Google Analytics: A University Web Team’s Approach

1. Analytics
A University Web Team’s Approach
Chris Traganos | ABCD-WWW
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2. Google Analytics
• Google Analytics is an enterprise grade
web service that provides detailed and
accurate reporting on website metrics.
• Unique marketing based approach to
analyzing web traffic.
• Free for use with a Google Account
• Multiple sites can be analyzed, along with
multiple users per site (administrators &
view only reports are options).
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3. • University Operations Services (UOS) is a
service organization within Harvard.
• Provides many essential services used by
the Harvard community on a daily basis.
• Website has monthly traffic of 20k unique
visitors averaging 100k pageviews.
• Previous metrics software was WebTrends
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4. Pilot
• The vast majority of our users visit
www.uos.harvard.edu because they need
specific services and information.
• By reviewing the metric using Analytics,
we can better serve the user while they
travel throughout our website.
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5. Capture Process
• The Google Analytics Tracking Code
(GATC) is a Javascript snippet that is on
every page within the site. It collects
anonymous visitor data and sends it back
to Google for processing. Results are
within 3-4 hours of real time.
• The load time is extremely short since the
ga.js (18kb) is cached from any site using ga.js
Analytics. The individual site data is
stored in your Google account only.
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6. Insert Tracking Code
Insert the following
code into repeating
HTML template
(i.e. Footer)
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7. Motion Charts Map Overlay
Traffic Sources Custom Reporting
Visitors
Advanced Segments
Scheduled Reports
Features
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8. The Interface
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9. Visitors
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10. Map Overlay
City, Country, Region,
and Continent level
detail.
Exporting Options:
PDF, XML, CSV, TSV
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11. Traffic Sources
Direct traffic,
referring
sites, search
engines, all
sources,
keywords
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12. The User’s Path to Content
Quick Links & 404 Query strings
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13. Query Strings
/fmo/recycling/newsletter/08/november.shtml?s=fmo&d=1108
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14. Benchmarking
Compare site with industry wide metrics.
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15. Custom Reporting BETA
• Create your own
reports based on
the dimension -
metric
combinations
inside your
website.
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16. Advanced Segments BETA
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17. Motion Charts BETA
5 Dimensions
to control:
• X-Axis
• Y-Axis
• Color of bubble
• Size of bubble
• Motion over time
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18. Scheduled Reports
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19. Limitations
• Ad Filters such as NoScript and AdBlock
can block the GATC from collecting data.
• Browsers that cannot render JavaScript will
have similar blocking issues.
• Such gaps in data collection are considered
acceptable since the aggregate metric data
is accurate. (3.05% in the US)
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20. Questions?
christopher_traganos@harvard.edu
Discussion for group:
• Use Google Analytics or other web metrics
software at the University?
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