What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a free web analytics service which provides statistics and analytical tools for SEO and marketing purposes. This service is available to anybody who has a Google account. Analytics was introduced in April 2005 after Google bought Urchin Software Corporation.
Analytics shows you data from all channels that are directing traffic to your website.
This includes:
- Organic search (SEO)
- Paid search (PPC)
- Social Media
- Direct Traffic
Different Features and Why They’re Important
Overview of All Channels
Being able to monitor all platforms is important as it allows you to review what advertising is working well within your website and what isn’t. Having all the data in one place makes it easier to compare the different channels of searches on your website.
Customer Engagement
Analytics gives you a variety of different features to review how well users are interacting with your website and the content on the website. These metrics allow you to monitor different situations of a viewer’s journey on your website, showing you how the viewer has interacted with your website.
Bounce rate – The percentage of visitors that navigate away from your website without interaction, after viewing only one page.
Pages/Session – The average number of pages each visitor has viewed (this does not include those that have bounced).
Average Session Duration – The average amount of time spent on the website by each visitor (again, this does not include those that have bounced).
These stats can also be shown on individual pages, in order to give you a better idea as to which pages are performing better than others. This allows you to optimise some pages which may not be performing as well.
Device Overview
An update released from Google meant that all websites needed to be mobile friendly for them to be included in ranking when appearing on search results. Google Analytics allows you to be able to monitor which devices your users are coming from, giving an indication as to how well your mobile website is working compared to the desktop website.