Learn Google Analytics Basics
The Four Critical Metrics


Why is Google Analytics Important?

Google Analytics is an enterprise level web analytics solution that gives you insight into all of the dimensions of your web site. You can think of it as a tool that is constantly monitoring the health of your web site.

What makes a Web Site Healthy?

In my opinion, a healthy web site is a site that is generating sales or leads on a regular and consistent basis. It's that simple. Everything begins with traffic flow. If customers are not able to find you on the web, then you will not be able to generate any interest in your business. Google Analytics tracks this metric and much more.

Once you have developed a steady stream of traffic through the implementation of SEO, PPC, SEM, and linking strategies, you then need to analyze if your web site is effective in converting. Conversion simply means invoking a person to take action. That action could be downloading a PDF, filling out a web form, calling an 800 number, or making a purchase.

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google analytics

The Four Critical Metrics

Even if you learn nothing else, or can't remember all of the indicators, you must at least remember these important four. Even if you learn nothing else, or can't remember all of the indicators, you must at least remember these important four. They are as follows:

  • New Visits to Returning Visits
  • Average Time on Site
  • Bounce Rate
  • Completed Goals


You must work to keep a balance of obtaining new visitors and creating returning visitors. The next thing you have to watch is the average time a visitors is spending on your web site. There are two sides to this coin. If the time on site is very low, say under thirty seconds, then this means your web site is not offering enough quality content. Your visitors are seeing what they searched for, or the information is not relevant to them. They will then click off your web site without digging deeper into your content. This in turn will give you a high bounce rate.

On the flip side, if your average time on site is too high, say over ten minutes, this can also be bad. It may mean that your check out process is too complex, or important information is placed too deep in your site. You will have to analyze your web content to make sure it is current and easy to access.

Your web site bounce rate will usually alter with your average time on site, and visitor indicators. A bounce rate under 50% is good. You should always strive to keep this as low as possible. Anything over 50% means your web site is not effective.

Inside Google Analytics you are able to create web site goals. These goals relate to your conversion goals such as making a purchase, filling out a web form etc. When this happens Google Analytics will record it as a completed goal. This is good. The amount of completed goals in direct relation to the amount of monthly web traffic will help you determine conversion rates, and ROI.

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