Marketing | 6min Read
Top 5 Reports in Google Analytics
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When it comes to monitoring the performance of your website and seeing visitor behavior, Google Analytics is your best friend. However, it’s an expansive suite of tools and reports, and knowing where to look can be overwhelming. It can answer the “Who”, “What”, “Where”, and “How” and sometimes “Why” questions about your audience. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the top 5 reports you should be checking in Google Analytics as much as you can.
1 – Audience Overview Report
According to Databox.com, “the Audience Overview Report gives you a quick snapshot of who is visiting your site, where they are coming from, what type of device they are on, and how long they are staying.” It’s one of the very first reports you see when logging into Google Analytics, and contains a lot of useful information. In a sense, it answers the “Who” question of site viewership. From here you can see vital metrics like pageviews, users, sessions, and more. Diving deeper into these reports can give you more specific and detailed reports on things like demographics and user location.
2 – Mobile Overview Report
The Mobile Overview Report is important because it breaks down the types of devices that users are viewing your site on, listing them by Desktop, Mobile, or Tablet. As statista.com reports, 54.4% of web traffic is on mobile devices, meaning that building a mobile-first site is more important than ever. What is even more interesting is that the reports can, on a deeper level, show you far more detailed information like what brands of devices your viewers are on, as well as operating systems and service providers. In a nutshell, it answers the “How” question of how visitors are getting to your site.
3 – Source/Medium Report
Answering the “Where” question is the Source/Medium report, which lets you know more accurately where your visitors are coming from. The report shows the breakout of different sources of traffic to your site. The default sources include search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing as well as social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In more detailed reports, you can see where your visitors are coming from such as Google organic searches, referrals from other websites, direct visits to your website, or paid ads that you’ve placed. In addition, you can view a comparison of the top traffic drivers to your website.
4 – Landing Pages
The Landing Pages Report answers the “What” question, as in what pages are your visitors seeing first. As Google Analytics shows, any page on your site can be a landing page. A landing page is the first page a visitor goes to on your site. While your homepage may be the most visited page on your site, what your visitors search can lead them to other pages, so this report is important. In the report, you can see what those pages are, as well as where users are coming from. From here you can see Sessions (which are overall visits to your website), Pages per Visit, Percent of New Sessions, and Bounce Rate. Similar to the Source/Medium report, it could spark ideas on where to increase efforts in advertising, organic search, email campaigns, or other traffic sources.
5 – Search Queries
The final report we will touch on is the Search Queries Report. It answers the “Why” question, but also answers the “What” question as well. This report shows what your visitors are searching for to find your website. Here you can sort through clicks, impressions, average position, and click through rate. It’s a great tool to optimize your website, since you can see your audience’s keyword focuses and can adjust as needed. It’s also critical for SEO, as knowing and understanding the keywords can help you better solidify your position in searches and offer insight into what content your site may be lacking.
Conclusion
These are just five of some of the basic, yet powerful reports provided by Google Analytics. Not only are these great ways to see valuable information about your site and audience, but they will also give you information that can shape your website, advertising, and SEO strategies. It’s well worth your time to explore these reports, and more, to get more familiar with your website and its health.