What is Google Analytics?

In brief, Google Analytics is a plugin you can add to your website to track traffic and to analyze it. And by traffic, we mean website visitors.

Anyone that wants to grow their website should use Google Analytics. This tool allows business owners to see how many visitors come to their page. It tells them where they come from and how much time they spend on your site

But that is not the only thing this plugin allows you to see. You can also view how old they are, what is their demographic, their geolocation, gender and so much more.

What are the benefits of using Google Analytics?

There are many advantages that Google Analytics offers. It is a broad tool that helps monitor:

• Your site's performance

• The type of content is trending that you should put on your website

• The characteristics of online users. It groups people according to their demographic, age, gender, county, etc.

• What kind of customizations you should apply to your site to drive traffic and conversions

• The efforts you are putting in your website and to see whether they are working or not.

How does Google Analytics collect data?

When you create a Google account a tracking code option appears. The code is then placed at the website in the form of cookies.

When a visitor opens your website, a popup asking for permission to use cookies appears. By using those cookies, Google Analytics will know how this user behaves. It will gather information and then send you a report on their actions.

What kind of information does Google Analytics gather from its users?

First, it can tell you how many users visit your website. There is a report on a weekly and monthly basis. Then, it will show you how much time they spend on your website. It tracks the duration of each session. You can see how long they have explored your site, how long they have stayed reviewing a product, and go long their purchases last.

It can also give you real-time analytics of how many users are currently on your website. These reports are especially important. They can be used for measuring how well your sale, giveaway or contest are performing.

But that isn't all. Google Analytics also can show you how many customers have left your page without performing any kind of action. This is also known as the Bounce Rate.

When you're starting with Google Analytics it is important to have Acquisition reports. They are useful. They tell you how the visitors land on your page.

There are four main types of traffic depending on where it comes from: organic, referral, direct and social.

Organic Traffic

This is the type of visitors that find your site through search on Bing, Google or Yahoo. Users that came onto your page, aren’t here from referring channels. Instead they had taken the initiative to search your site.

Referral Traffic

Hyperlinks are types of referral traffic. The person that opened your page, didn’t actively search for it on a search engine. Instead, they came from other domains or sites. Referral traffic is crucial for an SEO optimized page. This type of traffic is an excellent way to improve a brand’s exposure and conversions.

Direct Traffic

This is the simplest type of traffic. This kind of traffic comes from direct URLs. Visitors don’t search the site, nor they come from other mediums. Here they type the URL of the site and access it. There are three types of visitors that come from direct traffic:

● Those who are familiar with your website and return to it

● Mouth-to-mouth referrals

● People who find your website through commercials or paper advertisements

Social Traffic

This is the type of traffic that comes from social media platforms. Many companies are starting to realize how much of an impact social media has. When they share their content across multiple social platforms, they have twice the traffic they usually get.

By holding social media contests, you can influence users to go to your page and to sign up. This is an excellent strategy to build loyal customers. You will make them visit your site and register. This will spike up your conversions and will result in more traffic. And in return the same customers will receive an award.

Google Analytics does wonders in business and marketing. Not only it provides valuable insights, but it also improves a website’s performance. Although there are many software’s that work with analyzing data, Google Analytics still remains the best. It is simple to use. You don't have to have previous knowledge in programming and coding in order to set up this plugin.

References:

https://medium.com/@dineshsem/10-good-reasons-why-you-should-use-google-analytics-699f10194834
https://blog.ispionage.com/google-analytics-understanding-the-basics.html
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://moz.com/blog/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics&usg=AFQjCNHj53WY4Uehq9C_AYqBVJs2sJ-cbQ
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.prweek.com/article/1697164/use-google-analytics-measure-roi-beyond-buzzwords&usg=AFQjCNFpPrUEylri5c33aQDzTZPSqQda-A
https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/