At last Thursday’s webinar on Goals, we we explored one of the most fundamental analytics topics: how to translate your business objectives into measurable actions on your website. You sent in your questions, and we heard from many users that you want more guidance on turning all that data into insights.How do I do data analysis?
Performing data analysis requires understanding what your company defines as success before you can even start to figure out which reports and metrics to use. The best place to begin is to think about why you have a website, what you’re trying to achieve (lead generation, site engagement, sales, et cetera), and how those objectives map to specific metrics in Google Analytics. For example, if you have an ecommerce website, you might want to track which types of users purchased and which types of users didn’t purchase. If you have a site with lots of content, you might want to understand where users came from before watching a video (e.g., were they referred by a blog post, or did they click on a paid search ad?), or you might be interested in how users moved through your site before getting to a certain page.60-second YouTube videos that walk through different reporting and analysis techniques.Why should I use Goals if I don’t have a product to sell? Flow Visualization tool to see how users get there. You might then determine that it's too hard for users to find the information that they need. The specific metrics that you should use will depend on the purpose and goals for your site.Which types of Goals should I use? Event tracking . And don’t forget that if you’re an online retailer, or if your conversion process pulls in dynamic monetary values, Ecommerce in Google Analytics allows you to track transactions and the order value of every purchase made on your site.What are good trends to measure for websites without a shopping cart? How do I set up Google Analytics for my site? Help Center . Other sites, such as those that span multiple domains or subdomains, require additional lines of code. If you have this type of site, you should check out our documentation on all the different implementation scenarios . Use these guidelines with your webmaster to get the code implemented properly. If you need additional help, you should consider contacting one of our certified partners for advice and assistance with all aspects of Google Analytics.What are Goal match types/settings? Help Center article on setting up Goals to get more information about which match type is right for you.How do we determine what goal value to set? How do we test alternate landing pages? Google Website Optimizer that allows you to test different variations of the same page so you can improve the effectiveness of your website and your return on investment.What are the top 5 metrics to share with the CEO? Multi-Channel Funnels !).Google Analytics dashboards to pull everything together in an easy-to-read format . So dive into the Google Analytics reports and find your story!help center for further details on all of your questions.Posted by Sara Jablon Moked, Google Analytics team
