Learning from Data – Getting the Most Out of Google Analytics

Google Analytics can provide valuable insights about your website and your audience. However, there are some common challenges people face when using Google Analytics. This post will explore some obstacles you might encounter with your reports and data collection.

By addressing issues like errors with your implementation errors, understanding what’s included in reports, and selecting appropriate tools, you can harness the full potential of Google Analytics to make informed decisions and enhance your website's effectiveness and return on investment.

Here are some common issues you should look out for:

Not Tracking All of Your Traffic

One challenge you may face with Google Analytics is tracking only some of your traffic. This can happen if you have multiple websites or if you use multiple tracking codes on your website. To overcome this challenge, you must ensure you're using the right tracking code on your website. If you have multiple websites, you need to set up cross-domain tracking. This will allow you to track your traffic in one place.

The best way to ensure you’re correctly tracking your website is to make sure one measurement ID is installed across all of the pages of your website (or websites if you want to track people across domains). If you use different measurement IDs, you will be collecting data into separate sets of reports which means you won’t have a consolidated set of data to understand performance.

Not Understanding Your Data

A second challenge you may face is needing help understanding your reports. This can happen if you need to familiarize yourself with the different types of data that Google Analytics provides. You will find a wide range of metrics and dimensions in your reports, plus there are different features and configuration options you can use in Google Analytics. You can overcome this challenge by understanding the most important Google Analytics terminology.

To help fast-track your knowledge, look at our Google Analytics Glossary.

Not Using the Right Report

You will find standard pre-configured and custom exploration reports in Google Analytics. It’s important to use the best report for the task. We recommend starting with the pre-configured reports before moving to exploration reports.

Then if you’re still hitting a wall with the reports you want to create, you can create a custom report or dashboard using Looker Studio (previously called Google Data Studio). Looker Studio lets you create engaging and interactive reports, but you must invest time to create them.

If you’re ready to create custom reports, Loves Data’s Looker Studio Course will help you come up to speed quickly and includes Looker Studio templates you can use for your business.

Expecting Google Analytics to Solve Problems

On its own, Google Analytics simply collects data and creates reports. It’s up to you to identify key insights that you can use to adjust your strategy, improve your website, and grow your business. This doesn’t happen automatically. It takes time to learn how to apply Google Analytics, and it also means allocating time to review your reports and analyze the data.

Once you’ve found an area to improve, the next step is to experiment. You might run an A/B test or multivariate test. You must go outside Google Analytics and find a suitable tool to run tests on your website. Once you’re experimenting, you will put your data to work and make incremental improvements to your website.

What Can You Learn from Google Analytics?

By understanding how people find and interact with your website, you can make informed decisions about your marketing, and you can work to improve your website's performance. Here are some key things you can learn from Google Analytics:

1. How much traffic your website is getting
2. Where your website traffic is coming from
3. What pages on your website are the most popular
4. How long visitors are staying on your website
5. What percentage of users convert into leads or customers
6. What paid keywords are being used to find your website
7. Where people abandon your website
8. What devices people use to access your website
9. What countries your website visitors are coming from

You can make data-driven decisions by understanding your website’s audience and what they do on your website. For example, if you see that a particular page on your site is getting a lot of traffic but has a low conversion rate, consider redesigning that page to improve its conversion rate. Or, if you see that most of your conversions are coming from one marketing channel, you can try to apply the same strategies to your other marketing.

Conclusion

Google Analytics is a valuable tool for understanding the behavior of your prospects, leads, and customers. However, it can be challenging to set up and interpret the data. By learning about your data, you can overcome these challenges and use Google Analytics to its full potential.

If you want to understand and use your reports, Loves Data’s Google Analytics training is an ideal fit. Our training courses will enhance your knowledge and skills in setting up, using and customizing Google’s digital analytics and marketing platforms.