In our articles we have discussed a lot about SEM. It is time to talk about tools which shows results in SEO - statistics tools - and at the beginning we think that it is good idea to start with Google Analytics. In this article we want to introduce you some important tips and tricks in Google Analytics(GA).
1) Put the GA Code in the Site Footer
Do this for the simple reason that if the GA code is slow in loading, your site will still resolve. Lots of Joomla GA mambots place the code in the head - avoid this.
2) Double Counting Page Views
If our homepage was host-ed.net/index.php, GA would count two page views: host-ed.net and host-ed.net/index.html. Avoid this by setting index.php as your default page inside Profile Settings >> Main Website Profile Information.
3) Tracking Clicks on Images and Buttons
You can use GA to track how often people click on an image or button. Simply add urchinTracker() to the onClick event of that elementGA will then record a page view for image.jpg.
4) GA Filters Understands Regions
If you want to track how visitors from a certain region are behaving, you can create a custom filter for “Visitor Region” and place “New York” or “California” in the “Filter Pattern” field.
5) Get Around the Four Goal Limit
It is possible to track multiple conversion activities in a single goal. For example, both these pages might be conversion pages:
- http://www.host-ed.net/blog/rss/google
- http://www.host-ed.net/blog/rss/rss
GA Goals allow regular expressions so we cover both URLs by using /rss/(google|rss)$. Both URLs match the regular expression and would count toward the goal tally. To drill down into the data and differentiate which URL generated more goals, use the Goal Verification report.
Note: Once you change data in GA it can’t be changed back. Run all changes on a test profile first.
