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Actual Metrics's blog

Set Up E-Commerce Tracking in Google Analytics

Posted Tue, 05/05/2009 - 14:21

Tie transaction data to your marketing efforts to get a more rounded picture of what's working and what isn't.

Google Analytics can track online purchases to give you an idea of the true dollar value of campaigns and traffic sources. To do this, you need to enable e-commerce tracking in your profile and add some extra code to the receipt page.

Tracking Subdomains in Google Analytics

Posted Fri, 05/01/2009 - 13:21


Subdomains on a website can confuse Google Analytics. You need to make decisions about how you want to track your site and then tag accordingly.

You may have heard that Google Analytics uses cookies. In fact, it pays a lot of attention to those cookies. If you mess with them, it gets angry and screws up your reports out of spite.

Customize Your Google Analytics Tracking Code

Posted Thu, 04/30/2009 - 11:46

The new ga.js tracking code has some tricks up its sleeve.

The new code has some built-in functionality that is more advanced than typical implementations require. Broken out by category, some of the advanced options are described below.

These are advanced features and should be used with caution. Using these features for the wrong situations may cloud your reports with funny data, and it won't be possible to fix that bad data once it's in the account.

Mobile GA version 1.01 for Android Released!

Posted Tue, 04/28/2009 - 16:24

A new version of Mobile GA has been released for Android. This new release fixes some bugs and adds more functionality.

JavaScript Basics in Google Analytics

Posted Tue, 04/28/2009 - 13:03


Google Analytics relies heavily on JavaScript. Well, actually, it's almost entirely JavaScript. "Relies heavily" is probably an understatement.

Sure, the Google Analytics tracking code can just be copied and pasted into each page on a website. You could go the easy way out. But what if you want to get into more advanced features? What if you want to track file downloads? Or what if you just wanted to really screw up your tracking code? Well, you would need to know some basics about how JavaScript works.

Adding and Testing Google Analytics Tracking Code

Posted Mon, 04/27/2009 - 16:42

Get the code on your site right the first time--and double-check it immediately.

One reason that Google Analytics has gained such rapid popularity is its ease of implementation. Google has kept the process straightforward enough that even many nontechnical website owners have been able to use it.

For most websites, simply copying and pasting the code that Google provides is sufficient. It's important to be able to test that code implementation immediately, though. Sometimes it's even necessary to go back into the account to grab the code again.

Cookies in Google Analytics

Posted Fri, 04/24/2009 - 16:17


Cookies form the foundation of Google Analytics reports. A warm, delicious foundation.

Cookies are at the heart of Google Analytics. Not just because they are delicious, but because they provide a critical link in tracking individual visitors and visits.

There is shockingly little documentation on the cookies created by the tracking code, what they store or how they work. Because they are so integral to the Google Analytics reports, it is important to lift the hood and understand exactly what is going on.

Organizing Your Google Analytics Account

Posted Thu, 04/16/2009 - 13:40


Google Analytics reports a lot of data. If you don't take out the irrelevant stuff, you will have a hard time getting anything useful from it.

Almost every company I've seen, large and small, uses Google Analytics unfiltered in the beginning. Trying to make useful analysis out of raw data is difficult. To really make sense of the reports, you need to exclude outliers, consolidate pages and isolate irrelevant data.

Real-Time Analysis and Google Analytics

Posted Thu, 04/16/2009 - 09:56

Real-time reporting may just be a marketing pitch.

Especially with the recent release of the Google Analytics API, there is often a demand for real-time reporting. Perhaps it's time to step back and ask whether that actually makes sense.

Tracking Campaigns in Google Analytics

Posted Wed, 04/15/2009 - 09:32


Google Analytics provides a simple way to track any marketing that drives traffic to your website without making any changes to your account.

To track marketing campaigns, simply insert campaign information into the landing page's query string. It looks something like this:
www.mysite.com?utm_source=cpc&utm_medium=google.com&utm_campaign=spring_sale

First, let's take a look at how Google Analytics keeps track of where a visitor came from.