Google Analytics
Tonight, we’ll talk about Google’s Analytics service and how you can use it to achieve your site’s goals. The presentation for tonight’s class offers details on what the numbers mean, but you should also look at some actual reports from ocolly.com to get a better feel for the kinds of reports that are available through this service.
The O’Collegian began using Google Analytics about two years ago and as such it provides us with historical information that allows us to tweak the site to optimize it for our audience and our advertisers. Google’s service isn’t the only one of its type, but because it’s free, it is probably the most widely used.
For example, compared to last fall, our local traffic from Stillwater has more than doubled over last year and from that you could infer that our student traffic is up significantly. While that is most likely true, the statistics for the newspaper and web site are exactly opposite: 80 percent of people who read the newspaper are students while 80 percent of people who read the web site are from outside of Stillwater and most likely alumni.
Although we do not yet have any defined goals that can be tracked through Google Analytics, my own personal goal is that our blend eventually be 50 percent students and 50 percent alumni. This Google service offers data that can eventually help us reach that goal and could offer information to help you meet your goals.