How to work with Google Analytics?

Successful online promotion requires data, not guesswork. Google Analytics collects all information about your website visitors, from demographics to traffic sources and behavior. Using this information allows you to improve your web resource in a targeted manner, develop a more effective content strategy, and achieve greater business goals.

Let’s say your website is like your store, office, or a place where people come. You spend time there, improve things, add new content. But can you see through the eyes of your visitors? See what they like, where they linger, at what stage they realized that your product is what they need, and at what point they lost interest and left.

This is exactly what Google Analytics (GA) is for. It is not just a tool for collecting statistics, but the most important feedback system. It is the very “headquarters” where a multitude of scattered numbers are transformed into a coherent story about your customers. Today, we will not only familiarize ourselves with the interface, but also learn to think in terms of analytics in order to make decisions based on data rather than guesswork.

Instead of a preface: why you can’t do without Google Analytics

Any activity without feedback is like walking blindfolded. You can invest significant resources in promoting your website, but you won’t know what works and what is a waste of budget. Google Analytics is the most objective feedback you can get.

It doesn’t matter if it was a complex custom website built from scratch or if you had ready-made website templates and quickly launched the project, analytics tools are equally critical. When planning to buy a website, many people focus only on design and functionality, forgetting about the analytical part. This should be avoided.

First steps: registration and code installation, a solid foundation

The first thing you need to do is register with Google Analytics (currently Google Analytics 4) and add your resource there. The system will give you a unique tracking code. This code is a tiny sensor that needs to be placed in every room of your digital building. It needs to be inserted into every web page of your site.

If you use a modern content management platform (such as WordPress), this is often done with built-in tools or special plugins in just a few clicks. If your web development was done using other, more complex technologies, you will have to work with the code manually or hire a developer to do it for you. The main thing is to make sure that the code is installed correctly and transmits data. This is the foundation without which all further work loses its meaning.

Getting to know the Google Analytics interface: navigating the terrain

When you first log into Analytics 4, the interface may seem unfamiliar, especially if you’ve been working with the old Universal Analytics. Lots of cards, dynamic reports, a different approach to data. Don’t be alarmed. It’s a more modern and flexible system.

The left panel is your navigation map. The main blocks you should familiarize yourself with first are:

1. Real-time reports. It’s like a video broadcast from your store. It shows what’s happening on the site right now. Furthermore, it’s useful for instantly checking activity, but not very suitable for in-depth analysis.
2. Lifecycle. This is the heart of GA4. All key reports are grouped here:
   • Acquisition: where do people come from? From Google search? From social networks? Or directly by entering the address in the browser? This is the basis for evaluating the effectiveness of your marketing channels.
   • Engagement: what exactly are people doing on your site? Which pages do they visit, how much time do they spend there, what path do they take? Here you will find answers to questions about content quality and usability.
   • Audience: who are your visitors? Here you will learn about their geography, language, device (smartphone or computer), and interests. This helps to personalize your approach.
3. Behavior. Complements the “Engagement” section, allowing you to delve deeper into content analysis.

The lifecycle sections are your most essential place. This is where 90% of all useful information is hidden.

Key Google Analytics metrics: the language your website speaks

To avoid drowning in a sea of numbers, focus on a few key metrics that tell a coherent story.

• Users and sessions.
  • Users are unique visitors over a certain period.
  • Sessions are all of their visits. One user can have multiple sessions.
    Look at these metrics in dynamics: is the number of unique users growing? Are they coming back?
• Bounce rate.
  This is a very important metric, especially for informational websites or landing pages. The bounce rate is when a person visits a page and immediately leaves without clicking anything. A high bounce rate (over 70-80%) is a warning sign. Perhaps the web page takes a long time to load, its content does not meet the expectations of the person who came from a search, or the design of the site evokes negative emotions.
• Total number of events.
  In GA4, the concept of events has replaced “view depth” and “session duration”. Any user action is an event: viewing a page, clicking a button, scrolling, downloading a file, etc. The more important events occur, the higher the level of visitor engagement. You can customize the tracking of actions that are important to your business, such as clicking on a phone number or submitting a form.

Practical analysis of Google Analytics: where customers come from and what they do

Now let’s put it all together and see how to conduct a simple but effective website analysis that provides real insights.

