Google Analytics: An Overview Unfortunately,

Google Analytics: An Overview

Unfortunately, having a state-of-the-art website design is no guarantee that it will draw Internet traffic. The World Wide Web is crowded with information; it can be difficult for an enterprise to stand out and to use its virtual platform in an effective manner. That is why Google Analytics is so useful: it can inform website owners how the majority of visitors were directed to the website, how the users surfed the various contents, and how the site's owner can draw greater traffic and better realize the website's objectives (What is Google Analytics, 2010, Google).

"Analytics typically works by allowing the JavaScript tag to perform certain functions such as creating a cookie…testing browser functionality" and providing a "tracing code" for the visitor (Google Analytics Usage, 2010, Built With). Google Analytics is the most popular of the analytical packages available to web owners. The information it provides has been primarily been of interest to website owners and marketers, although some web designers and web masters have found its analysis of user behavior to be of interest. Google Analytics can enable the website owner to determine the origin of all user traffic: such as other web pages, search engines, advertising, pay-per-click advertising, and emails, which enables marketers to better spend scarce advertising dollars (Google Analytics Usage, 2010, Built With). It can also determine which page of the site draws the most initial and repeat traffic.

For example, if visitors primarily navigated to the site through advertising on trade or fan-related online magazine publications, this would suggest that the website should be advertised on these types of sites more so than general publications. Conversely, some websites might draw more traffic through advertising found on message boards or blogs. Google Analytics can also indicate what area of the website drew the user's eyes: do users head to the FAQ section, do they use the interactive features of the site such as games, and do they search the contents if they are looking to purchase a product or flip through images, browsing? This can provide helpful advice as to what images and words are more attractive to users, so the website can be designed to keep user interest high, and also can indicate what words generate greater priority on search engines.

When visitors reach a site "Google Analytics stores the type of referral information in a cookie" and the analytics application ends the session after thirty minutes of inactivity or when the browser exits (Rutter 2010). Repeat activity is tracked as well: "Each unique browser that visits a page on your site is provided with a unique ID via the __utma cookie. In this way, subsequent visits to your website via the same browser are recorded as belonging to the same (unique) visitor" (Rutter 2010). Website owners can discover what keeps loyal customers coming back, as well as what draws first-time visitors. This is important, as for many sales-related products repeat use is more important than simply generating many first-time 'hits' from users who do not return.