The new Google Analytics allows webmasters to keep tabs on traffic to their site, including visitor numbers, traffic sources, visitor behavior & trends, times spent on the site and a host of other information gathered via two pieces of JavaScript embedded in the source-code. It runs quietly in the background, gathering the necessary information without any visible signs of its presence, unlike other free visitor trackers.
Although Analytics boasts all the features and statistical data to be expected from a top-class keyword analysis and statistics tracker, it also features a number of additional tools which put it ahead of the most of the pack where ease-of-use and depth-of-information is concerned. Let us have a look of those 4 great reasons that could compel anybody to use Google Analytics!
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The Map Overlay: Essentially, this feature brings up a map of the world, highlighting the countries a site’s visitors stem from. Clicking on a country produces a close-up view, along with a geographical breakdown according to the region and/or city from which visitors accessed the site. This tool in itself is invaluable for all those webmasters with geo-specific sites, concentrating on a particular catchments area.
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The Site Overlay: This is conceivably Google Analytics’ single most important feature from a webmaster’s or online business owner’s perspective, as it provides a hands-on view of visitor behavior. When clicked, ‘Site Overlay’ opens the tracked web site in a new window and, after a moment’s loading time, overlays each link on the screen with a bar, containing information about clicks to the target page and goal values reached. Since it allows the webmaster or site owner to navigate his or her site and see exactly how visitors flow through it, it is difficult to imagine a more effective tool than this as far as raising a site’s conversion rates is concerned.
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Goals and Funnels: Unless the site being tracked is an information site which does not rely on generating sales or enquiries, conversion rates are as important as sheer visitor numbers. The ‘Goals & Funnels’ feature allows users to set up specific goals for their site. It also allows the user to set up specific monetary values for each goal, and thus track the site’s financial performance and profitability during any given period of time. The term ‘Funnels’ refers to the specific path a visitor takes to reach the goal’s target page and allows the tracking of each individual path with a minimum of fuss.
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Graphical Representations: A great many visitor trackers out there will present the collected information in a certain way, be it a list, graph, pie chart, flow-chart or whatever. Whilst all these methods of presentation are of course valid, it is nevertheless a fact that most users are different, and a pie-chart is not necessarily ideal for those users preferring to work with graphs or vice versa. Google Analytics however, allows users to choose between views on many of its reports. Although this may seem like a relatively minor point, it nevertheless makes things easier, as it allows the user to work with the view he or she is most comfortable with.
