What Questions Can Google Analytics Answer? Part II

Melanie Wahl - January 6, 2012

In a previous blog post, What Questions Can Google Analytics Answer? (Part I), we scratched the surface with an explanation of what Google Analytics is and how it can be used to see where people visiting to your website are coming from. We also briefly touched upon Google Analytics’ ability to break down data by location or by technical factors such as operating system or screen resolution. In this blog post, we will discuss how Google Analytics can answer questions such as:

Are Visitors Using Mobile Devices?

The New Version of Google Analytics has two reports specifically designed to track Mobile traffic: the Mobile Overview Report and the Mobile Devices Report. You can reach The Overview Report by navigating through Standard Reporting>Audience>Mobile>Overview and you can reach The Devices Report by navigating through Standard Reporting>Audience>Mobile>Devices. The Mobile Overview Report, set to Ecommerce can quickly tell you if your mobile traffic is converting.

Where Are Visitors Going on My Website?

There are a number of different reports that could answer this question, depending on what you are looking for specifically. Check out the reports within the Site Content section located under Standard Reporting>Content>Site Content. The Pages Report in particular has a wealth of data about pages on your website. The Explorer tab within the report allows you to view data about specific pages, the Navigation Summary tab allows you to select a page and see the number of pageviews for those who entered or exited your site from that page. You can also see the previous and next pages visited. The third tab on the Pages Report, In-Page, overlays bubbles with data (such as percentage of clicks, transactions, revenue, or specific goals) so you can see where visitors clicked on your site and followed through with an action (in the case of transactions, revenue, etc.).

The examples above are only a few of the thousands of questions Google Analytics can help answer. If you have a specific question, please contact us or sign up for a free analytics consultation.