copy (or worse, scan) their paper catalogues/brochures and simply dump these on their websites. This was a step forward in providing more content, but the user experience was poor to say the least and no one was really measuring conversions. The most anyone kept track of was visits and these were often confused with hits.

Around the year 2000, fuelled by the dot com boom, people suddenly appeared to ‘get’ the web as a useful medium to find information and so the number of visitors using it grew rapidly. Organizations started to think about fundamental questions such as “What is the purpose of having a web site?” and considered how to build relevant content for their online presence. With that, user experience improved. Then, when widespread broadband adoption began to happen, those organizations wanted to attract the huge audience that was now online. Hence the reason for the rapid growth in search engine marketing that followed.

Now with businesses accepting the growing importance of their online presence, comes the need to measure the affects, and success or not, of their website on the rest of the business. Put simply, this is what web analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, attempt do. By measuring the ability of your online and offline marketing at attracting visitors, the resulting user experience, conversion rate and ROI, allows you to continually benchmark yourself and improve your online strategy.

But what can be measured, how accurate is this and how can a business be benchmarked? In other words, how do you measure success?

Using best practice principles from a professional practitioner, this book uses real-world examples on how to manage Google Analytics. This includes not only installation and configuration guides, but also how to discover data that allows you to understand your web site visitor’s experience. With this understanding, you can then build business action items to drive improvements in visitor acquisition (both on and off line), conversion rates, repeat visitor rates, customer retention and ultimately your bottom line.

Who Should Read This Book?

The most important prerequisite for reading this book is an inquisitive mind with the drive and desire to improve the user experience – that is conversions on your web site.

If you have ever wondered whether your checkout system is off putting to potential new customers, how differently your web site can be perceived by a new or a returning visitor, if paid advertising yields better conversions than free organic search listings, whether you can better qualify leads by fine tuning your search marking strategy, or simply queried how to measure the performance of your web site – then this book is for you.

I have attempted to make this book’s subject matter accessible to a broad spectrum of readers – from marketer, to webmaster, to CEO, to anyone with a business interest of making their website work. After all, the concept of measuring success is a universal desire. The content is not aimed at the complete web novice, but don’t worry, nor is it aimed at engineers either – I am not one myself and installing, configuring or using Google Analytics does not require an engineer! Rather, I hope that Advanced Web Metrics Using Google Analytics will appeal to existing web analysts as well as readers new to the field of web measurement.

This book describes the best practice techniques that can be employed by you to setup and configure Google Analytics. The purpose is simple – to empower you with the necessary information in order to maximise your web site’s potential. With a greater understanding of your web site visitors, you will be able to tailor page content and marketing budgets with laser like precision for a better return on investment. I also discuss advanced configurations, or “Google Analytics Hacks”, which are not documented elsewhere. These provide you with an even greater understanding of your website visitors so that you can deep dive into the metrics that make sense for your organisation. Drawing on years of experience as a consultant, I include real-world practical examples that are currently in use by advanced users.

The book’s content is primarily aimed at an organisation’s marketer and webmaster who would work in conjunction with each other. Many chapters focus around integrating your analytical skills with your marketing and webmaster skills and require no coding ability. There are also sections and exercises in this book that require you to modify your web pages content – after all, web analytics is all about instigating change using reliable metrics as your guide. Therefore knowledge of HTML (the ability to read browser source code) and experience of online marketing techniques – for example pay-per-click, email marketing, organic search, etc. is required. Some advanced techniques also necessitate an understanding of JavaScript.

How This Book Is Organized

There are four parts to this book – Measuring Success, Using Google Analytics Reports, Implementing Google Analytics; Using Visitor Data to Drive Website Improvement.

Each part begins with the fundamentals that need to be considered for that topic. Then we build in the detail, followed by real world examples of how to apply what has been learnt in that chapter. As a former implementer, analyst, and consultant myself, I cram as many useful tips, workarounds and practical advice as I possible can.
Right from Chapter 4, you will be viewing reports in detail. After reading each subsequent chapter, your skills will gradually become more in-depth and therefore the proceeding examples become more involved and sophisticated – so try and not skip chapters!

By the final chapter you will have a thorough understanding of best practise Google Analytics techniques and be well on your way to measuring the success (or otherwise) of your own web site through a clear understanding of the processes involved. I have endeavoured to educate so that the reader may explore the possibilities of Google Analytics further, and perhaps even add their own contributions to this book via the book blog: www.advanced-web-metrics.com/blog .

All scripts presented in this book or on the web site www.advanced-web-metrics.com have been tested and validated by the author and are believed to be correct as of the date of publication or posting. The Google Analytics software on which they depend is subject to change, however; and therefore no warranty is expressed or implied that they will work as described in the future. Always check the most current Google Analytics documentation.

Views expressed in this book are my own and do not represent Google. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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