Google Analytics-Using GA

Sunday, October 5, 2008

To be able to put GA to any use, you need to have a Web site; a lit-
tle knowledge of HTML helps. On signing into GA with a Google or
Gmail ID, you are asked for a Web site URL you wish to track. The
free version of GA allows 50 tracking profiles, and since reports are
generated per profile, it is best to allocate one profile to a specific
URL. You are then provided with a small code snippet that needs
to be inserted into every Web page that you wish to track—to
emphasise, the code should be on every page you wish to track.
Inserting the code into the first page of the site will not track all
the pages in it.
There is no limit to the number of Web pages that can be
tracked; the page view limit (in the case of free users) is the only
limiting factor. More sites can be added by using the “Add Web site
Profile” link. Every profile has a different code that has to be
inserted in the Web page. So it is crucial that the code be inserted
in the Web page of the same profile. That’s it. GA will start gener-
ating reports within 24 hours of the insertion of the code.
The code that you copied into your site accesses a JavaScript
file on the Google server. All the details are collected by the script
and sent back to the server. The data and their graphical repre-
sentation details can be viewed on the GA site.
Since GA is useful to many people, many users should be able to
access it. Users can be added from the “Access Manager” link on the
main page. The users can be permitted only to view reports, or given
Administrative rights. Users need Google IDs to access the site.
To distill information collection further, users can add filters by
using the Filter
Manager link on the main page. Filters can be used among
other things, to track visitors from a partic-ular IP address, or to
overlook visitors from a particular IP, or only visitors of a
certain nationality can be tracked. All these and more is
possible by applying filters.
An extensive help system offers a lot of information not only
about using GA but also about making sense of the information
provided. There are case studies and reports from industry experts
on how, by using GA, tangible results can be obtained.