By helloDarwin
July 12, 2017
How does Google Analytics work?
Most businesses want to grow with the help of content creation and web development. Of course, the average business owner may have little interest in being an analytics expert.
However, there is no way to know if your website is succeeding or failing if you don't take the time to understand its backend. If you're ready and willing, Google Analytics will reveal all the hard truths regarding the productivity and success rate of your website.
Understanding Google Analytics reports and what the program is capable of requires an understanding of its basic functions. Having insight into the data that Google Analytics is capturing, as well as knowing how the system, and in turn you, can interpret this data, is key to making sure your website is performing to the best of its abilities.
Read on to find out exactly how Google Analytics works!
What is Google Analytics?
In a nutshell, Google Analytics is a free web-based tool that is built into the back end of websites. It works to generate detailed statistics about the activity on and of your website as well as how it is performing. It helps business and website owners to understand and analyze the data collected regarding visitor traffic. In other words, it will assist you in understanding the needs of your customers, clients and audience.
Google Analytics employs first-party cookies, storing anonymous information on the computer of each of your site’s visitors. The GA service is very popular, as it is incredibly reliable and free to use. Further, Google Analytics is very user-friendly and will make even the most novice business or website owner comfortable testing the waters.
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How does Google Analytics work?
At the most basic level, Google Analytics consists of a JavaScript code on each webpage, a data collection service on Google's servers as well as a processing engine that creates a data report. GA connects to your website through a small piece of JavaScript that is in the form of a tracking code.
This code is placed into the HTML backend of your website and will need to be utilized for each page of the website that you’re interested in tracking.
This code works to track visitor information. Also, this script sets a few cookies which contain some basic visit information, and this works to determine whether this visitor is returning or a newcomer.
Next, all the information that JavaScript collects is sent to Google Analytics servers so it can be processed. The GA code sends the information by way of a small file, appending all the cookie data and information it has collected.
This allows Google’s servers to have a record of when files have been requested as well as all visitor page-view information. Finally, Google Analytics processes all the requests and makes this data available to you.
What are the benefits of using Google Analytics?
Of course, the main benefit of using Google Analytics is learning how your clientele thinks. Google Analytics gains a lot of useful information, allowing you to see which keywords users type in to find your site. You will be granted the ability to identify the pages and links that website visitors click the most.
This will show you how your online marketing campaigns are doing, directly offering you the terms of success based on bringing traffic, as well as the conversion to your website.
It will also show you whether traffic is being directed to the correct pages. Further, you will be able to monitor how many new visitors your website has, as well as geographical and referral sources that visitors may have dealt with.
Another major benefit of Google Analytics is that with all this data collection, the tool offers you a way to fine-tune your website to directly suit the needs of your clients.
With all analytic reports, you are able to adjust the content of your website and edit any pages that are not well-received. This gained knowledge will lead to new customers in the future, as you'll have a better understanding of what is needed and wanted from the clientele. Feel ready to get started on exploring the wonders of Google Analytics? We hope so!
Related Tags
SEO
Google Analytics
Website Optimization
Search Engines
About the author
helloDarwin
We create successful business alliances through tailor-made partnerships. Web marketing, video production, ERP/CRM integration... Whatever professional service you need for your business, helloDarwin helps you find the best service providers for your project. Free of charge, without any obligation and within 48 hours on average. We help you find grants, loans, aid and assist you throughout your digital transformation.