Some Common Questions about Google Analytics and our Setup and Management Service
Question: "Why do I need Analytics?"
Answer: "Running a website without Analytics is kind of like trying to hit a baseball with a blindfold on. You can swing the bat, true. But you'll probably never hit the ball-much less even know if your facing the right direction.
Analytics give's you the inside picture of how visitors to your website react with it. Most people really don't spend much time considering this data, and they miss out on the world of information that it gives you. Knowing what is working and what isn't is a GIANT step in the right direction for any business running an online marketing strategy. Quite simply, you really are lost without it."
Question: "How much does it cost?"
Answer: "The program itself is FREE. That's right-Google gives away the program for free. Our setup and monthly management is a fee based service that depends on the amount of data that needs to be analyzed and the time it will take to do so. We quote that out on a case by case basis.
However if you wish to add Analytics to your site on your own, you must have access to the html code on your web server (this is usually through an ftp program like Filezilla), open an Analytics account with Google and copy and paste the code they supply into all the pages on your site at the end of the <body> section. There is many tutorials on how to do this on both Google and YouTube.
Question: "What kind of data should I track?"
Answer: "That really depends on what you feel you need to make informed marketing decisions, because virtually anything can be tracked using Analytics. For starters though we usually recommend clients track entrance keywords to site, time on site, bounce rate (the percent of visitors that visit your site and leave after viewing only one page), entrance pages and conversions. With those basic reports you can glean a pretty good picture of how the average visitor utilizes your site, and what you may need to change to increase your effectiveness."
Question: "I have more than one domain attached to my site, can you track more than one domain in a single account?"
Answer: "Yes you can track multiple domains (sometimes referred to as 'sub domains') but you will need to add additional code to your web pages for the Analytics script to work properly. If your unsure how to do this, we recommend hiring someone to do this for you as it can be semi advanced and confusing for someone not familiar with working with JavaScript code."
Question: " I run Pay Per Click on several search engines. Can I connect my Analytics account with other Pay Per Click services like Yahoo and Bing?"
Answer: "Unfortunately Google Analytics will only track the source of traffic data for other search engines down to the root source (not break it down to organic, pay per click, referred, etc). So in your results you will see ALL traffic from Yahoo and Bing in one place, where with Google you can break it down to paid and free sides. However, using the data from the Google side you can reasonably assume that results from the other search engines will mirror, in relative terms, those from Google."
Question: "How do I view my data online?"
Answer: "Simply log in to your Google account and click the 'Analytics' link in your panel. That will take you to your dashboard where you can see all the results, change date ranges and pull up reports."
Question: "Can I track sales and/or conversions from my site in Analytics"
Answer: "Of course, all you need is the URL of the page visitors are taken to after they complete the transaction you want to track (sale, form fill out, etc). This page can not be your homepage, it should be something like a 'thank you' page, where the only way someone can land on it is after they've completed the transaction. In Analytics this is called a 'Goal' and you can have up to 20 Goals per website.
Question: "How do I set up Reporting?"
Answer: "Pre-Defined Reporting can be set up from your Analytics dashboard by simply clicking the 'Email' link at the top of any page of data in your panel. So for instance if you wanted to set up to have the 'Visitor Overview' report sent to you every month, you would first click on the 'Visitors' link, then the 'Overview'. Once on that screen click on the 'Email' link in the upper left corner of the report and then the frequency you wish to have the report sent and enter your email address.
You can set up custom reporting to any parameters you may think of, by clicking the 'Custom Reports' link and then adding the things you want to track. Set up the Email scheduling the same way that you would set up a pre-defined report above.
Do you still have Questions on Analytics that were not covered above, or do you need help with anything Analytics related? Simply email them to me below and I will be glad to get back to you with an answer.
