5 easy to follow Google Analytic Tips that everyone should use

Google Analytics is every B2B marketer's favorite tool-- at least to check traffic.

And also the favorite tool which we have been underutilizing when hardly a week goes by without login into GA.

I know the feeling. As soon as you open the admin panel, you are totally at loss.

The tool can answer a lot of questions. I might not be wrong to opine that a lot of us are missing those answers.

As a thousand miles journey begins with a single small step, we can also do the same. And I know you’ll be more than willing to take 5 tiny ones! 

Below are 5 easy to follow tips Google Analytics tips that can help you know:

1. What visitors are searching inside our website?

2. How many people searched our brand on Google?

3. How to get notified immediately when a key metric change significantly?

4. How to get more cleaner and refined data?

5. How to send customized analytic reports to different stakeholders?

What Visitors are Searching on our Website?

What search terms your visitors are inserting in your web site's search box can offer you excellent insights into what they are looking for (need). It clarifies the intent your visitors are expressing. Let’s set it up. 

Where to go: Admin> View> View Setting> Site Search 

Set site search tracking On. In the query parameter, paste the letters that appear after ‘?’ on your website URL when you search a keyword on your site's search box. 

In the screenshot below, you can see I entered 'innovation' in the search box and 's' follows ‘?’. So ‘s’ is your query parameter. 

If you’re using WordPress, add ‘s’ under the query parameter in a heartbeat. 

And now to see the report: Wait for a few days or a week (depending on your traffic), and go to Behaviour >Site Search

How many people are finding us using our brand terms?

The trend of the number of searches on your brand terms is a way to estimate the level of brand awareness. A conventional way to find this trend is to look into keyword volume trends for your brand term on Google Search Console or a tool like SEMrush.

And you can keep a tab on the same trend from Google Analytics. There are two different ways. 

If you’re using Google Ads, you will find the option under Channel Setting. You can create your own custom channel. Insert the list of brand terms you want to monitor and that's it. You will be able to see how brand vs non-brand paid traffic performs.

For filtering brand terms in your organic search traffic, go to Admin> Select the View> View Setting> Segment 

Name your segment, choose your source and keyword, and it is all set. Also, please connect your Google Search Console with GA. 

Now to see it in action, wait again for a few days/weeks depending on your traffic. Go to any report section, and click on Add Segment, select the segment you created and that’s it.

In the below screenshot, for example, I’ve used the segment in an acquisition report. 

Can I get notified whenever a key metric changes?

Do you want to get notified when the number of users on your website goes above/below a threshold or whenever an anomaly occurs?

You can do that by setting up your own alerts. You can get notified for increase/decrease in cart abandonment, signups, traffic, page views, bounce rate, and the like.

To set Custom Alerts go here: Admin > View Column > Scroll to Personal and Assets > Create New Alert Button

Give your alert a name. Then select the view you want to apply this alert on. 

The rest of the fields are self-explanatory. You will do fine. In case you get stuck, feel free to ping. 

How to send customized reports to different stakeholders?

Do you know you can create multiple custom reports on Google Analytics and then you can schedule those reports to get sent to specific emails?

Your HoD, Manager, Designer, CMO, Social Media Manager, Optimizer-- you can create a custom report specific to each and then send a report of their liking to them every week/month- you can set a frequency.

The first step is to create a custom report. You can find custom reports under the Customization option on the left-hand side banner. 

Once you have your custom report ready, open it, and click on share. 

You’ll see a pop-up like below and you know what you have to do there. 

How to get more cleaner and refined data?

If you have been using GA data, you might have faced two problems for sure.

One, where you get two variations of the same URL and one is missing a slash ‘/’ at the end. For example: yoursitename/this-is-it/ and yoursitename/this-is-it. This messes up analysis. 

Two, when you export analytics data, the URLs don’t include your domain name. Typically you get a URL like this - /abcd-xyz/. It becomes a bit of a nuisance when you are analyzing data. I’ll share a way to get a URL like yoursite.com/abcd-xyz/

We are now going to use the Filters under the view section to get both done. 

Where to go: Admin>View Settings> Filters> Create a New Filter> Custom> Advanced Filter

Adding a Slash

After you’ve added a name for the filter, choose Custom Filter and then select Advanced. 

Select request URI in Field A, leave Field B blank, and in Output To field select Request URI.

Paste ^(/[a-z0-9/_\-]*[^/])$ in Field A and $A1/ on Output To (see the pic below). And you are done. Ignore Field B.

Getting Full URLs

The steps are the same and you have to navigate to Advanced Filter. Now this time select Hostname for Field A, and Request URI for Field B and Output.

Fill (.*) in Field A and Field B, and $A1$B1 in Output To -- screenshot below for your assistance. Save it and you’re done. \m/

I wish this helps you in getting better at using GA by an even tini-tiny amount. If you get stuck anywhere, send me a message.

And if you want to understand GA in detail, I recommend Chris Mercer's Google Analytics Course on CXL Institute. It is very comprehensive. 

Also, do let me know if you want me to share more such easy-to-implement tips on GA.