Google Analytics – About it, Working, Target Group, and More

Google Analytics – Google’s web analysis tool explained

Google Analytics –

A web analysis tool like Google Analytics is part of the standard equipment of every online marketing manager. As a website, blog, or online shop operator, you have probably already come into contact with the tool. However, suppose you haven’t used Analytics yet or have decided to start web analysis with Analytics. In that case, this article will grant you a brief overview of what you can do with the tool and the advantages and disadvantages of using Google Analytics brings with it.

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a helpful analysis tool with which you can understand your website performance and analyze the behavior and needs of your customers. The device, which is free of charge in the basic version, provides you with information about the figure of users visiting your website and the performance of all sub-pages marked with the Analytics Tracking Code, as well as demographic data such as age, gender, or location of website visitors information about how and for how long users interact with your website.

Link your Google Ads accounts with Google Analytics or the Search Console. You can access an even more extensive repertoire of data and, for example, draw more in-depth conclusions about your SEA and display campaigns.

How does Google Analytics work?

Google Analytics –

Analytics uses JavaScript to read and evaluate HTTP requests, first-party cookies, and browser configurations. All users who come to your website are recorded (provided they do not block tracking by Google Analytics).

So that Google Analytics can collect relevant data about your website, you first have to embed the Analytics tracking code in the supply code of your page. You do this manually for each sub-page of your domain that should be tracked, or you can use the Google Tag Manager.

To do this, first, log into Google Analytics using your Google account or create a new Google account that you can use in Analytics. Here you can find out in detail how you google Analytics and then set up your account correctly. As soon as you are logged hooked on your Google account, the next step is to register with Analytics. Fill in the fields here with the information about your website and your time zone. You can then choose to link your Analytics account to other Google applications such as Google Ads or Google Search Console. Once you have made your selection, the only thing left to do is click on “Get Tracking ID.” As soon as you have confirmed the terms of use, you will receive the tracking code, which you now have to integrate into the source code of your website.

Target group, acquisition, and behavior reports: You can record these things with analytics

Google Analytics –

Suppose you have set up Google Analytics so far and are now good to go. In that case, you have a powerful tool at hand that you can use to analyze comprehensive information on user behavior and the performance of your website. The knowledge gained in this way will help you uncover weak points on your site and further improve the user experience for website visitors.

In Analytics, for example, you have the opportunity to gain real-time insights into the number of users currently active on your website, and you can track which sub-pages of your domain received the most visitors or what time your website received the most visits.

For example, if you have a blog on your site, you can use this information to adapt your blog posts to the surfing habits of your users. So you always post when you know that your users are online.

The Target Group Report

Google Analytics –

In the target group report, you get information about the number of new users, the total number of sessions on your website within a predefined period, the bounce rate (i.e., the percentage of users who gone your page without an interaction), the average length of stay of the Users on your page and the average number of pages viewed per session.

You can also filter this information according to various aspects such as the operating system, browser, or device type (desktop, mobile, or tablet) that your users use. For example, suppose your website has good traffic on desktop devices while users of mobile devices are increasingly bouncing off your site. In that case, there are some indications that you should further optimize your website for mobile devices. The target group report can also be viewed from gender or age, location, or the language of your website visitors. Are there still unused potentials in other language regions, or do you want to address a particular age group with your website content? With the analysis data from the target group report, you will be able to uncover possible optimization potentials and consider the results of your optimization strategy in real-time.

The Acquisition report

If you want to know how your paid search engine advertising compares to organic search results, the acquisition report is the right place to go in Google Analytics. Here you can, for example, filter for organic traffic or compare the numbers from paid ads, organic traffic, direct traffic, referrals, social media traffic, and display campaigns to analyze user behavior.

You can also access the information from your linked Google Ads, and Google Search Console accounts here.

The Behavior report

With the behavior report, you can watch which pages your users use to get in or out of your website and which sub-pages are accessed most frequently. You can also track which search terms your users enter in the internal inquiry and whether there are recurring terms. Then, for example, optimization of the website navigation can be helpful.

The Conversion report

Google Analytics –

Under the “Conversions” tab, you can see whether users perform specific actions that you have previously defined as your goals. It can be, for example, registering for the newsletter or placing an article in the shopping cart of your online shop. If you notice a sample here, for example, customers put products in the shopping cart. But then leave the page again before they complete the purchase process. And you can use this information to develop remarketing concepts with which you can still win your customers for your product. And also, can achieve a conversion.

Use analytics data in other tools

By the way, in addition to Google Ads and Google Search Console, you can also link your Google Analytics account to other online marketing tools, such as:

• Sistrix Toolbox
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider
• XOVI Suite
• Searchmetrics
• SEMrush

It does not give you any new data in Analytics. But you can view the traffic data directly in the other tools and compare it with other key figures. On the Sistrix and XOVI pages, you will find instructions on linking the tool with Analytics. And in our blog, you can find out how you can connect Searchmetrics with Analytics.

Google Analytics: advantages and disadvantages of the tool

As a free tool, Google Analytics offers you some advantages over other web analysis tools. Not only does the standard version provide you with a large number of comprehensive reports for free – as you already know. The functionality of Analytics can also expand to include numerous other features from other Google products. In addition, Google is always working on further improving Analytics. It is not without reason that Analytics has managed to become one of the standard tools among online analysis applications.

The user interface is kept comparatively simple, so you will quickly operate the tool independently. Should you run into a struggle, there are numerous free tutorials from Google. And a large online community to help you get answers to your questions. Or you can take a look at our Google Analytics guide.

Nevertheless, there are, of course, disadvantages when using Google Analytics. These include:

Inaccurate results due to data sampling:

If the requirements within data analysis become too complex, analytics may sample the data. This sample can lead to incorrect results. Data sampling can occur whenever a report has more than 500,000 sessions.

Limits in the standard version:

The amount of data you can analyze in the free Analytics version is limits. Google specifies a limit of 10 million hits per month (hits = interactions that arise from the data sent to Analytics. e.g., event tracking). As soon as you have reached this limit. Google can no longer guarantee that additional hits will still include in the data analysis. In addition. You may lose your reports as soon as you have exceeded the limit, which of course. Would be rather unfortunate with a long-maintained and developed analysis strategy. One way to have long-term access to your data would be to switch to Google Analytics 360.