Monday, November 9, 2009

The Power of Google Analytics

Contrary to popular belief, Google Analytics does not give you the power to controls people's webcams. However there's not much it can't do when it comes to tracking how people interact with your site.

It's something you're going to want to consider for your personal site as it will allow you to have a better idea of if people are actually visiting and what is and isn't working. Are they looking at all of your print, or stopping after your fifth campaign? Maybe switching up the order would help. Or reducing the total number of pieces.

All of these things can be extrapolated from the data gained through Google Analytics.

Below you will find screen shots from Chocolate Microscope's analytics.

DASHBOARD
Details overall site stats. Page by page stats are deeper within.












MAP OVERLAY
A look at where hits are coming from. The darker the green, the more visits. Chocolate Microscope is huge in Germany.
















NETWORK LOCATIONS
This gives visitor specific ISP information. As you'll see it's actually not that detailed, with the exception of bigger organizations like Humber College and....car dealerships.














TIME
You can track not only how long visitors are on your site, but also when they're visiting. Here you'll see that noone bothers to check the blog between the hours of 4:00 am and 6:00 am. I'm hurt.
























TRAFFIC SOURCES
You can also see how people are accessing your site. Are they just typing the URL directly, or finding it via Google? Maybe you get a traffic spike because someone links to your site on a blog. Interestingly, Chocolate Microscope gets referrals from Facebook.


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