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Google Analytics for Beginners: How to Make the Most of Your Traffic Reports

When flyte launches a Web site for a client we usually configure a copy of Google Analytics so that the client can get accurate reports on how his or her site is performing.

However, as friendly as Google Analytics (GA) seems to us, some of our clients feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information and reports it generates, or just don’t know how to get started with it.

To help solve this problem this month’s flyte log is entitled The Beginner’s Guide to Google Analytics. It reviews the dashboard, looks at a few of the most important reports, and has click-em-and-they-grow screen captures of each report we discuss. If you have Google Analytics installed–or even if you don’t…yet–this is a great place to start learning about all the tools GA can offer you.

To avoid missing any future issues of flyte log and to stay a step ahead of the competition, go ahead and subscribe now!




Rich Brooks
Google Analytics for Small Business

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  • http://www.sigmanow.com Mark Akerley

    Another excellent and informative article, Rich – Thank you. A question: Comparing the statistics on google analytics to those on the dashboard (slimstat)of my site administrative program (from wordpress) I find the statistics to be significantly different. In some cases 100-300 percent different when simply tracking the number of site visits per day. Why would there be such a difference – which to believe? Any insights much appreciated.

  • http://www.sigmanow.com Mark Akerley

    Another excellent and informative article, Rich – Thank you. A question: Comparing the statistics on google analytics to those on the dashboard (slimstat)of my site administrative program (from wordpress) I find the statistics to be significantly different. In some cases 100-300 percent different when simply tracking the number of site visits per day. Why would there be such a difference – which to believe? Any insights much appreciated.

  • http://www.sigmanow.com Mark Akerley

    Another excellent and informative article, Rich – Thank you. A question: Comparing the statistics on google analytics to those on the dashboard (slimstat)of my site administrative program (from wordpress) I find the statistics to be significantly different. In some cases 100-300 percent different when simply tracking the number of site visits per day. Why would there be such a difference – which to believe? Any insights much appreciated.

  • http://www.flyteblog.com Rich Brooks

    Mark,

    Great question, but no clear answer. Could be because slimstat is taking visits from the moment the file is requested as opposed to Google Analytics which waits until the page is loaded (as the code that powers GA is often at the bottom.) Could also be that they measure "visits" differently. You don't mention which numbers are higher, but GA has a half an hour window in which repeat visits by the same IP (I believe) are counted as one visit.

    Analytics are sometimes as much art as science.

  • http://www.flyteblog.com Rich Brooks

    Mark,

    Great question, but no clear answer. Could be because slimstat is taking visits from the moment the file is requested as opposed to Google Analytics which waits until the page is loaded (as the code that powers GA is often at the bottom.) Could also be that they measure "visits" differently. You don't mention which numbers are higher, but GA has a half an hour window in which repeat visits by the same IP (I believe) are counted as one visit.

    Analytics are sometimes as much art as science.

  • http://www.flyteblog.com Rich Brooks

    Mark,

    Great question, but no clear answer. Could be because slimstat is taking visits from the moment the file is requested as opposed to Google Analytics which waits until the page is loaded (as the code that powers GA is often at the bottom.) Could also be that they measure "visits" differently. You don't mention which numbers are higher, but GA has a half an hour window in which repeat visits by the same IP (I believe) are counted as one visit.

    Analytics are sometimes as much art as science.

  • Philip

    Great tips. Thanks for sharing.
    SEOP.com

Related posts:

  1. Get Better Traffic Reports with Google Analytic Filters
  2. Use Google Analytics to Better Understand Your Site Traffic
  3. Google Analytics Dashboard: The How-to Video
  4. Traffic Reports Help Build a Better Web Site
  5. Track Visitor Behavior Using Google Analytics

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 10:51 am and is filed under Analytics, flyte news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.