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COVER PAGE

Google Analytics 101Sponsored by

Section One: What Is Google Analytics?Google Analytics is a FREE web tool that tracks and collects website traffic data. By simply placing a tracking code on a website, you can gain valuable insights about the users that visit your website, how they got there, and how they navigate your site.

What are the benefits of Google Analytics?

You’ve spent time and good money on your website. Are people actually finding it?

And once they do, are they engaging with it or moving on? Without Google Analytics, it’s tough to know.

Google Analytics collects a variety of data that you can use to figure out what’s working and what’s not on your website.

Audience data Who is visiting your site? Audience data gives you more information about the demographics of your site visitors, such as age, gender, and geography.

Acquisition data Where are your site visitors coming from? The acquisition data report shows where your visitors are coming from, for example, a Google search, a link from another site or a click-through from a blog post.

Behavior data Once they get there, what are people doing on your site? Behavior data looks at how visitors interact with your site, such as which links they follow or how much time they spend on a page.

Traffic volume How many people look at your site? The traffic volume report tells you how many visitors your site is receiving.

All of this information combined can help you make decisions about your website. Is it written in a way that appeals to the people who are reading it?

Is your site showing up when people search for a general term like “pool builder near me?”

Is your site engaging enough to keep people on it once they’ve landed there?

Are you ready to get more in depth?

Let’s dive in!

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Section Two:

Getting StartedGetting started with Google Analytics is easy. There are just a few simple steps.

1. Set up an account. Visit analytics.google.com and create a free account.

You will be prompted to name your account, and provide the name of your site, the site URL, and a category for your site.

2. Install the code. After you create an account, you will receive a piece of tracking code to add to your site so Google Analytics can begin to gather data.

You can add the tracking code yourself or ask a web developer for assistance.

Section Three:

Key TermsIn order to gain a better understanding of your data, let’s take a look at some key terms that you’ll find in your Google Analytics reporting.

General Terms:

User: A user is an individual visitor to your webpage. A user can be categorized as “new” (if they are visiting for the first time), or “returning”,(if they have previously viewed your site).

Session: The period of time that users spend on your site.

Pageview: One view of a single page on your site.

Pageviews per session: The average number of pages viewed each time someone visits the site.

Unique pageviews: This measures the the number of pageviews performed by different visitors. It won’t count duplicate pageviews by the same visitor in a session.

Behavioral Terms In addition to the basic terms, there are more specific terms that are used to describe how a user interacts with your website.

Bounce: A bounce occurs when a user spends on your site and leaves without interacting with the site; in other words, they don’t click on any other pages of your site.

Bounce rate: The bounce rate measures the amount of bounces relative to total visitors to the site. Google Analytics shows your bounce rate as a percentage.

Entrance: This is a measurement of the number of users that arrived, or landed, directly on a specific page of your site. This is really helpful to know. It’s natural to assume that all visitors are coming to your site through your homepage, but this is not always the case.

Exit percentage: The exit percentage looks at how many sessions ended with a user viewing a specific page. This data will help you determine when, why and how users are exiting your site so that you can make adjustments to certain pages to keep them engaged.

Traffic ChannelsOne of the most important things you’ll learn from Google Analytics is where your users are coming from. There are a few broad categories to describe the methods, or channels, by which users can reach your site.

Direct: A user types in the URL of your website or clicks on a

Organic search: A user reaches your site through an unpaid search (not pay-per-click) from a search engine. For example, they type in “pool builder near me” and because you have a great website with keywords that the user put in the search those keywords, your site pops up!

Paid Search: A user reaches your site because you have paid for a particular keyword using Google AdWords (pay-per-click.)

Social: A user lands on the site from a link shared on a social media platform such as Facebook or Twitter.

Referral: A user lands on your website from a link on another website. This is a great way to “share the love”. By adding links to partners’ websites on yours and asking them to do the same, you can both benefit from increased referral traffic.

Section Four:

Gaining Insightful Data: There are three broad categories of data that you will likely use in Google Analytics: Audience Data, Acquisition Data and Behavior Data.

Each of these categories is listed in the sidebar on the left side of the Google Analytics dashboard.

Audience DataThe audience overview screen gives you the majority of the important performance metrics for your site. The first option in the upper left allows you to select all users of your site or a specific group (such as users who arrived from organic search.)

Choose a group: The menu in the upper right can also be used to compare multiple groups of users, such as how many users came to your site through organic search versuslinks going directly to your site by typing in your url.

Choose a date range: The date menu in the upperright allows you to select the time period for which you want to view data.

Side-by-side comparison: To measure your progress with aparticular group, you can do a side-by-side comparison. The percentage change for eachmetric will be displayed in red if it declined or green if it improved.

Demographics: You’ll learn the age and gender of your site visitors. This information is invaluable when you’re writing content for your site and thinking about what motivates your customers.

