Google Analytics: The Tracking Tool

Google analytics is a free web analytics tool developed by Google used for tracking the traffic density to a site. It is necessary to measure, collect, analyze and report the web data for the purpose of optimization. However, Web analytics is not just a process for measuring web traffic but can be used as a tool for business and market research, and to assess and improve the effectiveness of a website. Web analytics applications can also help companies measure the results of traditional print or broadcast advertising campaigns. It provides the information regarding the number of visitors to a site and the number of page views. This acts as a major tracking tool. Google Analytics is now the most widely used web analytics service on the Internet.

Types of Visit 

As said earlier, Google analytics is necessary to track the traffic to a site. This is to keep in track the number of visits to a site. There are different types of visits which a web page might receive. These are classified as;

1. Direct Visit
2. Referral Visit
3. Organic Visit 
4. Social media Visit   

Direct Visit

These kind of visits refer to the situation when the URL is readily available to the user and access the site directly without using any keywords.

Referral Visit

This happens when the site is accessed via a referral link for reference purpose while reading an article or similar materials.

Organic Visit

The visits that happen to a site when a user enters a query in the search box are called Organic Visits. These type of visits can be maximized with the help of optimization.

Social Media Visit

As the name suggests, the visits that a site receive via social media sites such as face book, twitter etc are called social media visits.

Terms to Note

There are certain points to remember while signing into Google Analytics. These steps help to efficiently manage and report the visits to a site. 

• Account Name

 Account name helps to distinguish between the client websites we are working on. Hence, it is necessary to give unique names to each account that are on the go.

• Reporting Time Zone

The reporting time zone plays a key factor to the tracking tool. The time zone of the client should be mentioned under this option in the absence of which things can get jeopardized.

• Tracking Code  

 The tracking code in Google Analytics is a mandatory factor. This acts as the unique address to track the details of a web page.

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