Google Analytics can greatly increase conversions and improve the return on investment (RoI). You can thus make more profits from your e-commerce business. The service Analytics collects information about website traffic and ad campaigns. It combines this data this with other e-commerce and conversion related information.

The service offers precious insight into the effectiveness of your overall marketing efforts as well as site content. It lets you gain correct understanding of how to enhance your content, site structure and design.

Steps to access Analytics Settings

We have already checked in two previous posts on Google Analytics how to sign up and then use the Analytics Settings page. You should have Google account for creating Google Analytics account. The next key step is that of installation.

Once you finish the signup process, you are taken to the Analytics Overview Page that lets you edit your account setting, delete/ create profiles, and inform you whether your code has been properly inserted.

Followed by Analytics Settings, next to follow are the reports and some vital statistics that web analytics experts describe as very useful. These are statistics you can utilize straight away once you have installed your tracking code to look at visitor traffic. For your Google Analytics reports, you are carried to the Dashboard. This is a top-level view of your site to check how you are actually performing at a glance.

It is important to ensure that you have the date range that you want analyzed. The Date Selector (at the top right) lets you choose the range both with the Calendar and Timeline view.

The large graph displays Visits over time (by default). You can expand it to select any of the six important pieces of data for your site (To expand it, just click on the drop-down at the graph’s top right. ), namely:

• Visits

• Pageviews

• Pages/Visit

• Average Time on Site

• Bounce Rate

• % New Visits.

The same six statistics will appear in the Site Usage segment just under the graph. You can follow how Google Analytics actually sets the basic terms of Visits, Pageviews, as well as Pages/Visit.

The stats on Average Time on Site, Bounce Rate, and % New Visits provide a unique insight into your traffic pattern based on context that only you can best give, since you understand your website better than anyone else.

Bounce Rate:

• It is the percentage of site visitors who left it after just checking one page. For sites, a high Bounce Rate is not good since people are taking a quick glance, and are leaving immediately.

• This implies either the site is not gripping or they do not find it useful and are driven away by something.

• By checking your site’s Bounce Rate, you can optimize its landing pages and see if the modifications have worked. Conversely, a lower bounce rate signifies users like what they see on your site.

Average Time on Site

• This denotes the length of time every visitor likes to spend on your website’s tracked pages. Greater the time span, better the visitors’ engagement with it. Obviously, this is what you want. You can meet this goal with dynamic design and quality content.

• Conversely, greater Average Time on Site in case of an e-commerce site means people perhaps find your buying process to be complex or too long.

• Once you know what serves you cause best, you can accordingly set your desired Average Time on Site number.

% New Visits

• This piece of data informs you about the percentage of visitors to have never come to the site before. If you consider a date range where you have run an effective ad campaign, you’d be thrilled to see a higher number of new visitors exposed to your ad campaigns.

• If you are looking to build loyalty among your user base, then you will want a large majority of your visitors to revisit.

• You can click on any statistics produced by Google Analytics to seek more details.

So far we have acquainted you with a set of metrics you can use for measuring your site’s performance, as well as the success of changes, if any. We can do so without  leaving the Dashboard. In the subsequent posts, we shall consider your Traffic Sources reports and other useful data.