Your Analytics Dashboard

Okay, you are on your way to doing your own Search Engine Optimizing. You have signed up for Google Analytics. First of all, you don't need everything they are offering you so don't panic about the complexity of how Analytics's appearance.

What you do need to use is the dashboard. Here are some tips.

The easiest way to access your analytics account is to log into your Google account and then click on the link on top that reads "my account". Click on the Analytics link and you'll get there.



Click on all of the sections and you will be amazed at the information.

To add a report to the dashboard, navigate to the report, and then click Add to Dashboard at top left (directly below the report title).

The dashboard is your customizable collection of report summaries. When you add a report to the dashboard, the report gets added to a default view.

To remove a report summary from the dashboard, click X at the top-right of the report summary.
To change the position of the reports in the dashboard, click and drag them to the desired location.

To view the full reports, click on the view report option in the report summary.

The more important tabs are the
Traffic Sources- Is your advertising, SEO tips etc paying off?
Site Usage- Tells you general Stats about what your visitors are looking for and reading.
My personal favorite is the map overlay. It can tell you specifically which cities your visitors are coming from.

Once you get use to using your dashboard, you can experiment with goals and filters.
It's all free.

Google Analytics for beginners

Google Analytics shows you how people found your site, how they explored it, and how you can enhance their visitor experience. This is important information for your search engine optimization.

With over 80 reports, your free Google Analytics account will track visitors through your site, and will keep track of the performance of your marketing campaigns - whether they're AdWords campaigns, email campaigns, or any other advertising program. With this information, you'll know which keywords are really working, which ad text is the most effective, and where your visitors are dropping off during the conversion process.

Getting started with Google Analytics may seem over-whelming at first. Google Analytics offers so much at no cost.

• The first thing you need to do is visit the Google Analytics site to get signed up. Of course, you'll need a site such as a blogger blog to use it.

• Get your feet wet before you jump in. There is an introduction video that you should watch.

• Create your Analytics account:

1. Visit http://www.google.com/analytics.
2. Enter your Google Account email and password and click Sign In. If you don't have a Google Account, click Sign up now to create one.
3. Click Sign Up.
4. Enter your Website's URL, making sure to select either http:// or https:// from the drop-down list. Enter a nickname for this account in the Account Name field, then click Continue.
5. Enter your contact information and click Continue.
6. Read the Google Analytics Terms of Service. If you agree to these terms, select the Yes checkbox and click Create New Account to continue.
   

Configure your profile

It's important to configure your profile in order to get the most out of your reports. To access your profile settings:

1. In the Website Profiles table, find the profile to edit.
2. Click Edit. The Profile Settings page appears.
3. Click Edit on the Main Website Profile Information table.

• Default page

Setting this to the default (or index) page of your site allows Google Analytics to reconcile log entries for www.example.com and www.example.com/index.html, for example. These are in fact the same page, but are reported as two distinct pages until the Default Page setting has been configured.

Edit the tracking code for custom website setups

there are a few scenarios that require small updates to the tracking code on each of your pages. If any of the following apply to you, follow the instructions to update your code before adding it to your pages.

Learn how to:

1. Track multiple domains in one profile (eg. a main site as well as a secure store site)
2. Track more than one subdomain in one profile
3. Track multiple domain aliases

• Add the tracking code to your pages

Google Analytics only tracks pages that contain the Google Analytics tracking code. You'll need to add this code to each page of your site, either manually or through the use of includes or other methods.

To access your tracking code:

1. Sign in to Google Analytics.
2. From the Analytics Settings page, find the profile for which you would like to retrieve the tracking code. Please note that tracking code is profile-specific.
3. From that profile's Settings column, click Edit.
4. At the top right of the Main Website Profile Information box, click Check Status.
5. Your tracking code can be copied and pasted from the text box in the Instructions for adding tracking section.

• Basic installation - Copy and paste the code segment into the bottom of your content, immediately before the tag of each page you are planning to track. OR, in blogger, simply go to your layouts tab, page elements and then add an html element. You can copy and paste the code there.
  

Once you've completed this step, Google Analytics will begin collecting traffic data. You'll be able to see data in your reports within 24 hours.

