Google Analytics is a web analysis service that provides essential tools and statistics for search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing purposes. This service is free and available to all users who have a Google account.

Google Analytics can be used to monitor website performance and gather visitor insights. It is used to track website performance and collect visitor insights. Small and medium-sized retail websites often use Google Analytics to obtain and analyze various customer behavior analytics, which can improve marketing campaigns, drive website traffic and better retain visitors.

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics collects data about each visitor to a website using page tags. Each page has a JavaScript page tag that is embedded into its code. The title is embedded in each page’s code and collects data from the visitor. Google Analytics can then generate customizable reports to track and visualize data such as the number of users, bounce rates, average session durations, sessions by channel, page views, goal completions, and more.

The page tag functions as a web bug or web beacon to gather visitor information. However, because it relies on cookies, the system can’t collect data for users who have disabled them.

Google Analytics features can be used to identify patterns and trends in visitors’ interactions with websites. These features allow data collection, analysis, and monitoring.

They also provide visualizations, reporting, and integration with other apps.

These features include:

data visualization and monitoring tools, including dashboards, scorecards, and motion charts that display changes in data over time;

• Data filtering, manipulation, and funnel analysis
• data collection application program interfaces (APIs);
• predictive analytics, intelligence, and anomaly detection;
• segmentation for the analysis of subsets, such as conversions;
• Custom reports for advertising, acquisition, and audience behavior;
• Email-based communication and sharing;
• Integration with other products: Google Ads and Google Data Studio, Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Google AdSense, Google Optimize 360. Google Display & Video 360. Google Ad Manager.

Google Analytics dashboard allows users to save profiles for multiple websites.

They can either view details for the default categories or choose custom metrics to display on each site.

Tracking categories include traffic sources overview, keyword overview, keywords, referring websites, visitors overview, and map overlay.

You can view the dashboard on Google Analytics.

It is also available via a widget or plugin that can be embedded into other websites.

Independent vendors can also offer customized Google Analytics dashboards.

Important metrics

A metric refers to a standard for quantitative measurement. Google Analytics allows users to track 200 metrics to assess the performance of their websites.

These are the most common metrics. While some metrics might be more valuable for certain businesses than others, they are still important.

• Users, the user is an individual or new visitor to the site.
• Rate of bounce. This is the percentage of visitors that viewed one page only. These visitors only made one request to Google Analytics.
• Sessions group of interactions between visitors that occur in a 30-minute window.
• Average session duration.What average time each visitor spends on the site.
• Percentage of sessions that are new.The rate of first-time website visitors.
• Pages per session. This is the average page view per session.
• Completed goals this is the number of times a visitor completes a desired action. This is also called a conversion.
• Pageviews. Total pages viewed.

Dimensions vs. Metrics

Google Analytics reports include dimensions and metrics. It is essential to understand the differences between them to interpret words correctly.

DimensionsThese are labels or qualitative attributes that describe and organize data. If the average session length is calculated across multiple regions, the dimension would be “Region.” An example of a metric is “Average Session length,” which is a quantitative measure.

Google Analytics allows you to customize dimensions. Here are some examples of standard sizes:

• Language
• Type of browser
• City and country
• Models of devices
• The age group of the user

Metrics. These metrics are quantitative measures of one type of data. Metrics include page views, average session lengths, average time on site, and pages per session. Metrics can be used to compare measurements across dimensions.

Benefits and limitations

Google Analytics comes with its own set of limitations and benefits. The platform’s power, freedom, and ease of use are the main benefits for users. Google Analytics offers the following benefits:

• It is easy to use, free of charge, and beginner-friendly.
• Google Analytics provides a wide range of metrics and customizable dimensions. This platform can capture many different types of valuable insights.
• Google Analytics includes many other tools such as data visualization and monitoring, reporting, and predictive analysis.

Google Analytics has had some issues in the past that could affect its accuracy. These include:

• Overall data accuracy can be compromised by users who block Google Analytics cookies, specific browser extensions, ad filtering programs, and private networks.
• To reduce server load, reports are created by sampling 500,000 randomly selected sessions. These reports only include the number of visits. Small segments of data could have large margins for error.

User acquisition data vs. user behavior data

Google Analytics provides businesses with multiple types of data that can be used for marketing purposes.

User acquisition data gives insight into how customers arrive at the website. Customers can come from many sources, including paid search engine results and unpaid pages, social media links, or just typing the URL. It is crucial to understand user acquisition data to maximize website traffic.

User behavior data shows customers what they are doing on the site and how they interact with it.

This data includes how long they spend on each page and how many pages they visit. It also shows if they use videos or graphics.

These data can be used for web layouts that connect visitors to the content they want, resulting in a better user experience. Optimized user experiences based on user behavior data are more likely to convert sales and customers.

Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4, also known as GA4, is the latest iteration. It was launched in October 2020. GA4 is a significant upgrade to previous versions of Google Analytics. The new interface is entirely different, and it shifts away from third-party cookies to machine learning to improve data accuracy.

Google Analytics 4 features that are brand new include:

• machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) tools;
• Integration with Google Ads is possible;
• Customer-centric reporting based on lifecycle data
• Additional codeless tracking options that provide data with lower latency are available.
• Data management and regulatory compliance are enhanced with data control features.