Google Analytics

Michelle BeldenAccess Archivist, Penn State Special CollectionsPALA 2012

GOOGLE ANALYTICS:AN INTRODUCTION

FreeSuffi cient for most librariesEasy to implementFairly easy to understand

WHY GOOGLE ANALYTICS?

Data that won’t go through: Users who disable Javascript, block cookies

No reporting is 100% accurate. Focus on trends.

Privacy: Data is anonymous No Personally Identifiable Data Not shared with 3rd parties

CONSIDERATIONS

Sign up for a Google accounthttp://www.google.com/analytics/ to get tracking

code

Insert code into web pages Bottom of head section of HTML For large sites, put in template

GETTING STARTED

DASHBOARD

Visitor characteristics Traffic Content effectiveness

WHAT DOES IT MEASURE?

Visitors – randomly assigned ID and timestampNew and returning

Visits/sessionsPage Views

Unique page viewsBounce Rate

A FEW TERMS TO KNOW

VISITORS 1: OVERVIEW

VISITORS 2: MOBILE DEVICES

TRAFFIC 1: OVERVIEW

TRAFFIC 2: KEYWORDS

CONTENT 1: OVERVIEW

CONTENT 2: IN PAGE ANALYTICS

Especially when you’re just getting started, you might be interested in general questions: Where your visitors are coming from What browser/resolution they are using Most popular content Pages with highest bounce rate

As you go along, more specific questions might arise, like: Is this digital project getting enough use to justify further

work?

SO WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?

VISITORS 3: SERVICE PROVIDERS

VISITORS 4: MAP OVERLAY

What are the goals of your site?

How will you measure those goals? Example: we want our users to find our “finding aids” “Conversion”: hit on page whose URL begins with: http

://www.libraries.psu.edu/dam/psul/up/digital/findingaids/ You can even assign monetary values to these “conversions”

Can also look at time on site, pages per visit(Is the content sticky? Or is it just hard to fi nd things?

Maybe it’s time for some user studies-)

MORE ADVANCED USE

FUNNELS

• Series of URLs you think users will/should follow• Find out where you’re losing them• You can also find paths you didn’t foresee

http://www.google.com/support/conversionuniversity/

LEARN MORE!