Google Analytics

Book description

Web analytics is the process of measuring your web site, analyzing the data, and making changes based on the analysis. Many businesses are just starting to learn how they can increase the performance of their web site by using web analytics. For many people, their first exposure to web analytics is Google Analytics, a free tool available to everyone. Although analysis is vital to web analytics, you can't do analysis without good data. Configuring Google Analytics correctly is the key to collecting good data. This Short Cut provides a thorough description of how the Google Analytics system works, information about many different types of implementations, and ways to avoid common pitfalls. It also shares some best practices to get your setup correct the first time.

Table of contents

  1. Google Analytics
    1. Getting Setup Correct
    2. How Google Analytics Works
      1. Data Collection and Processing
      2. About the GATC
        1. Customizing the GATC
      3. About urchinTracker()
      4. About the Tracking Cookies
    3. Profiles and Profile Settings
      1. Website URL
      2. Profile Name
      3. Time Zone
      4. Default Page
      5. Exclude URL Query Parameters
      6. E-Commerce Settings
      7. Apply AdWords Cost Data
    4. Filters
      1. How Profile Filters Works
        1. Filter field
      2. Filter Pattern
      3. Filter Type
        1. Include/Exclude filters
        2. Search and Replace filter
        3. Lowercase/Uppercase filters
        4. Lookup Table filters
        5. Advanced filters
        6. Predefined filters
    5. Goals and Funnels
      1. Goals
      2. Funnels
      3. Additional Settings
      4. Using Regular Expressions to Extend Goals
    6. Common Web Site Configurations
      1. Dynamic Web Sites
      2. Tracking Across Multiple Domains
        1. How it works
        2. Implementation
      3. Tracking Across Multiple Subdomains
        1. Implementation
      4. Tracking Across Multiple Domains with Multiple Subdomains
      5. Frames and Iframes
        1. iframes
    7. Marketing Campaign Tracking
      1. How It Works
        1. How to tag links
      2. Understanding Conversion Referrals
      3. Tracking AdWords
    8. E-Commerce Tracking
      1. How It Works
      2. Implementation
      3. Common E-Commerce Problems
        1. Garbled data in e-commerce reports
        2. All transaction sources are your web site
        3. Missing transactions
        4. Tracking third-party e-commerce platforms
        5. Yahoo! store transactions
    9. Custom Segmentation
    10. CRM Integration
    11. Tips and Tricks
      1. Tracking Visitor Clicks, Outbound Links, and Non-HTML Files
      2. Recommended Profiles and Filters
        1. Filters
          1. Exclude internal traffic filter
          2. Include valid traffic filter
        2. Profiles
          1. Test profile
          2. Master profile
          3. Campaign/Source/Medium profiles
      3. Custom Segmentation Hacks
      4. Excluding Yourself from Google Analytics Data
      5. Creating an Implementation Plan
      6. Keeping Track of Your Configuration Changes
      7. Troubleshooting Data Accuracy
    12. Reference
      1. Google Analytics Functions
      2. Tracking Code Variables
      3. Regular Expressions
        1. Wildcards
        2. Quantifiers
        3. Operators
        4. Anchors
      4. Tools for Debugging Google Analytics
        1. LiveHTTPHeaders
        2. Firefox Developer's Toolbar
        3. RegEx Coach
        4. Time
    13. Conclusion
    14. About the Author

Product information

  • Title: Google Analytics
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: August 2007
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780596514969