3 Important Google Analytics Metrics You Should Always Track

Google Analytics compiles vast data on your website’s user traffic and behavior and generates several reports and insights about the inner workings of your website. Data reporting capabilities are evolving almost every day, but with the amount of data available, tracking everything may be unnecessary and utterly overwhelming. That being said, it’s critical to monitor certain indicators to discover your site’s shortcomings, strengths, and prospects for growth. Let’s discuss the three most important Google Analytics metrics to track on any website. 

What is a Metric in Google Analytics?

In case you’re new to Google Analytics, we should first explain what a metric is. Metrics are numerical assessments that let you know how well a particular area of your website performed. For example, how many times your website users visited a particular webpage or watched a particular video.

It’s crucial to remember that metrics and dimensions are two different things. Your measurements are evaluated in reference to dimensions. This implies that you could measure users (metric) by a specific dimension (like Google organic search results) rather than just measuring total users.

Most Important Google Analytics Metrics

1. Users

Users of Google Analytics are people who have visited a website. Google Analytics breaks down users into two groups: new and returning users. On a basic level, new users are visitors who have never been to your website, whereas returning visitors have been to your site before. 

But how is it determined that a user visited your site previously? 

Google Analytics separates user data using cookies. It’s important to note that Google’s use of cookies can lead to slightly flawed analytics data. If a user reaccesses a website using a different device or browser than they did during their first visit, Analytics will count them as a second user. Yet another user visit will be counted if the user deletes or blocks cookies or uses incognito or private browsing. 

You can see the Users metric under Audience > Overview in Google Analytics. The Overview section also gives access to more user-specific data, such as new users, sessions, sessions per user, page views, pages per session, average session duration, bounce rate, and page views per user.

2. Conversion Rate of Repeat Visitors 

There are three essential questions you should ask yourself when a visitor returns to your website: Why did they leave the first time? Did they convert? If not, what can you do to encourage conversion on their second visit? 

It is crucial to understand that even if a visitor did not become a new customer, your brand still impacted them and motivated them to revisit the website.

Your next objective should be to identify the conversion rate of repeat visitors and determine how to improve it. While some businesses choose to reward loyal clients with special offers or coupons, others decide to entice them to sign up for their mailing list or participate in a survey. Your brand’s products or services will determine your method to raise the conversion rate.

3. Engagement 

Google Analytics displays traffic information alongside your average session length. This data set’s name is “Average engagement time,” and it informs you of the typical amount of time active users spend on your website.

Ideally, the average Google Analytics engagement time should be as high as possible. If your average engagement time is under two or three minutes, your users aren’t spending much time on your website. It’s possible that they found the information they needed very quickly (and ultimately had a great user experience). Still, it’s also possible that the low engagement time results from them having trouble locating the information or finding it challenging to navigate your website.

There are various approaches to lengthening sessions and average engagement time. The simplest way is to include more internal links inside your text, helping your users jump from post to post. You should also use an intuitive menu layout to make it simple to find your site’s important pages. Doing so will allow your average session duration to increase as your bounce rate decreases.

In a perfect world, your users would browse through all of your website’s pages before leaving. That’s not likely, but users should, at the very least, view a few pages and read the content on each before they exit the site.

What are the Limitations of Google Analytics?

Monitoring your website’s Google Analytics metrics is essential to identifying areas that could use improvement with messaging, usability, functionality, design, or a combination of various factors. While tracking these metrics is important, it’s also imperative to remember that they are not 100% precise, so you should avoid getting bogged down with the exact numbers.

Take advantage of your website’s Google Analytics metrics to note trends, make alterations and look for potential improvements you can make.

To get further insights into why users interact with your website the way they do, we recommend leveraging tools in addition to Google Analytics, such as heat mapping and user tracking tools like Lucky Orange.

Additionally, we advise doing A/B tests or using Google’s Optimize to test different versions of websites. You can see what’s working well and what isn’t by making many versions of your pages, gathering data, and examining the metrics. Testing in these ways and tracking the most important Google Analytics metrics can help you make progressive decisions for your website.

Let periscopeUP Track Your Most Important Analytics Metrics

Don’t get bogged down and overwhelmed by the intricate details of your Google Analytics data. periscopeUP can help you keep track of the most important metrics you need to know for your business. We’ll customize your reports and help you decide what’s working and what may need improvement. Reach out to us today for a complimentary consultation.