Google web analytics reports: Basic report functionality

Exporting and emailing reports

 

All of Google Analytic’s web analytics reports offer an exporting function, which will allow you to save the report’s data in various formats: PDF, XML, CSV and TSV. This is a particularly handy feature to present custom reports or provide others within your organization with data on request.

The email function provides you with an easy way to receive your most important reports via email, following a schedule you set up. For example, you can set up Google Analytics to send you an email automatically every morning providing you with your KPI reports. This gives you a quick view of your business performance without having to log in.

Time frames

Setting the time frame for which you want the report data to be presented is one of the most important tools that Google Analytics can offer you, and the new version allows you to compare time frames which is an extremely important feature that comes in handy for almost every single report that matters to you.

 

Through the calendar interface you can select a particular day, week or month, but you can also select a range of dates by clicking on one date and clicking on the end date of your desired date range. There’s also the option to compare a date or date range to another date or date range by selecting the ‘Compare to past’ option. This is a great option to use when comparing the before and after of a change made on your site or landing pages for example.

 

The interface also offers a Timeline feature, which shows you a small bar graph of visits over time. A transparent window can be mutated to select a particular range based on fluctuations of visits. If you notice a particular peak in traffic this is a handy tool to select the dates based upon the graphical representation of your site’s traffic.

Views

 

For most of Google’s web analytics reports you have an instant view of the basic statistics (Pageviews etc.) and what these statistics mean for your site’s performance (Goal Conversion, Revenue). This feature makes the reports more meaningful by not only showing you the raw data but also how the data look from a business point of view.

Charts

 

A bunch of charts are available, smoothly designed in Flash. Most reports will offer you a basic table view of the data, a pie chart option including percentages, a bar graph including percentages and a bar graph that compares individual values to the average of the presented data. An added bonus are the trend graphs included by default in most reports. This type of graph gives you a snapshot view of your site’s performance for a selection of data points: Visits, Pages/Visit, Avg. Time on Site, % New Visits, Bounce Rate, Goal Conversion Rates, Conversion Rate and Per Visit Goal Value.

Search

All reports offer a search function, which is another important feature that comes in handy to look up specific data, for example stats on a particular keyword, for a search engine or referrer.

Dashboard

 

The dashboard shows you a snapshot view of a selection of reports that is customizable. Each dashboard unit can be removed or moved around and you can select your favorite reports to be added to your dashboard for a quick view of your site’s performance upon login.

The full reports for each of the reports summaries on your Dashboard can be opened at the click of a button by expanding the ‘Saved Reports’ menu option. Easy and quick access to the full data of your favorite reports is another big improvement over the first version of Google Analytics.

Tip: Spend some time setting up this dashboard. Not only does it give you a quick view of your favorite reports, it’s also great in combination with the email feature: One scheduled email for all the reports you find most important!

Segmentation

 

This feature is probably the most significant improvement – the ability to segment your visitors gives you a an easy way of learning more about your visitors and getting better ROI out of the various campaigns. Most reports provide this option to cross-reference the report data with data from other reports, e.g. if you’re looking at the Geo Map Overlay you can find out through which referring sites or which search engines visitors from a particular country/region are coming from. Similarly you can discover the demographics of your most valuable (goal converting) visitors.