Link with your AdWords account

For AdWords advertisers, Google Analytics can currently import cost data from AdWords campaigns. To link your AdWords and Analytics accounts, log in to your AdWords account and follow the steps provided under the Analytics tab.

You'll need to have your tracking validated before you can start to receive results. This means that once Analytics is able to detect the code on your site, it has been validated. This will appear on your Analytics landing page. You can use the "Check Status" button to be sure. If your tracking cannot be validated, your code will appear and you'll need to copy and paste it into your site again.

Google Website Optimizer

Google now offers a great service for small businesses with websites.
Website Optimizer will help you study the effects of different content on your users. Testing will enable you to identify what users respond to best so you can create a website that will be more effective in getting the business results you want.

• Increase website conversion rates
• Decrease visitor bounce rates
• Increase time spent on your site
• Increase visitor satisfaction
• Eliminate guesswork from site design

Why guess what site content and designs best convert your visitors, when you can find out directly from them?

Choose the pages and content to test
Using our web-based interface, provide us with the content -- headlines, images, or text, for example -- and design alternatives that you’d like to test.

Test these changes with your visitors
Website Optimizer will then show these content and design alternatives to your site visitors, all the while monitoring which combinations lead to the highest conversion rates.

Learn what changes drive the most conversions
Our intuitive reports allow even the mathematically-challenged to quickly and easily identify and implement the best combination.

Free web application
Begin driving more conversions and revenue from your website without purchasing and licensing costly software. Sign up now and begin your first experiment in minutes.

A/B Split & Multivariable Testing
Identify your most effective site elements. Test everything from individual copy blocks and images to complete page layouts.

Designed For Marketers, By Marketers
Your time is valuable, and small changes can drive big results. So we’ve designed Website Optimizer to require minimal IT support, giving marketers greater control, flexibility, and speed.

Intuitive Reporting
You shouldn’t have to be a mathematician to conduct even the most complex of tests. Our intuitive graphical reporting interface tells you exactly how each aspect of your test is impacting the bottom line, helping you to remain focused on your business.

Google Analytics

Have you signed up for Google Analytics?

According to Google, Analytics helps you find out what keywords attract your most desirable prospects, what advertising copy pulled the most responses, and what landing pages and content make the most money for you.

Analytics refers to getting information about people who visit your website. With Google Analytics, you can easily find out information such as what country your visitors are coming from and what search word they are using to find your site. You can fined out much more as well.
The best part is it is free. And, it is relatively easy to use once you copy and paste the code into your website. On Blogger you would just copy and past it into an html gadget. This is something that companies charge for. Why pay for it if Google offers it for free?

Google Analytics has all the features you'd expect from a high-end analytics offering. It also provides tightly integrated AdWords support, so you can view AdWords ROI metrics without having to import cost data or add keyword tracking codes.

If you have an AdWords account, you can use Google Analytics directly from the AdWords interface. Google Analytics also calculates ROI metrics from automatically imported cost and keyword tracking data, saving you time

Paste the Google Analytics tracking code into each of your website pages and tracking begins immediately.

Keyword and Campaign Comparison

Track and compare all your ads, email newsletters, affiliate campaigns, referrals, paid links, and keywords on Google and other search engines.

Custom Dashboards

No more digging through reports. Put all the information you need on a custom Dashboard that you can email to others.

AdWords Integration

Buy keywords on Google AdWords and use Google Analytics to learn which keywords are most profitable to your business.

Internal Site Search

Find out how your visitors search your site, what they look for, and where they end up.

Benchmarking

Find out whether your site usage metrics underperform or outperform those of your industry vertical. Opt-in benchmarking compares your key metrics against aggregate performance metrics while preserving the confidentiality of your data.

Trend and Date Slider

Compare time periods and select date ranges without losing sight of long term trends.

Ecommerce Tracking

Trace transactions to campaigns and keywords, get loyalty and latency metrics, and identify your revenue sources.

Funnel Visualization

Find out which pages result in lost conversions and where your would-be customers go.

Site Overlay

See traffic and conversion information for every link as you browse your site. (no download required).

Email reports

Schedule or send ad-hoc personalized report emails that contain exactly the information you want to share.

GeoTargeting

Find out where your visitors come from and identify your most lucrative geographic markets.