Google Analytics is a fascinating piece of software. Since November 2005 it has dominated the free stats market and has done so with good reason! On the surface, the software is nothing short of excellent, but it’s once you take a little time to delve deeper that the true potential of this blogger’s best friend is revealed.

 

I found several features within Google Analytics that I never knew existed. It was time to do some research to find out what Analytics really offered. This article is a culmination of that research.

 

The 5 Google Analytics Secrets

 

#1 - Track Outbound Clicks - View Google Help Center Info
Whether you need to track how many people click your RSS subscription link, find out how many people click your advertiser banners or track how many times a file has been downloaded, Analytics’ ability to track outbound link clicks can help.

<a href=”http://www.example.com” onClick=”javascript:urchinTracker(’/outgoing/example.com’);”>

Add the onClick event to any link you wish to track. It’s good practice to use “/outgoing” at the start of the name. By doing so, you can easily track your outbound links.

 

Once you have added the code to your outbound links, how do you view the stats? Simple.

• Login to Analytics and click the “Content” link in the left sidebar
• Click “Content Drilldown”
• If you have had any outbound clicks, you will see a link called “outgoing/” in the URL column. You may need to use the “Find URL:” search feature at the bottom of the table to find the “outgoing/” link
• Click “outgoing/”. You should now see a break down of each outbound link that has been clicked

Click the photo to the right for screenshots of this process.

Click the photo to the right for screenshots of this process.

You can even track clicks of Flash items, such as Flash banners.

I’m hoping somebody will release a WordPress plugin that allows us to easily insert Analytics outbound tracking to links. A simple plugin that generates the code automatically after allowing us to enter the link name in a form would be ideal! If there are any WordPress gurus reading, please consider this as your next plugin!

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#2 - Compare Dates - View Google Help Center Info

Being able to compare one day of the week to the same day last week would be invaluable. Luckily, Analytics gives us this ability. We can narrow down our stats to specific days of the week, as opposed to dates. If you want to compare this Wednesday’s traffic to Wednesday of last week, here is how to do it:

• Login to Analytics and click the dates at the top right to open the calendar
• Select your first date, in this case Wednesday 14th
• Check the “Compare to Past” checkbox
• Click your second date, in this case Wednesday 7th
• Click “Apply Range”

You will now notice that everything is compared against the two dates. You can see in percentages and raw figures how much your demographics changed this Wednesday compared to last Wednesday. We can even compare date ranges in the same way, so we can compare this week to last week.

You can even compare traffic sources. Want to know how many visitors StumbleUpon sent you this week compare to last? Easy! Just compare the two date ranges and enter the Traffic Sources area.

 

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#3 - Where Your Visitors Move to and from - View Google Help Center Info

Finding out which Web site or search engine your visitors found you from is all well and good, but tracking those visitors as they move around your Web site is so much better. With Analytics, we can look at each page on your site and identify where visitors have come from to get to the page and gone to after visiting the page. This is called the navigational summary and can be found in the following way:

 

• Login to Analytics and click the ‘Content’ link in the left sidebar
• Click the “Navigational Summary” link at the right side
• Choose your page from the “Content” drop down menu below the graph, then use the data to see what percentage entered your site at that page, exited your site from that page, and where other visitors came from and went to before and after viewing that page

Internet marketers spend countless hours analysing how visitors move around a Web site. With this information, they can optimise the Web site to help determine where a visitor goes to next. By analysing this data yourself, you should be able to spot trends and start optimising your site to make your visitors move where you want them to move.

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#4 - Create Your Own Stats - View Google Help Center Info
Another marketers dream is the ability to collect data from their customers and have it automatically ranked and recorded. With Analytics, we can collect custom data from our Web site visitors and have it display right in our stats.

My personal favourite use of this tool is the collection of data through forms. When I launch my new blog design, I’ll include an option in my contact form for those contacting me to tell me what their profession and age is. With Analytics’ user defined stats, I can collect this information and have it automatically added to my stats. Right there I’ll have some valuable information for my advertisers. To collect data from a form, you need to use the following code (adapted to your needs, of course):

<form onSubmit=”__utmSetVar(this.mymenu.options [this.mymenu.selectedIndex].value);”><select name=mymenu><option value=”Technical/Engineering”>Technical/Engineering</option><option value=”Marketing/PR”>Marketing/PR</option><option value=”Manufacturing”>Manufacturing</option><option value=”General Management”>General Management</option>

Google suggests many other uses for this feature. View their help center information for more details.

Once you have collected your data, you can view it in Analytics by going to the “User Defined” page within the “Visitors” section.

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#5 - Remove Yourself from Your Stats - View Google Help Center Info
If you visit your own site each day like I do (usually while previewing new posts), you can quickly void your stats. Getting thousands of visitors each day is great, but if you don’t filter out your own visits you’re not going to get an accurate count for yourself nor your advertisers.

Using the Analytics Filters, you can exclude several things to ensure your stats are of the highest standard, but the most popular way to use the filters is to block your IP address from registering a visit or pageview in Analytics. To setup your filter, you will first need to find out your IP address. Once you know your IP, take the following steps:

• Login to Analytics
• Before you enter any of your Web site profiles, you should see a link to the “Filter Manager” under the Web site profiles table. Click this link.
• Towards the top right of the filter table, you should see a link titled “Add Filter”. Click this.
• Fill in the form, making sure to choose the correct filter type and making sure to apply the filter to the correct profiles