Flows
Throughout the Reporting area, there will be another type of report called a "flow" (Behavior Flow, Users Flow, etc.). These flows allow you to see how people are moving ("flowing") through your site's pages based on different dimensions. Click on one of the flow groups to highlight traffic through that area, to explore traffic (see how people got to that page and where they went after), or to see more details about a particular group.
Shortcuts
Easily access your favorite reports by adding them to your Shortcuts in the left menu bar. Add a report to your Shortcuts by clicking the Shortcut button (shown below) located at the top of the report screen (e.g., add the "Location" report by clicking the Shortcut button while you are on that report).
Intelligence Events
The Intelligence Events report tells you when a metric for a segment is different than expected. So, for example, if you had a sudden increase in Pageviews (the metric) coming from the Country / Territory Germany (the segment), you would see that percent change in this report. Intelligence Events will also tell you over what period that change occurred: Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
These reports are useful in that they will let you know when something is different in your traffic. You can then use your other standard or custom reports to, perhaps, find the cause of the change - maybe a popular website linked to one of your pages, causing an increase in traffic.
Real-Time
The Real-Time report is similar to the other standard reports (showing location, traffic source, content, etc.), but it displays this data in real-time - you see who is on your site right now, what they are viewing, and how they got there. While entertaining, this report is also very helpful because it allows you to see how an individual user is moving through your site.
Types of Standard Reports
On your "Reporting" page of Google Analytics, you can find different types of reports in the menu bar on the left side of your screen. There are 3 major categories for standard reports:
- Audience tells you what types of users are visiting your site - their location, what type of browser they use, etc.
- Acquisition tells you how users are getting to your site, how they are interacting with your site on social platforms, and how to increase your visibility (SEO - Search Engine Optimization).
- Behavior tells you how your site is working, how people are using it, and gives you in-page analytics.
Watch the following clips to learn more:
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Audience |
Acquisition |
Behavior |
Tips
The following tabs will give you some tips and advice on some of the standard reports you will find in Google Analytics.
- Use the "Location" report under "Geo" to see a world map of where your users are from
- Use the "Behavior" reports to see who's new to your site, who has visited multiple times, and how long they are staying
- Use the "Devices" report under "Mobile" to see what types of devices your users are using - make sure that your website displays properly on the top devices (click the camera icon to see a picture of each device)
- Use the "All Traffic" report to see how people are getting to your site (what search engines they are using)
- Use the "All Referrals" report to see which external websites are linking to your site. Click on a "Source" (such as wikipedia) to see the exact pages that link to your site
- Use the "Organic" report under "Keywords" to see the keywords users typed into a search engine to find your site. You can use these keywords to optimize your site for maximum discoverability. *NOTE: (not provided) may be the field with the most sessions - it is just as it sounds: the keywords were not provided for those sessions*
- Use the "Search Engine Optimization" reports to see how many times your site appears for certain keyword searches, which pages rank highest in a search results, and how many times your site appeared in search results by country. *SEO tip: If a sub-page has a high ranking ("Landing Pages" report), make sure that that page has easy navigation to the rest of your site and has an attractive display*
- Use the "Network Referrals" report to see on which social networks people are talking about your site. Click on the Social Network (such as Facebook) to see which links users shared from your site
- The "Data Hub Activity" report will show you what people are saying about your site when they link to it from one of Google Analytic's Data Hub Partners
- Use the "Landing Pages" report to see which of your pages are being shared via social platforms
- The "Trackbacks" report shows an endorsing URL that tracks back to your page
- Use the "Site Content" reports to see which pages users are viewing, where users enter your site, and where they exit. The "Content Drilldown" report shows you the page paths users follow through your site (similar to using a flow report)
- Use the "Speed Suggestions" report under "Site Speed" to receive suggestions on how to make slow pages load faster (click on the links below "Page Speed Suggestions")
- Use the "Site Search" reports to see what users are searching for within your site, including how many users serached your site, their queries, and which page they searched from, the search terms used by start page (under "Pages"; click on a Start Page)
- Use "In-Page Analytics" to see where people click on your site and what most people see on their screen when they enter your site.
Date Range
You can view data from different time periods using the box in the upper right corner of your Reporting page. Choose a custom date range or a standard date range (today, yesterday, last week, last month, etc.).
To compare different time periods in your reports, click the box next to "Compare to" and choose the desired date range.
Once you specify a date range, all of the standard reports will show data from that time period; you do not have to re-edit the date range when you switch to a new report page.
Sharing Reports
Email a report to interested parties by clicking the Email button located at the top of the report page.
You will have options to add email addresses, choose the file format in which the report will be sent out, and determine how often you would like that report to be sent (once, weekly, monthly, etc.). The example below would send out the "Landing Pages" report.
You can also choose to export a report by choosing the Export button at the top of the report and choosing a file format.
