Tracking Traffic and conversions with Google Analytics.

A real boom for internet marketing, the Google Analytics service collates detailed statistics about the amount of traffic experienced by a website. The service not only shows where people found the link to a certain website, but what pages they visited once they were there and what activities take place, giving businesses information that is very useful when it comes to increasing web traffic and the monetising potential of a site.

Web analytics was originally the preserve of information technology professionals and webmasters, but Google Analytics is specifically aimed at internet marketing – and it has been a great success, soaking up some 57 per cent of the website statistics market.

Google Analytics is able to track visitors to a site coming from all forms of referral, such as other search engines, email marketing, links within documents, display ads and Cost Per Click CPC. When used together with AdWords, internet marketers are able to review the success of their campaigns, using the service to track the amount of users hitting the landing page and seeing all the conversions that are made – whether they are direct sales, downloads, specific page views or the generation of leads. When it comes to Search Optimisation, Google Analytics can show which keywords are performing best and tailor their online advertising accordingly.

The way that Google Analytics works is to give casual users – such as website owners or business owners – the data in an easy to scan “dashboard” format, with more technical and advanced levels of data analysis available to internet marketing professionals and computer experts. This analysis is able to show which pages on a site are the best and worst performing, while the data on where visitors to a certain site come from is very useful when it comes to targeting markets and planning internet marketing campaigns in the future.

Setting Up Google Analytics for Free for all our customers.

Google Analytics works by adding a small amount of JavaScript code to every page on a user's website. This code is called the Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC) and it basically behaves like a conduit for information that is collected at the site and sent on to Google to be processed and collated. The data is processed on an hourly basis and gives users a series of incredibly up to date “snapshots” of their site's traffic. The GATC relies upon larger files from Google itself to operate and customises itself with the Google Analytics user's own account details. It sets cookies on site visitors' computers which store information detailing whether that visitor has been to the site before or not, at what time they are visiting, and where they came from. All of this information is stored anonymously.

Using Google Analytics is a great way to swiftly and easily observe and analyse web traffic data, and the insights it provides can greatly enhance any website's effectiveness and profitability. With the help of internet marketing experts, this is an invaluable service for online businesses – or any business with an online presence.