Introduction to Web Analytics: Web Analytics Fundamentals Title: Introduction to Web Analytics: Web Analytics Fundamentals Course material - knowledge required - for certification Copyright © 2017 eMarketing Institute Web: https://www.emarketinginstitute.org/ Contact us eMarketing Institute c/o Web Media ApS Tove Maës Vej 7, 3.tv. DK-2500 Valby, Copenhagen Denmark VAT ID: DK 3531871301 Email: [email protected] 2 Table of contents Table of contents ................................................................................................ 3 1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 8 The goals of this book ................................................................................................................. 8 2. Understanding Web Analytics ....................................................................... 11 What is web analytics? ............................................................................................................. 11 The purpose of web analytics ................................................................................................... 11 The history of web analytics ..................................................................................................... 13 How to unlock your website’s potential through web analytics? ............................................ 17 Define goals ........................................................................................................................................ 18 Identify key performance indicators .................................................................................................. 18 Discover segments ............................................................................................................................. 18 How web analytics can help your business grow? ................................................................... 19 3. Using Web Analytics...................................................................................... 22 Web analytics basics ................................................................................................................. 22 The five ‘Whs’ of web analytics .......................................................................................................... 23 Most used terms ................................................................................................................................ 24 How to choose a web analytic tool? ......................................................................................... 25 Top 7 web analytic tools .................................................................................................................... 27 Web analytic software ....................................................................................................................... 33 Web analytic dashboard ........................................................................................................... 35 Why you should use web analytics dashboard? ................................................................................ 36 Which metrics to track? ............................................................................................................ 37 Visitor metrics .................................................................................................................................... 38 3 Content metrics .................................................................................................................................. 38 Goal metrics ....................................................................................................................................... 39 Traffic metrics..................................................................................................................................... 39 How to identify site referrers?.................................................................................................. 39 How to identify your audience? ............................................................................................... 41 How to identify the most important pages? ............................................................................ 42 What are Key Performance Indicators? .................................................................................... 43 Making KPIs work for you ................................................................................................................... 44 4. Google Web Analytics Basics ......................................................................... 48 Installing Google Analytics ........................................................................................................ 49 Setting up .................................................................................................................................. 52 Account, property and view ............................................................................................................... 52 Profiles (users) and filters .................................................................................................................. 53 Tracking traffic channels .................................................................................................................... 55 E-commerce tracking ......................................................................................................................... 56 On-site search tracking ....................................................................................................................... 58 On-page interaction tracking ............................................................................................................. 60 Analyzing data through Google Analytics ................................................................................. 65 5. How to Make Web Analytics Work for Your Website .................................... 75 Web traffic data analysis .......................................................................................................... 75 The top 5 pillars of web analytics ....................................................................................................... 75 Google Analytics Vs. Crazy Egg ................................................................................................. 78 6. How to Increase Your Site’s Visibility through Web Analytics ........................ 81 Why increase visibility?............................................................................................................. 81 Three trusted ways to increase visibility using web analytics .................................................. 82 Google metrics that help with website visibility ...................................................................... 85 Crawability .......................................................................................................................................... 86 NAP citations ...................................................................................................................................... 87 4 URLs index .......................................................................................................................................... 88 Deep links ........................................................................................................................................... 89 Branded and non-branded keywords ................................................................................................ 90 SERP ranking ....................................................................................................................................... 91 Click through rates on SERP ............................................................................................................... 91 Geographic reach ............................................................................................................................... 91 Keywords ............................................................................................................................................ 92 7. Ten Most Common Web Analytics Mistakes and Pitfalls ............................... 96 Mistakes to avoid ...................................................................................................................... 96 Pitfalls to avoid ......................................................................................................................... 97 8. Web Analytics: Best Practices...................................................................... 101 Strict documentation .............................................................................................................. 101 Tight integration with reporting system ................................................................................. 101 Understandings of business process ...................................................................................... 101 Sharing of ideas and knowledge ............................................................................................. 102 Having a roadmap for improvements ..................................................................................... 102 9. Analysing Analytical Data ............................................................................ 104 How to know if your analytic data is performing well? .........................................................