Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
Google AnalyticsJust Do It
Anna Belle Leiserson
November 7, 2008
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer Center
3 web secretsfor senior management
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer Center3 Web Secrets for Senior Management
1. There is no quick fix
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer Center3 Web Secrets for Senior Management
2. The closest you can get is…
mastering web analytics
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer Center3 Web Secrets for Senior Management
3. Almost no one in the university world is doing web analytics .…
Yet.
So why not make it you?
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterHow Am I Going to Get You to Do It?
1.What is “analytics”?
2.What’s so special about Google’s flavor of analytics?
3.How can YOU set up Google Analytics?
4.How can you do it well?
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhat’s it all about, Alfie?
Once upon a time….
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhat’s it all about, Alfie?
Web analytics meant….
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhat’s it all about, Alfie?
• Log files
• Hits
• Pageviews
• Visitors
• - in other words –
• The numbers
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhat’s it all about, Alfie?
Then analytics meant …
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhat’s it all about, Alfie?
• WebTrends
• Analog
• AW Stats
• Urchin
• - in other words –
• The application
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhat’s it all about, Alfie?
Now analytics means….
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhat’s it all about, Alfie?
The process of matching
core goals with
objective numbers
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So what?
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhy Does It Matter?
1. Hypothesis:
A good website is a must for any college or university
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhy Does It Matter?
How do you measure website goodness?
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhy Does It Matter?
Any number of ways….
See Alertbox Oct. 6, 2008
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhy Does It Matter?
But…
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhy Does It Matter?
Analytics is the easiestway to measure site goodness
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhy Does It Matter?
2. Analytics moves website improvement
past opinionsinto hard data
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhy Does It Matter?
“Watch what users do;don’t just listen to what they say”
- Jakob Nielsen
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhy Does It Matter?
3. It bridges the gap betweenweb professionals andsenior management
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhy Does It Matter?
Without analytics
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhy Does It Matter?
Design
Function
Organization
are typically based on…
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterWhy Does It Matter?
HIPPOs
(Highest Paid Person’s Opinion)
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But that’s just Analytics…
What’s so special about Google Analytics?
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGoogle Analytics rules because it’s
• Free
• Easy for techies to set up
• Numerical and numbers talk
• Easy to share
• Web 2.0 glamorous
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In fact, it’s so successful…
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Now it’s what’s confused with “analytics”
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How do you start withGoogle Analytics?
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGet Going with GA
Step 1 (You)
Set up a “Google Account”
(the same as a gmail account)
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Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGet Going with GA
Step 2 (You)
Set up a “Google Analytics Account”
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer Center
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGet Going with GA
Step 3 (You)
Copy and paste “Google Analytics Tracking Code” into a text file and
email this to IT
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer Center
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGet Going with GA
It will look something like this:<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));</script><script type="text/javascript">var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-1089968-2");pageTracker._trackPageview();</script>
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGet Going with GA
Step 4 (IT)
Pastes code as close to ending </body> tag as possible
in as many pages as possible
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Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGet Going with GA
Step 5 (IT)
Uploads to server; lets you know
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGet Going with GA
Step 6 (You)
Test the next day (or later)
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGet Going with GA
Step 7 (You - the next day)
If test is not working, loop back to step 5
If working ….
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGet Going with GA
Step 8 (You)
Dive into analytics
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGet Going with GA
Steps Without webmaster
With webmaster
1. Google account You Webby and you
2. Google Analytics (GA) account
You Webby (will share with you at step 8)
3. GA Tracking Code You Webby
4. Deploy code IT Webby
5. Upload to server IT Webby
6. Test You Webby
7. If not working IT step 4 Webby step 4
8. Dive into analytics You Webby and you
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Google Analytics Best Practices
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGA Best Practices
1. Get a backup
Don’t be the only one with admin rights for a Google Analytics account
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGA Best Practices
2. Set website goals
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGA Best Practices
Possible ways to develop goals. Think about…
• Why did you start your site to begin with?
• What are the pages or sections you care about most?
• What audiences are most important
• What is your strategic plan?
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGA Best Practices
3. Learn your tool
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGA Best Practices
4. Track as many pages as possible within a subdomain,e.g. intranet.vicc.org
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGA Best Practices
Set up filters to limit
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterGA Best Practices
Extra Credit
Use multiple metric tools
But…
Don’t switch!
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The Limits of Google Analytics
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterThe Limits of GA
• Needs time to gather initial data
• Generates a sea of data
• Code installation can be problematic
• Third party so squirrely things can happen
• Doesn’t track PDFs & multimedia files
• 25 month limit
• Won’t work if cookies are off
• Won’t work for password-protected pages
• Limited to 5 million pageviews / month
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Top 3 Google Analytics Reports
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterTop 3 GA Reports
1. The Dashboard
Tweak it
Schedule emails
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterTop 3 GA Reports
2. Entrance keywords
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterTop 3 GA Reports
3. Top Content
Including Bounce Rates
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer CenterTop GA Reports
Other possibilities
• Referring sites
• Browsers
• Profiles with filters
• Focus on particular directory or page
• Eliminate your own IP address
• Divide internal and external traffic
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer Center
Resources• THE place to start
http://www.google.com/analytics/
• Searchable manual and referencehttp://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/
• Brian Clifton’sAdvanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics
• Happywebdiva.com
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The end?
Not quite….
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A challenge for you
Vanderbilt-IngramCancer Center
Have Google Analyticsin full operation by
Jan. 1, 2009
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