TheGoogle phenomena got conceptualized in the year 1996as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were both PhD studentsat Stanford University, California.
It was neverrealized by the researchers of the day that one day, the said project would becomebigger than the biggest and larger than the largest in the world of informationand computing landscape. Over the last decade or so, Google search has become solike demigod to humans, which has practically all the answers to your questions.How Google grew and become such a mammoth or intelligent system and broughtmany free of cost services to the general public virtual world, is another partof the story.
Website theorized few years before the birth of The Google.Creation of website revolutionised the Online World but birth of Google gave tomore meaning and wider reach. We are living in an age, where a website works like an individual, a business or anorganization, and are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose. Everywebsite exists for a reason, and every measurementstrategy must align with the business goals of the website. Google has made the websites a searchablething, to say a least. Later it was realized by the Google promoters that only searchingof websites or links is not sufficient but further evaluating of theperformance of a websites is equally important too. Then there comes a spectacle of GoogleAnalytics born out of the need.
In simple terms, Google Analytics is a tool to quantitativelymeasure what happens on your websiteAB1 . WhenGoogle launched Google Analytics in year 2005, it transformed the meaning of webanalytics. No longer was web analytics remained an expensive endeavor thatrequired a substantial investment in software. Measurement tools becameirrelevant and the focus started to shift to one thing i.e. Google Analytics. Smalland mid-sized businesses now have access to a world-class analytics tool in theform of Google Analytics that can help drive their continuous improvementprocess. Largerorganizations that have traditionally spent six figures on an analytic tool aretoo migrating to Google Analytics because it provides 90% of all the reportingand analysis functionality that their organizations need.
AB2 Theycan save tremendous amounts of money and reallocate those funds in making thedata actionable.AB3 How GoogleAnalytics can impact the small business owner Baringfew exceptional online / website business models, mostly websites exists due toeither of the FOUR reasons: 1. To sell a product2. To generate a sales lead3. To generate advertisement revenue4. To provide support Remember,small business player always wanted to move beyond knowing about traffic towebsites and wish to understand if their websites are really adding to thebottom line of the business.
Google Analytics answered many of the unattendedquestions. MiaVallo , Sr.Director Marketing Analytics, National Geographic said ” GoogleAnalytics products helped us improve engagement by 33% and click throughs by21% for content promotions on our homepage” GoogleAnalytics is one of the most popular clickstream data tools that has ever beencreated by anyone in the history.
In the five years since its launch, it hasbeen adopted by millions of businesses, both large and small. Google Analytics sittingon top of websites provides a core set of tools (easy to learn and manage) thatsupports some of the very basic to advanced website measuring dimensions. Firstand foremost, Google Analytics tracks many standard website metrics, likevisits, unique visitors, pageviews, bounce rate, and abandonment rate. AB4 But,more importantly, it can track specific business outcomes, commonly known as goals (A goalcan be almost any visitor activity on the website. This includes viewing aspecific page, spending a certain amount of time, or viewing a minimum numberof pages during a visit) AB5 Inaddition to tracking goals, Google Analytics does a great job at pursuingdifferent kinds of marketing initiatives. Google Analytics not only track AdWords (advertising service by Google for businesses wanting to display advertisements), but it can also conveniently track othertypes of paid searches, email marketing, display advertising, social media, andmany more. Abilityto drill down and focus on various segments of traffic is key to GoogleAnalytics.
AB6 How to go about it GoogleAnalytics is indirectly a business intelligence tool and, because everybusiness has different data needs, implementation may be very from person toperson and from business to business. ImplementingGoogle Analytics does take some planning and foresight that includes thevarious steps to be performed, may initially taking support of some techie guyin the organisation: – 1. Gather and document business requirements.2. Analyze and document website architecture.3. Create a Google Analytics account.4.
Configure the Google Analytics tracking code and tag website pages,accordingly.5. Create Variables, Segmentation and Custom Reports6.
Enable event tracking 7. Tag marketing campaigns.8. Create dashboards to have a look at business goals / performancemetrices with mouthwatering statistical visuals How it Works under the hoodGoogle Analytics expects a certaincode or tag to be placed on all the pages of a website. That specific code tracksthe traffic to website and provide the business user with understanding of the visitors,detailing about behavior pattern, their likes and dislikes. Thoughinitially it sounds bit technical from small business owner perspective (requiringassistance of web developer / web designer) but in reality, long term benefitsto business users are enormous as it keeps giving 24*7 insights and stories onwebsite performance. Conclusively, one thing can beunderlined that Google Analytics will give you numbers and tempting visuals onthose numbers. But numbers can only be meaningful, when you know exactly whatyou are looking for.
