Supercharge Your Website’s Analytics Dave Hodgins Data Coordinator & Web Developer Library Research Colorado State Library April 2016

Goal Introduce you to 5 or 6 features in Google Analytics that you can immediately implement in order to improve the quality of your web analytics data and reporting.

Who Is This Guy? I make Coloradans smarter by making data and tools that make libraries smarter. dart.lrs.org find.coloradolibraries.org

LRS Analytics in a Nutshell LRS.org 1.25 million pageviews Libraryjobline.org 800 thousand pageviews Other Stuff Hundreds of thousands of data points from our various dynamic tools

Why Talk Analytics The Age of Anecdote is over. (Moment of silence joy.) Your web analytics is a bulging pot of gold that sits within easy reach and anxiously awaits your attention. Web analytics give you invaluable insight into the ways your users interact with your online content.

Part 1 Make Analyzing and Reporting Data Easier

Views A view is the basic level in Google Analytics where you can view data. Every GA property automatically includes a default unfiltered view. You will never…never ever…NEVER EVER modify a default view.

Filtered Views Filtered views allow you to see a subset of your data. Filtered views cannot be applied to historic data. Filters only affect data collected after the view was created, so plan ahead. To create a filtered view, copy a default view and then create/apply filters.

Filtered Views Default view

Filtered Views Default view settings

DO NOT EVER MODIFY YOUR DEFAULT VIEW!

Views Filters

Filtered Views Create/edit filter

Filtered Views Use filtered views to do things like… Filter data based on domain. Filter data based on IP address, e.g. staff/internal computers. Filter data based on the source, e.g. web, app.

Segments Segments allow you to group, filter, or…well…segment historic data. Combine segments to compare data. Segments are especially useful if you don have admin rights (and thus cannot create filters).

Segments Default segment

Segments Add or create a segment

Segments Apply conditions to your segment

Segments Use segments to do the same things you’d do with filters. Since you can combine segments, do things like… Compare data for multiple domains or pages. Compare data for multiple sources, e.g. mobile, desktop.

TIP: Filtered Views vs. Segments FilterSegment Historic dataNoYes Compare dataNoYes Permanent changeYesNo Restrict AccessYesNo

Part 2 Collect More and Better Data

Events Events are used to capture user interactions like clicks to links and buttons. Tracking code must be manually (or dynamically, if you use a CMS) added to links and buttons.

Events Event tracking code looks like this: <a title="Download PDF" href="337_2015_LibraryJobline.pdf" onClick="_gaq.push([ '_trackEvent', 'Fast Fact Report', 'Download', '2015: The Rise of Library Jobline Continues' ]);" >

Events Event data is separate from pageviews.

Events Use events to do things like: track when a user… Clicks a link to a.PDF or.DOC. Clicks a button or form element. Interacts with dynamic elements on a page, e.g. AJAX, single-page app.

TIP: Everything in GA is CaSe SeNsiTiVe The following event tracking codes will not produce the same results! onClick="_gaq.push([ '_trackEvent', ‘fast fact report', ‘download', '2015: The Rise of Library Jobline Continues' ]);“ onClick="_gaq.push([ '_trackEvent', 'Fast Fact Report', 'Download', '2015: The Rise of Library Jobline Continues' ]);"

Virtual Pageviews Virtual pageviews allow you to manually create and send a pageview to Google Analytics. Virtual pageviews are like events, except the data is mixed in with your “normal” analytics data.

Virtual Pageviews Event tracking code looks like this: _gaq.push([ '_trackPageview', '/downloads/pdfs/booyah.pdf‘ ])

Virtual Pageviews Use virtual page views to track… Traffic to static files like PDF, DOC, JPEG, etc. Traffic within dynamic (e.g. single- page) web apps.

Campaigns Campaigns allow you to track sources of external traffic. A campaign is simply a set of attributes that you define and append to links that are shared via external sources. Never use campaign links internally (on your website).

Campaigns A campaign looks like this: article?page=2& ob/4797/Parttime-25-hour-Concierge? utm_source=lrs&utm_medium= &utm_ campaign= %20template%20a utm_source utm_medium utm_campaign

Campaigns A campaign is “created” when you define utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, and then append them to a URL. 1.Define your campaign variables. 2.Append to URL. 3.Create short link using bit.ly. 4.Share externally.

Campaigns Use campaigns to do things like, track when users click links in… Facebook Twitter Mobile apps

Part 3 Navigate Your Data Like a Boss

Regular Expressions Regular expressions are like boolean searching, except with the addition of a hot poker to the brain. Use regular expressions when you want to filter data against a specific structure.

Regular Expressions ^/[0-9]{4}/[0-9]{2}/

Regular Expressions ^/job/[0-9]{1,4}/

Regular Expressions Here’s how ^/[0-9]{4}/[0-9]{2}/ produces results like /2015/09/01/some-post/ ^Start of the string… /…is a forward slash followed by… [0-9]…numbers 0 to 9… {4}…but only if there are 4 digits. Followed by… /…another forward slash, and… [0-9]…another set of numbers… {2}…but only if there are 2 digits this time. Followed by… /…a slash. After all of that, anything goes!

Regular Expressions Use regular expressions to search for structured data like… Permalinks in Wordpress, Drupal, etc.

Done But Not Finished Challenge yourself, your IT, your director to do better. Learn s/answer/ ?hl=en Need a wingman?