Interests: The interests section uses data that Google collects by tracking users across the web to create an interest profile for your users. (It’s a little scary how much info Google has on us, but as marketers, we should take advantage of it!) Learning what keeps your customers interested in other things can help you figure out how to create compelling information for them.

Location (Geo): This category allows you to look at where your users are located geographically and which areas are generating the most traffic. This data can help you determine if your marketing is paying off in different areas, or if you might want to consider expanding your business to serve a new region.

Engagement: This section gives you even more in-depth information on session duration as well as the typical number of page views when a visitor comes to your site. Again, it’s one thing to get visitors to your site, but you need to keep them engaged once they arrive!

Devices: This subcategory shows what sort of device visitors used to reach your site (such as a desktop computer or a cell phone.) As more and more people are using their phones and other devices to view your site, it’s increasingly important to test how your site appears on various devices and browsers to ensure users are able to view it properly. Acquisition Data.

The audience data subcategories are where you’ll find some of the really juicy information that will help you make decisions about your site’s visitors.

Audience Data Subcategories

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Acquisition DataThe acquisition section looks at how users reach your site. The overview dashboard gives you a high level look at which channels are used to reach your site. You can also compare different types of users such as desktop and mobile using the menu in the top left. Again, the subcategories are where you’ll find the detailed data.

Channels: The channels subcategory compares important metrics such as bounce rate and session duration from all the different channels visitors use to reach your site. For example, if you notice a higher bounce rate on mobile on a particular page, may indicate that there’s an issue with how responsive that page is on mobile devices. You can also use the “Add secondary dimension” dropdown to see exactly what kinds of mobile devices your customers are viewing your site on.

Referral Sources: The referral sources menu shows which sites have linked to your site and how many users each link has brought to your site. Other important metrics such as bounce rate and session duration are also provided for the traffic from each link. In addition to links from external sites you can also use Google Analytics to look at traffic from links on social media platforms such as Twitter and FaceBook. The social section shows how many sessions have been started from various social media platforms as well as what links have been shared on a social media platform.

Acquisition Data Subcategories

Behavior DataThe behavior section shows how users move through and interact with your site. The overview dashboard shows key interaction metrics such as pageviews, unique pageviews, and the exit rate for various pages.

Behavior flow: The behavior flow data shows you exactly how visitors move through your site. For example, if you’re doing a promotion that involves a landing page, you can see if the visitors followed the call to action on the landing page, or if they bounced before supplying their email address.

Site content: The site content report allows you to see which of your site pages are the most popular, such as which blogs have been the most widely read. Once you’re able to determine which of your pages are the top performers, you can start creating more pages like them to lower your bounce rates even more.

Site speed: The speed at which your pages load is extremely important to the success of your website. Visitors to your site can easily become impatient if your pages load too slowly and bounce to another site that gives them the information they’re looking for at a faster speed. For example, video is a great thing to add to your site, but if your site isn’t ready to accommodate video, it can really bog down your page loading speed. Google Analytics will not only tell you which pages are loading slowly; it will also give you suggestions to improve the page’s loading speed.

Section Five:

Setting and Managing GoalsJust as you have sales goals for your business, you should have goals for your website’s performance. The goals section of Google Analytics allows you to set and manage goals for your site, and measure your progress as you move forward.

You can assign a goal value, such as how important this goal is in relation to other goals, or you might choose to assign a dollar value that’s attached to the conversion rate you’re hoping to achieve.

You can track your goals over time to see the amazing progress you’ve made!

To create a goal, go to the Admin section, click on Goals, then click on +New Goal.

4You can use a goal template, or you can create a custom goal.

You can create a goal type, such as destination or page visit duration.

You can select a goal, such as clicking on the “Contact Us” button on your site.

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Section Six:

SummaryThink of Google Analytics as a key to help you unlock the mysteries of your website. It gives you the insight you need to make decisions on how to make your content more engaging, which pages are working and which ones need a little work as well as how, when, why and where visitors are coming to your website.

Spending just a little time getting the hang of Google Analytics will help you focus your marketing efforts, give your website an edge over the competition, increase the number of leads you get and help you do what you do best: SELL POOLS!

With over 35 years’ experience in manufacturing fiberglassand composites,Thursday Pools is dedicated to bringingcutting-edge innovations to the pool world. Thursday Poolsdesigns and manufactures fiberglass pool shells that arehandcrafted with the highest standards and craftsmanship.

Ourone-piece, inground fiberglass swimming poolmanufacturing facility is based in Fortville, Indiana.At Thursday Pools, we aspire to be the world’s mostrespected fiberglass pool manufacturer.

We believe passion, care and attention to details make the difference. We are relentlessly dedicated to helping our dealer family succeed on every level by supplying them with resourcessuch as: product and 360 videos, helpful blogs, dealer salestools and educational materials like this.

For more information on joining the Thursday Pools dealerfamily, visit https://thursdaypools.com/become-a-dealer/.

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