Intro to Google Analytics 4
We always set up a google analytics account for our clients, but it’s rare that we see our small business owners utilize its capabilities. We want to make this process easier for you even if you are not working with us directly.
If you’ve never used google analytics yet, let me walk you through how to install yours into your website first. Then we can talk about some of the basics of understanding web analytics.
We are going to show you through Squarespace, but obviously this can be through any website platform. Let’s start with step one.
Go to Google analytics and click “start measuring”
Name your Account.
Choose your “sharing” settings. I recommend leaving the settings as is.
Choose your property name (most likely your business name), your timezone, and currency.
Choose your business size and category.
Choose what your goals are for analytics
Choose your platform for your data streams. You have a website, so click “Web”.
Add your website URL and name the stream.
HOORAY, you’ve created your analytics property!
All we have to do next is link the property to your website.
A cool new thing from GA4 (Google Analytics 4) is they can detect which platform your domain is linked and walk you through the steps.
Seriously, you don’t need me at all, just scroll down and read the directions. But, just in case you like videos more. Check out this quick walkthrough below.
So, what is web analytics, exactly?
It’s all about using the data you can collect from your website to give you insights about your business. The three main things we want to focus on in the beginning are:
Metrics
Dimensions
Conversions
Let’s talk about metrics first.
A “metric” is basically anything you can count. If you sell anything on your website, you can track how much money you’re making or how many of a certain product you’re selling.
If your goal is to get people to read your website, you can track the number of times someone looked at a blog post or the amount of time they spent on it. Those are all “metrics.”
Next, you’ll analyze your metrics by using “dimensions.”
A dimension is basically the attributes or characteristics of your website visitors and their interactions. They provide context and additional information about the data you collect. Think of dimensions as the "what" or "who" of your data.
A couple examples of dimensions
Page Title
Device Category: i.e. desktop, mobile, tablet.
Location
User Type: i.e. new or returning visitors
So, what do you do with this stuff? Well, you use it to learn more about your website visitors.
Let’s say someone places an order, downloads driving directions to your shop, fills out a contact form, or does something else that you want them to do when they’re visiting your site. This is known as a “conversion.”
By taking your metrics and combining them with dimensions, you can find answers to very specific, detailed business questions, like:
“Which devices are people finding it easiest to convert on the goals of my website?” (goals like booking an appointment).
And that’s just one of many questions you can answer with web analytics.
Want to know what time of day most people are visiting your website? Take your “Visitors” metric and break that down by an “Hour of Day” dimension.
How about finding out which marketing campaigns are making the most sales? Take your “Conversions” metric, and break it down by a “Campaign” dimension.
As you dive into your own web analytics reports, you’ll be able to see all the metrics and dimensions being tracked, and you can combine them and slice and dice them to answer the questions you care most about.
Welp thats my best way of breaking down the complicated world of google analytics using googles own words. Best of luck too ya!
