You have to have analytics running on a website so that you know how and what your website is delivering, what pages are working, and which are not. If you have concentrated on other digital mediums like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc – are they delivering, and where should the business be focussing their efforts outside the website?
The website is checked to ensure that Analytics is running on all pages and that it’s firing correctly. To get the best out of analytics, a website should have defined goals. A discussion as to what the business hopes its website will deliver is a good starting point here. We can then run through the website and pinpoint where these goals and conversions will take place.
On an eCommerce site, there are many predetermined ‘events’ that are flagged by eCommerce platforms and pushed into what’s known as the data layer. Using Tag Manager, you can configure these eCommerce events to be captured and used in eCommerce reporting. For eCommerce, Google recommends that you track specific events to enhance your ecommerce reporting.
Events
On an eCommerce site, there are many predetermined ‘events’ that are flagged by eCommerce platforms and pushed into what’s known as the data layer. Using Tag Manager, you can configure these eCommerce events to be captured and used in eCommerce reporting. For eCommerce, Google recommends that you track specific events (see image) to enhance your ecommerce reporting.
Once Tag Manager is configured to capture these events, they can then be used to start building very detailed reporting on a visitor’s purchase path through a website (or indeed a non-purchase path)
Website conversions are not necessarily a ‘purchase’ and if a site is not e-commerce enabled, certain milestones reached on the website have to be identified. These will vary depending on the nature of the business but some simple goals (as an example) could be a visitor contacting a business via e-mail, via an on-site phone number, through a website form or a PDF download.
Once goals are defined, it’s then a matter of making sure that are tracked properly as they happen on a website and reported clearly in real-time.
The best way to set up events (that become goals) it’s through Google Tag Manager. You can do it via Google Analytics, but there is more flexibility in Tag Manager.
Google Analytics - What we can do
Ensure that your analytics is running on every page.
Configure the enhanced measurement and ecommerce measurement.
Review the events collected and ensure they are the ones the business needs, add necessary ones.
Agree conversions and their reporting
Consider Tag Manager and Looker Studio to enhance measuring and reporting.
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Takeaway
About Google Analytics
- Make sure its on all pages
- Turn on eCommerce enhancements
- Use in conjunction with Tag Manager
- Report with Looker Studio
