4 Basic Google Analytic Metrics and Why They Matter

Any business with a website should track its performance online by essentially understanding its leads, sales, and website traffic. And, one of the tools most agencies like Web Chimpy recommend is Google Analytics. This tool provides businesses with a massive amount of data and numerous metric reports. The company can use the data to assess their site’s performance and, inevitably, their business.

Even with the continuous and dynamic evolution of Google Analytics, four basic metrics still stand out. By understanding these four metrics, you can successfully identify your website’s weaknesses, opportunities, and strengths. These four basic Google Analytic Metrics include:

Users

These are the number of people who visit your website during a particular timeframe- a week, month, or year. Google Analytics categorizes your site users into two: new users and returning users. The new users are the number of people who are visiting your website for the first time. On the other hand, returning users are the number of people visiting your site for the second time or more.

By learning about each category, you get to make well-informed strategies for your business. You also get to improve your website experience for the first time and returning website visitors. Apart from the number of new and returning visitors, Google Analytics Metrics also helps businesses know which countries their visitors are from.

You can also learn about their gender, age, and preference. And, with more information, you can make better-informed decisions about your products, type of content, and offers published on your website. By giving your users products and content they find helpful, you solve their problems and convert them into regular customers.

To track your user metrics, all you need to do is create a Google Analytics account and connect your website.

Pages per Session

Every website has different pages, and it’s important to track the progress of every site page. Pages per Session metrics indicate the number of pages your user views per session. This metric not only tracks traffic from Google search but also your social media pages and other links. A high pages per session metric indicates that your site visitors are more engaged with your products or content.

With the pages per session metrics, Google Analytics tracks the time spent on a website page and how your users navigate those pages. By monitoring your user’s time, reviewing their comments, and what they like, you get to understand and increase their interaction. You also get to map out the areas in your site that require a transformation.

These transformations then help increase interactions and how your user travels through your site’s content.

Sessions

According to Google Analytics, the definition of the session is the interaction a group of users has with your website that takes place within a particular time frame. For instance, if a visitor spends five minutes on your website, loads one page, and interacts with a specific element, all these actions are recorded under the sessions metric. Tracking the sessions of each user on your site helps evaluate whether an SEO or marketing campaign is working, especially if you run an eCommerce site.

A session starts when a visitor enters your site and ends at midnight, after 30 minutes of inactivity, or if the user leaves, enters your site through one campaign and comes back through another. While the idle time indicates 30 minutes, you can still adjust the inactivity period in your Google Analytics settings.

Remember, sessions are significantly different from page views and users; therefore, ensure you collect and track that data differently. You can also use session recordings, conversion funnels, and on-site surveys to interpret the data successfully.

Devices

The last and most important is the device metric. This Google Analytics metric highlights the number of users who visit your site on a mobile, desktop, or tablet device. The device metric is essential because you get to determine on which platform you can focus your efforts. You also get to improve your experience on various platforms.

For instance, you may want to put all your resources and time into enhancing your desktop website experience, but your device metrics indicate that most of your site traffic is mainly mobile. With this information, you can turn your attention to your mobile website experience.

Your business website has to be your most profitable platform. And, with Google Analytics metrics, you can transform your weaknesses into strengths. You can also know what’s working and continue putting more effort into improving your strategies and campaigns.