We all know that Google Analytics is the most popular and the most used web analytics application. Since it is free, so most of us take this as granted and are not aware about the actual power of this application. What they don’t know is, if used correctly, one can find the most valuable insights about his business and customers with the help of this application for FREE.
In this article, we’ll cover the six basic and powerful Google Analytics features which every Google analytics user must use. But before jumping to that, I’m assuming that you’ve already installed Google analytics tracking code on your website. Others can visit the tutorial here.
Emailing your Reports – With Google analytics, you don’t need to log in every time to see your traffic stats. You can access all traffic reports directly from your Inbox. Google has completely automated this process using which you can schedule your reports to be emailed to you or your clients on daily, weekly or monthly basis.
Just click on the Email button in your Dashboard and Schedule your reports. If you need more information, you can read the complete tutorial from Google here.
Exclude Traffic from your Own IP – If you want to get more accurate metrics of the traffic your site is getting from external sources then you can set an IP filter in your Google Analytics which will help Google analytics to exclude the internal traffic from your reports. To Do so , You’ve to go to Filter Manager in your Google Analytics account and then add an IP filter.
You can read the complete tutorial here.
Use “Add to Dashboard” – Do you want to check anything specific every time in your Google analytics report like – top referring sites or most popular keywords. Then, save your time and access these reports directly from your dashboard by using “Add to Dashboard” feature.
Filter Your Keywords – Confused after looking at the long list of keywords that appear in your Google analytics report? Then use the “Advance Filter” option. By using this feature, you can filter your keywords according to the number of visits, pages/visit, time spent on site, Bounce rate, % new visits. Moreover, you can also filter them according to their conversion value.
Check out this video from Google analytics Youtube channel for a detailed tutorial.
Using the Pivot View Option – Want to know which keyword/landing page combination is best? How many searches a keyword get from any country? Which browser and operating system your visitors are using on the basis of keyword? You can get all these information by using Pivot view option (the fifth button) under keywords report.
Using Motion Chart – Motion chart is a great feature that helps you to visualize the performance of individual keywords over time. To access Motion charts click on the Visualize button located at the top of the keywords report.
And you’ll see the motion charts where you can compare the performance of your keywords overtime and identify the trends
Please refer the detailed tutorial about Motion Chart here.
31 comments
Thanks for the article, I think Google Analytics is a very useful instrument that every possessor of an online business should try.
Using the Pivot View Option is super useful, used that many times myself! Don’t forget to also check out Google Analytics by yourself and just play around with it, that’s how I actually discovered the Pivot View Option.
Till then,
Jean
Hi Roger,
I don’t have it, but you have just given me 6 good rezones to plug it in.
Hi , Glad you liked it . I bet you’ll love it after using it
The pivot view I use quite a lot. I’ve never really looked at the Motion chart so will take a look at that today. There is so much to Analytics that you could spend all day just looking at the data in there.
It is such an amazing resource though. I remember the days of AWStats…how times have changed.
Its true, there is lot more to explore, It is the beauty in Google applications, there are no other limits besides your own imagination
My favorites are “advance keyword filter” and add to dashboard. Google analytics is a lot more better now because of pivot views.
These are really good features of Google analytics. I will set up some feature like landing page and keyword combination. Thanks.
I have also heard that I can filter my IP address in google analytics before but what if someone has dynamic IP address, is there a way to solve this issue??
Hi Jim,
You can filter a complete range of IPs in Google Analytics. Please check the tutorial I linked to in my post. But I don’t think it would be as effective as it would be in static IP , This feature will be more useful for big companies which want to filter traffic from all internal IPs
I don’t think the issue can be solved. However it would be an interesting feature if someone finds a solution. For static IP’s it works great.
Great Article,
I use google analytics for all my blogs and even my school website. Its an invaluable tool. I am definitely going to try Roger’s tips.
Thanks for the advice… I am not using any of these, so I better get on the ball!
Hey Roger,
Great stuff. I’ve switched to this and find that the motion charts are so much easier to identify what’s happening with my keywords. I guess it’s simple to make informed decisions now.
glad to hear that 🙂
I’d never even seen the motion chart before! I’ll definitely be taking a look at that.
Interesting, I didn’t know about the motion chart either. It’s very interesting.
@ Andy and Plumber Sydney
Yes, most of the webmasters are still not aware about motion charts. But I hope you’ll find them useful 🙂 Thanks for the comments
Analytics is underrated in my opinion, it really is one of Google’s highlights, thanks for the info, you explained a couple of things that caught me off guard! 🙂
Thanks Den , You are right, most of us take Google analytics for granted coz its FREE .
I had no idea that you could do the first option with Analytics.
I have been using them for a while no and nothing else has com close to be remotely accurate as Google Analytics. 🙂
Hi Dean, Thanks for comment, Visited your blog and read the post you wrote about Google Analytics. I’m glad that you found my article useful
Another feature I would like to add is the goal setting feature in Google Analytics. Make use of it so you know how your desired results are achieved.
Love the amount of things we can do with Google Analytics!
Thanks Roger,- never heard of ‘motion charts’ before! We exclude our own IP. This one is a biggy for accurate analytics.
Boy seems to me that I have to digg more for Analytics.
These are really great features.
Thanks for share it with us
I have tried the Email & the Add to dashboard one. Both are kewl enough. Need to try the pivotal view & motion charts. Thanks for sharing them 🙂
I used to see it for optimizing my visitors behavioral. Bouncing pages and links etc. are the best resource in Google Analytics. You can minimize your traffic bouncing rates by seeing which pages perform well and which needs extra efforts.
Wow I didn’t know about the Pivot view. I am going to go and play with it now and see what i can figure out. Good look out once again.
Hello…I landed upon your site from Google. And I am glad that I found this excellent piece of information. I was using Google Analytics earlier but then I removed it and installed Statcounter. It is also good but definitely not as versatile as Google Analytics. The points you have shared here are highly appreciated. I think I should put my Google Analytics again. Thanks a bunch for this excellent post.
Instead of calling a customer service number, direct them to your Google+ page and have them start a hangout with you.