Web Analytics TV #9 Review – Back to the Future

4 Jun 2010 by Graham Lyons - Analytics, News Analytics, google 1 Comment »

It's that time again to review Google's web analytics TV. Hosted by Nick and Nash, these videos give you some great insight into how to get the best out of your Google analytics data. The analytics TV show format, involves Nick and Nash answering viewers' questions that have been submitted via Google moderator.

Highlights

I found this episode particularly interesting on a wide ranch of analytics topics. I have described the most notable ones below.

How to Track PPC Loyalty (40 seconds)

Tracking when a PPC referral resulted in a conversion can be difficult, and Nash indeed admitted that this is not really possible with Google analytics. However, you can set it to track the first or even the last referral, but the extent of customisation that can be done with analytics is very limited. Nash also went on to say that using search funnels in AdWords and Analytics can also help you get the data you are looking for.

Sharing Custom Reports in Google Analytics (2 mins 23 seconds)

This is a question that I have wondered about myself. When you create a custom report it doesn't seem to show up if for example, another person logins into this account using different login details. This can be annoying if you want to show a client who has a separate login a custom report. Well it seems that the only way to share this report is via the shared link that you can send to people. Not ideal but a solution of sorts.

No tracking for Right Clicks? (6 mins 4 seconds)

This never occurred to me, but if you right click on a link on a webpage and select view in new tab or window then Google analytics may not track this in analytics, as the JavaScript is not being executed. Interesting. This is good to know but can you do anything to resolve this issue? Nick does go into more detail on how to get around this in the video.

Ecommerce Tracking Sales figures not Accurate (14 mins 52 seconds)

If you use the ecommerce tracking feature in analytics, then I'm sure you have wondered why this data is never 100% accurate. As explained in the video, there are two main reasons why this happens.

1) Sometimes the ecommerce tracking code may fail. (Although we were assured that this kind of thing is very rare but can cause analytics to not track a transaction.)

2) A person who visits your website may have JavaScript switched off. Google analytics tracking code uses JavaScript, so if JavaScript is switched off in the browser then the ecommerce code will not be executed.

This would account for the small percentage of differences you may see in your analytics transaction figures and the ones you see compared with those in the back-office of your website.

Google Analytics app Gallery

If you are looking for some cool little apps that you can use to extend the features available in Google analytics, I would recommend you visit the newly launched Google Analytics apps Gallery for some cool tools.

Where has the Asynchronous Code Gone?

One thing that was not mentioned in the video, but is worth a mention here, is that you may be wondering where the link to get the asynchronous code has gone in Google analytics. Well don't worry it hasn't disappeared, it is now the default code in analytics. Just remember to place it before the end of the <head> tag instead of the <body> tag which was the suggested location in the previous version.

Nash touched on the subject of the asynchronous code and said that this can increase your websites loading speed by up to 30%. So if you're still using the old code then maybe it's time to go back into your profile settings of Google analytics and grab the new code.

And Finally

Well that’s about it for this review, but I would really recommend you watch episode 9 as there are some really funny questions asked in this episode. Two that are worth a mention are: How to I track visits from pigs? And using Google analytics for time travel (where we're going we don't need analytics).

As always you can submit your question for inclusion via Google Moderator. You can enjoy episode 9 below:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndtcegN31pU[/youtube]

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About Graham Lyons

Graham is the SEO and Social Media Marketing Manager at Cozy Digital and the editor of the Cozy Digital Blog as well as contributing content for most of our social outlets like Facebook, Twitter and G+. Graham has been working in, and writing for the SEO / SMM industry since 2001 and is still as dedicated and passionate today as he was when he opened his first Website Design, Ecommerce and SEO company in 2004. You can connect with Graham and Cozy Digital via the social media links below:

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