Google Analytics Tips Biography
Source(google.com)Putting aside all recent arguments and gossip as per privacy issues (yep, nothing is probably totally free and Google Analytics should be using its (your?) data in some way), I should confess, I love the tool and use it.
I’ve been compiling the list of advanced Google Analytics tips that open up plenty of possibilities to track and evaluate. Today I am sharing the list and expect you to share yours too!
Note: I haven’t tried all of these tricks with the new Google Analytics code yet, so if there are any problems with any of them, please report.
Track 404 page (more info here): I’ve been reporting on the importance of handling your 404 page properly. To make sure you take care of your non-existent pages, simply include a piece of code to your 404 page:
ga 404 page The Huge Collection of Google Analytics Tips
Classify your site visitors, e.g. track the browsing and buying behavior of your “customers” (those who subscribed, made a purchase or downloaded your product):
<script type=”text/javascript”>pageTracker._setVar(‘Marketing/PR’);</script>
Google Analytics help page gives the following examples of the option usage:
Track visitors that landed on a particular page;
Track visitors that clicked a particular link;
Track visitors according to their form selection.
Track your (outgoing) links: add a code to each link you want to track:
<a href=”http://www.example.com” onClick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/example.com’);”>
Track your banner ads with the same code as the above one. For Flash banners you should use this code:
on(release) {
getURL(“javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview
(‘/bannerads/advertisername/bannername’);”);
getURL(“http://www.advertisersite.com”);
}
Track your downloads (PDF, AVI, or WMV) with this code:
<a href=”http://www.example.com/files/map.pdf” onClick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/downloads/map’); “>
Track mailto: links with this code:
<a href=”mailto:[email address]“onClick=”javascript:urchinTracker(‘/mailto/jerry’);”>[email address]</a>
For WordPress blogs: use “Ultimate Google Analytics” plugin that also allows for lots of other handy features (easy Google Analytics installation, simple configuration screen, all types of links tracking, etc.). Google Analytics for WordPress is also great for this and and for tracking AdSense clicks, image search keywords, etc. (More information on counting outbound clicks without the help of plugins.)
Track full referring URLs – set up the advanced filter:
ga full referral The Huge Collection of Google Analytics Tips
Track e-commerce transactions by monitoring your receipt page. Find additional information on this in “Advanced Google Analytics“:
ga track ecommerce The Huge Collection of Google Analytics Tips
Set up email alert on a regularly-scheduled basis – go: Analytics Settings => View Reports => Email=> Schedule:
ga email alert The Huge Collection of Google Analytics Tips
Exclude internal traffic: Analytics Settings => Edit => “+Add Filter”:
ga filters The Huge Collection of Google Analytics Tips
Compare traffic / page views over different periods of times, e.g. compare how your two viral campaigns performed compared to each other:
ga compare The Huge Collection of Google Analytics Tips
Bio
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The Huge Collection of Google Analytics Tips
Ann Smarty
Founder at Viral Content Buzz
Ann Smarty is the blogger and community manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas. Ann's expertise in blogging and tools serve as a base for her writing, tutorials and her guest blogging project, MyBlogGuest.com.
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50 thoughts on “The Huge Collection of Google Analytics Tips”
Tekka says:
August 4, 2008 at 7:45 am
Wow, thanks for that great post. I was looking for a solution to track the count of downloads of a pdf (cheat sheet: seo for WordPress). I will try it now with your given hints.
Sorry for my bad english… :-(
Mercy says:
August 4, 2008 at 8:26 am
After a weekend, you have come up with a excellent post Ann! I have an issue. For my multilingual site, my file names are too in French. So that comes up with some special characters, (contactez-succ%E9s.php) when i add my contact success page in goal tracking, even though a goal completed in a specified date, Google Analytics is not showing up! How shall i overcome this?
Andrew Miller says:
August 4, 2008 at 8:32 am
Great post, definitely going to re-visit frequently.
One of my favorite GA features is Funnel Visualization (within Goals). For some reason, clients love this report because it appeals to senior management types who aren’t used to looking at raw data.
The graphics work well to show the results of landing page or shopping cart conversion optimization. Side-by-side comparisons of two date ranges drives home the point that each step in the conversion funnel leads to higher site abandonment. If you can measure it, you can improve it.
g1smd says:
August 4, 2008 at 8:40 am
I use multiple profiles per site. I have a profile that tracks only stats on the domain itself using an “include domain” filter, and I use another one that checks only the stats on other domains using the “exclude domain” filter. Those other sites include the Google, Yahoo, and Live Search caches, as well as anyone else that has scraped the pages. Both of those also exclude all staff accesses, using a custom filter for that too.
All Staff are excluded from tracking using a Custom Filter that matches the Cookie that they receive by visiting a special password-protected “start” page. There is only one user name and password to access the page, and it drops a “do_not_track_me” cookie on to the users machine when visited. Most staff always go through that start page, as that is what they have been told to do, but actually the first visit per browser is enough to to make it work. Staff are told to always use that start page, so that they can be re-cookied when they change browser or get a new machine.
There is a third profile that has no filters and shows “everything”. I rarely look at it, but it is there if needed.
netmeg says:
August 4, 2008 at 12:29 pm
I have some nice ones that show true search queries for AdWords, and others that will append the keyword to a transaction, but I’m not altogether sure how to post them here.
Ann Smarty says:
August 4, 2008 at 1:35 pm
@netmeg: you can email me at seosmarty @ gmail.com
Gidseo says:
August 4, 2008 at 3:48 pm
You’re good – that’s a great huge collection.
monni says:
August 5, 2008 at 1:00 am
Thank you nice post
WebDesign Romania says:
August 5, 2008 at 3:35 am
thanks for this post, I started up working with Google Analytics a month ago and it’s just great.