1. Let’s analyze traffic sources.
   Go to “Acquisition” and then “Acquisition Report”. You will see a clear breakdown by channel:
   • Organic Search, these are people who found you through search engines. Growth in this channel is a direct indicator that your SEO optimization is successful. The same SEO that should be taken into account in the early stages of website creation.
   • Social, traffic from social networks. Look not only at the quantity, but also at the behavior: which networks bring the most engaged visitors?
   • Direct, those who entered your site’s URL directly. These are often your regular customers or people who already know about your brand.
   • Referral, those who clicked on a link from another site. This shows your network and authority.
     By analyzing this, you will understand which investments are working. If you are actively investing in SEO promotion of your site, but there is no traffic from search engines, this is a direct signal to audit your SEO strategy.
2. Let’s check out behavior and content.
   Go to “Engagement”, then “Pages and Screens”. Here, you’ll see which pages are the most popular and which ones people hang out on the longest. Then go to “Behavior” and “Entry Pages”. These are your “storefronts”. Look at the bounce rates for these pages. If it’s high, you need to figure it out.
3. Study your audience.
   “Audience” and “Demographic Reports”. See what devices are used to access your site. If 70% of visitors are on mobile devices and your site looks and works poorly on smartphones, this is a direct path to losing customers.

What are goals (events) and why are they needed?

So far, we have mainly talked about passive observation. But the real magic begins with goals, which in GA4 are called “Tagged events”. Your website is a tool that should perform specific tasks. A goal can be:

• Requesting a call (the “click” event on a phone number).
• Submitting a contact form (the “form_submit” event).
• Downloading a price list (file_download event).
• Adding a product to the cart or successfully completing a purchase.

By setting up tracking for key events, you will stop thinking in terms of “traffic” and start thinking in terms of “conversion” and effectiveness”. You will be able to clearly see in the “Acquisitions” report which traffic source, campaign, or page is bringing you real customers, not just views.

For example, you may find that traffic from social networks generates a lot of views and even time on the site, but no orders. But a small amount of traffic from organic search generates 80% of all applications. This discovery radically changes your work priorities and budget allocation.

Segmentation: the art of seeing details

One of GA4’s most powerful features is audience segmentation. Instead of looking at all visitors together, you can compare different groups. For example:

• New user vs. Regular customer.
• Visitors from PCs vs. Visitors from mobile devices.
• Users who made a purchase vs. those who abandoned their cart.

By comparing the behavior of these groups, you can understand why some convert and others don’t, giving you clear guidelines for improving your website and marketing.

Common mistakes made by beginners when working with Google Analytics

1. Analyzing very short periods. One day or one week is not enough. You need to look at trends over a month or a quarter to weed out random spikes and dips.
2. Ignoring context. A sharp drop in traffic in the summer may not be a problem with the site, but a seasonal phenomenon for your niche. Always compare data with external factors.
3. Focusing on a single metric. Don’t just pray for the number of users. 1,000 visitors who do nothing are worse than 100 visitors who generate 10 requests. Focus on conversions.
4. Forgetting about filters. If you and your team, as well as search engine robots, actively “roam” the site, you are artificially inflating the metrics. Create a filter that excludes internal traffic from the statistics.
5. Lack of regularity. Data analysis is not a one-time event, but routine work. Set aside time each week to review key reports.

When should you turn to professionals?

Working with Google Analytics can vary in depth. You can track basic things yourself. But if you need:

• In-depth e-commerce tracking setup for a complex online store.
• Simplified data visualization in Google Looker Studio (Data Studio) for management.
• Integration of GA4 with other tools (Google Ads, CRM system).
• A full audit and analysis of websites to develop a website promotion strategy.

Then it is better to turn to specialists. For example, a good digital agency. Specialists will not only be able to set everything up on a turnkey basis, but also regularly provide you with clear reports with conclusions and specific recommendations on what exactly needs to be corrected on the website, in the content, or in marketing. If you plan to order a website from a studio, immediately clarify whether Google Analytics setup is included in the service.

Instead of a conclusion: your website starts talking

Remember, regardless of the type of website you choose, online store, landing page, corporate portal, or blog, Google Analytics is the bridge between you and your audience. It is not just a tool for statistics. It is your most honest assistant in making business decisions.

You will no longer wonder whether you need a redesign, whether it is worth investing in a particular advertising campaign, or whether your article is working. You will know. It may seem complicated at first, but once you get started, you will not be able to imagine how you used to manage your digital space blindly.

Start today. Go to your Analytics, select a short period (for example, the last month) and try to answer three simple questions: Who are my visitors? Where did they come from? And what action on the site do they like the most? The answers can radically change your perception of your own business.

Would you like to order a website or work with Google Analytics? Our specialists have extensive experience and understanding of all the important factors. Contact us. We are the SELECTOR.SPACE team, and we will be happy to help and advise you. More interesting publications can be found on our blog. You can contact our digital agency by calling 066 389 02 24, 096 81 00 132 or by emailing office@selector.space.

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