This post will cover the basics to get you started with Google Analytics. Topics not mentioned here are either self explanatory or exceed IT support.

Admin

I. Dashboard

The admin information is located under Admin in the menu bar. This page will show you account settings, property settings and viewing settings. We will cover two of the topics under these three settings.

A) Tracking Info-Tracking Code

To find your Tracking ID:

1. Open the Admin tab.

2. Under Property settings click Tracking Info.

3. Under Tracking Info click Tracking Code.

4. At the top of the page you will see your Tracking ID and its current status–if the code is installed correctly it should say Receiving Data.

B) Filters

To avoid tracking hits caused by webpage testing, exclude specific users by IP addresses:

1. Open the Admin tab.

2. Under View settings click Filters.

3. Click the + new Filter button.

4. The image below shows field inputs that you can modify for your needs.

 

Reporting

Reporting will allow you to view data about real-time user activity, audience, acquisition, and behavior.

I. Real-Time Overview

Located in the sidebar menu this option lets you see user activity in real time. Features include referrals, top active pages and more.

II. Audience-Overview

Areas of interest may include browser and OS being used by the end user–this can help you determine the operating systems, browsers, devices, languages and more that your audience is using.

To view the browsers used by the audience:

1. Click Audience from the sidebar menu.

2. Click Technology.

3. Click Browser & OS.

Below you can see the data collected about users Browsers and operating systems.

You can also view the version of the browser by clicking one of the browsers.

A) Mobile Devices

Knowing what mobile devices are being used can assist with website and content development.

III. Acquisition-Overview

This section provides information about SEO, social media links, campaigns and keyword searches.

Campaigns-Organic Keywords

In order to test the results of a keyword search, you can enter the keyword in the searchbox and a list of relevant urls within your tracked sites will appear.

IV. Behavior-Overview

This section contains data on page duration, bounce rate, page views and more.

To Find Page View Numbers

1. Click Behavior in the sidebar.

2. Click Site Content.

3. Click All Pages.

The resulting page will show you the number of site-wide and page-based views. The top ten visited sites are listed automatically. At the top right corner of the page you can alter the date range to gather information about page views for specific months, years, or academic terms.