Marion Nesmith says:
August 5, 2008 at 6:32 am
Again, Michael Martinez followed by your post. Each day I’m learning more and more. Oh yea, did I mention everybody else talking link, link, link…..and more link
DVBC says:
August 5, 2008 at 7:36 am
I though it was a huge number of tips… it’s just like recollect…
Alex says:
August 5, 2008 at 8:52 am
Nice list. I have been tracking Sphinn for a month or so – no good articles on this topic.
Deepti Makati says:
August 6, 2008 at 2:31 am
Really nice list!!
Thanks SEOSmarty!! :)
Internet Fan says:
August 6, 2008 at 5:49 am
Wow very good post. Thanks a million!
ZaggedEdge says:
August 16, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Hey SEO, thanks for the code!
Ad Manager says:
August 29, 2008 at 10:37 am
Great collection. One more: if your site has different areas (eg: visitors vs. subscribers) you can create multiple profiles and track them separately.
jyoseph says:
August 29, 2008 at 1:07 pm
NICE article. Putting this on my delicious and going to study it. Very helpful tips indeed.
Amit Agarwal says:
August 29, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Ann – Thanks for this list.
A big requirement for most of these tips to work is that your Analytics code must be placed before the function call is made.
That means your script has been in the head portion of the site and that may sometime increase the loading time because the script will download before any of your real content.
Tim says:
September 2, 2008 at 11:12 am
Ann, do you know if there is a delay in GA reporting search traffic from other engines? I can see traffic in firestats and pmetrics showing Live sending me traffic at about 50% the rate of Google, but GA doesn’t report this at all.
Can you point me in the right direction?
Thanks!
hamid jalali says:
September 13, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Please increase my ranking in google
epnu.iranblog.com
very thanks
Sleep says:
September 22, 2008 at 1:06 pm
The external links tracking tip is pretty nifty. How does it word with adsense? Or will Google Analytics ever consolidate that data under the Analytics platform?
zayarsan says:
November 18, 2008 at 5:28 am
delicious posting
TraiaN says:
November 19, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Hi Ann,
I also wrote an article about Google Analytics tips. It’s called Google Analytics Tips and Tricks. Please, take a look.
Gizmos says:
December 18, 2008 at 5:39 am
Hats off to you dear! Collection of superb tips. I appreciate and bookmarking you for future posts. Also applied on most of my website.
Webkios Advert says:
December 21, 2008 at 10:58 pm
There are also other free tracker but not as accurate as this tips.
Thanks for sharing it to us.
Richard says:
January 4, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Might I suggest using mixpanel.com to track some more intricate things that google doesn’t do very well, they have a nice blog to:
http://blog.mixpanel.com
MikaelT says:
January 19, 2009 at 10:08 am
Thanks for the tips!
I nice function if you want more then 500 lines in a report. Just add “&limit=50000? and you will have 50000 lines. It wont actually show in analytics but when you export a file it will have that amount of lines.
The Business Solution says:
February 4, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Thanks for the info!
Andi says:
March 9, 2009 at 4:00 am
Thanks for the excellent tip.
roblogger says:
March 27, 2009 at 7:40 am
thanks for the info and ciao from romania.
Icreongame says:
May 12, 2009 at 3:32 am
Thanks for these valuable tricks.
Josh says:
June 15, 2009 at 11:29 am
Any luck with GA and internal (non-anonymous access) SharePoint sites? I know older versions of the GA code did not directly access the sites, but is this still true? The GA dashboard states the code is not installed, but I can verify it is, and typo free. Sitescan engines are unable to verify due to the authentication requirements….any help is greatly appreciated.
Josh says:
June 17, 2009 at 6:59 am
I was able to get the code recognized by moving it from the body section to the HEAD section. However, no data is being collected…even though the GA status shows OK.
lauren says:
July 4, 2009 at 7:48 am
thanks for this post, I started up working with Google Analytics a month ago and it’s just great.
nike dunk says:
July 16, 2009 at 4:20 am
such a big collection, love you guys,lol.
Josh Stauffer says:
July 17, 2009 at 9:35 am
Very useful. I definitely need to use the tip regarding 404 tracking. Thanks!
Google Analytics Tips Dosti SMS In Hindi urdu Marathi In English Wallpaper Images Marathi Sad Photo
Google Analytics Tips Dosti SMS In Hindi urdu Marathi In English Wallpaper Images Marathi Sad Photo
Google Analytics Tips Dosti SMS In Hindi urdu Marathi In English Wallpaper Images Marathi Sad Photo
Google Analytics Tips Dosti SMS In Hindi urdu Marathi In English Wallpaper Images Marathi Sad Photo
Google Analytics Tips Dosti SMS In Hindi urdu Marathi In English Wallpaper Images Marathi Sad Photo
Google Analytics Tips Dosti SMS In Hindi urdu Marathi In English Wallpaper Images Marathi Sad Photo
Google Analytics Tips Dosti SMS In Hindi urdu Marathi In English Wallpaper Images Marathi Sad Photo
Google Analytics Tips Dosti SMS In Hindi urdu Marathi In English Wallpaper Images Marathi Sad Photo
Google Analytics Tips Dosti SMS In Hindi urdu Marathi In English Wallpaper Images Marathi Sad Photo
Google Analytics Tips Dosti SMS In Hindi urdu Marathi In English Wallpaper Images Marathi Sad Photo
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