Google Analytics Basics

setup, terms

Setup

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https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/

Universal vs Classic

• Set of improvements to tracking
  • Track users across devices/sessions/etc.
  • Android & iOS
  • Enhanced e-commerce tracking
  • Track links based on ID
• Upgrade Center

Terms

metrics, dimensions, conversion rate, bounce rate...

Metrics

Numeric measurements of user behavior

• Avg. time spent on page
• Pageviews/session
• Unique visitors
• % new visits

Dimensions

Categories by which users can be grouped

• Location
• Browser
• New/returning
• Phone/tablet/desktop
• Screen size

Visits: instance of a user entering the site, doing something, and leaving

Unique visitors: number of unique visitors within the selected timeframe (based on cookie)

Pageviews: number of times a page is visited (multiple visits in a session are counted multiple times)

Bounce Rate: number of users who entered and left a page without visiting another page

Learning About Users

Visitor Analysis

Visitor Analysis

• How many use screens smaller than 1280px?
• How many still use IE < 10?
• Is it worth it to put a lot of effort into a responsive site?

Useful? Sure – but not that interesting

Some more interesting questions

• How do users come to the website?
• What are they really looking for?

Learning How Users Got to the Site

Traffic Analysis

Source & Medium

• Source: URL or direct
• Medium: Type of source
  • Organic Search
  • Paid Search
  • Direct
  • Referral
  • Social
  • Email

Accessing Search Keywords

• How do users find the website?
• How can we tailor to users' interests?

• Not available within GA anymore (since switch to SSL by default)
• Accessible via Google Webmaster Tools
• Only available for the past 90 days

Learning How Content is Used

Content Analysis

Content Analysis

• High/low pageviews
  • Any pages deep in the hierarchy with high pageviews?
    • Do they have enticing link labels or are they landing pages?
    • Through which medium are users reaching the page?
• Unique Pageviews much lower than Pageviews?
  • Users may not be finding what they are looking for (returning to the page many times in a sess.)

Content Analysis

• Low time on page
  • Content not matching expectations
  • Content not interesting
  • Content well organized and questions answered quickly
• ​High Entrances vs Unique Pageviews
  • Page is often an entry point for users (linked to from another site?)
  • May rethink structure/hierarchy of the page

Content Analysis

• High Bounce Rate/High % Exit
  • Compare using "Comparison" view
  • Users either find what they're looking for on that one page or don't think your site is relevant
  • May be caused by inappropriate links from other sites
  • What next? Usability test or expert judgment

Content Drilldown

• Explore pages in hierarchical roll-ups
• Useful if your site is organized in logical hierarchy
• View metrics aggregated for each directory

Learning How Users Move Between Pages

Behavior Flow Analysis

Behavior Flow Analysis

• Complete picture only possible for small number of pages (5-10, maybe)
• Instead, focus on page-to-page relationships
  • Where did users come from
  • Where did they go
• Useful in planning usability tests (try to find unexpected pages and then use the test to find out the thought process leading to the behavior)

Behavior Flow Analysis

• Two different reports for this information:
  • Behavior > Site Content > All Pages > Navigation Summary: Previous and Next Page Path
  • Behavior > Behavior Flow: Flow of users around one specific page (limited usefulness for unguided exploring)

Learning How Groups of Users Differ

User Segmentation

User Segmentation

• Compare behaviors groups of different users
• Based on, e.g.
  • internal vs external
  • location/language
  • returning vs first time
  • desktop vs tablet vs phone
  • medium/source

User Segmentation for UX

Did users behave differently if they ...

• visited page X (e.g. more likely to complete a purchase)
• entered through page X?
• entered through a link in an email?
• entered through a paid ad?
• visited the careers page?

Advanced Topics

Tracking Custom Actions

ga('send', 'event', 'category', 'action', 'label');

• Use custom JS to track any user action
• Useful for tracking outbound destinations and in-page actions
• Can be linked to conversions/assigned a value
• Group by category, action, and label
• More info on developers.google.com

Goals

"Finish line" for a conversion

Conversions

A sequence of actions you want users to take on your website because they provide value to the business

• Add items to cart > review order > fill in details > submit order
• Review information > sign up to receive further info

Custom dashboards

• Metrics by geographic region
• Compare new designs to old versions
• Exits and custom events
• Metrics by directory (e.g. department)

Single-Page Apps

• Angulartics
• Ember
• Backbone
• ...

GA    UX

Integrating Google Analytics into the UX portfolio

Personas

(descriptions of archetypical users)

• Segmenting based on personas
  • May be difficult to find appropriate criteria
  • Be able to answer specific questions by persona, not just overall
• Building better personas
  • Use analytics data to build more realistic personas based on actions/common paths/characteristics
  • Iterative process of building segments and adjusting them based on results

Usability Testing

(testing an interface on actual users)

• Test planning
  • Use analytics to identify problematic pages/flows and focus testing on these areas
• Test analysis
  • Compare usability test results to analytics data (larger user group)
  • Incorporate analytics data into test reports

Usability Inspections

(formal evaluation of interfaces)

• Test planning
  • Use analytics to identify problematic pages/flows and focus testing on these areas
• Test analysis
  • Use inspection to determine reason for problems (analytics can only tell you that there is a problem)