What is Google Analytics and how it works..

 A web analysis tool like Google Analytics is part of the standard equipment of every online marketing manager. As a website, blog or online shop operator, you have probably already come into contact with the tool. However, if you haven't used Analytics yet or have decided to get started with web analysis with Analytics, this article will give you a brief overview of what you can do with the tool and the advantages and disadvantages of using Google Analytics brings with it.

What is Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a useful analysis tool with which you can understand your website performance and analyze the behavior and needs of your customers. The tool, which is free of charge in the basic version, provides you with information about the number of users visiting your website and the performance of all sub-pages marked with the Analytics Tracking Code, as well as demographic data such as age, gender or location of website visitors Information about how and how long users interact with your website.

If you link your Google Ads accounts with Google Analytics or the Search Console, you can access an even more extensive repertoire of data, e.g. Draw deeper conclusions about your SEA and display campaigns.

How does Google Analytics work?

Analytics uses JavaScript to read and evaluate information such as HTTP requests, first party cookies and browser configurations. Every user who comes to your website is recorded (provided they do not block tracking by Google Analytics).

So that Google Analytics can collect relevant data about your website, you first have to embed the Analytics tracking code in the source code of your page. You do this manually for each subpage of your domain that is to be tracked, or you can use the Google Tag Manager.

To do this, first log in to Google Analytics with your Google account or create a new Google account that you can use in Analytics. As soon as you are logged into your Google account, the next step is to register with Analytics. Fill in the fields here with the information about your website and your time zone. Then you can choose whether you want to link your Analytics account with other Google applications such as Google Ads or Google Search Console. Once you have made your selection, the only thing left to do is click on "Get tracking ID". As soon as you have confirmed the terms of use, you will receive the tracking code, which you now have to integrate into the source code of your website. Here you can find out in detail how to integrate Google Analytics and then set up your account correctly.

Use analytics data in other tools

By the way, in addition to Google Ads and Google Search Console, you can also link your Google Analytics account to other online marketing tools, such as:

Sistrix Toolbox

Screaming Frog SEO Spider

XOVI Suite

Searchmetrics

SEMrush

This does not give you any new data in Analytics, but you can view the traffic data directly in the other tools and compare it with other key figures there.

On the Sistrix and XOVI pages you will find instructions on how to link the tool with Analytics. Suchradar magazine has also published a good article that explains how you can get the data from Google Analytics in the Screaming Frog. And in our blog you can find out how you can link Searchmetrics with Analytics.

Google Analytics: advantages and disadvantages of the tool

As a free tool, Google Analytics offers you some advantages over other web analysis tools. Not only does the standard version provide you with a large number of comprehensive reports for free - as you already know, the functionality of Analytics can also be expanded to include numerous other features from other Google products. In addition, Google is always working on further improving Analytics. It is not without reason that Analytics has managed to become one of the standard tools among online analysis applications.

The user interface is kept comparatively simple, so you will quickly be able to use the tool yourself. Should you ever run into problems, there are numerous free tutorials from Google as well as a large online community that can help you get answers to your questions. Or take a look at our Google Analytics guide.

Inaccurate results through data sampling 

If the requirements within the data analysis become too complex, analytics may sample the data. This sample can lead to inaccurate results. Data sampling can occur whenever a report has more than 500,000 sessions.

Limits in the standard version

The amount of data that you can analyze in the free Analytics version is limited. Google specifies a limit of 10 million hits per month (hits = interactions that arise from the data sent to Analytics, e.g. event tracking). As soon as you have reached this limit, Google can no longer guarantee that additional hits will still be included in the data analysis. In addition, it can happen that you lose your reports as soon as you have exceeded the limit, which of course would be rather unfortunate with a long-maintained and developed analysis strategy. One way to have long-term access to your data would be to switch to Google Analytics 360. More on this later.

Conclusion

With Google Analytics and Google Analytics 360, the search engine giant Google offers web analysis solutions for companies of all sizes that meet their requirements, with which user behavior and the as yet unused potential of your website can be traced and discovered. As an official Google Marketing Platform Certified Partner, we at lunapark are happy to support you with professional web analysis and offer you an understandable and needs-based introduction to the popular analysis tool in our analytics training courses.