Google Analytics is an extremely useful tool to see what exactly is going on with your website. However, it provides a huge amount of data and tons of reporting options.
In this article, we will give you the most important Google Analytics reports you should look at to give you the most information about your website and the activity it is receiving. You can find these reports in the left side bar.
Acquisition > Overview:
This will show you where exactly your traffic is coming from. It will show you how people are being referred to your website.
Acquisition > All Traffic > Referrals :
This will show you the exact URL that created traffic on your website. It was where the user came from to be directed to your website. This is very important to see when you want to filter out spam.
Acquisition > Search Console > Queries :
This will show you what search queries were used to bring traffic to your website. This is a useful tool, however, Google Webmasters has a better representation of the search terms.
Acquisition > All Traffic > Source/Medium:
This report requires a couple more steps. After you generate this report, click on “google/organic” in the results. Then add a secondary dimension of “Landing Pages”. This will show you information about all the pages of your website that have shown up in Google search results and data to go along with it. This is important because you can see what pages of your website are working and which ones are not.
Audience > Mobile > Overview:
This will show you what devices people are using to access your website. If you haven’t already, you need to make your website “mobile-friendly”. People are using their phones or tablets more than ever to browse the internet so having your website compatible with these devices is crucial to the success of your website. Not only does it provide a better user experience, it will also boost your SEO rank. This report will give insight on how much traffic you are receiving on mobile devices and how your website is performing on each platform.
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If you’re unsure how to read a report, check out our previous article Understanding Your Google Analytics Report.
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