Using the Access Manager in Google Analytics

December 13, 2007

When using the Access Manager in Google Analytics there are a few things that you should know. You can setup people in your Google Analytics account to view only reports related to site activity or you can set them up as Administrators giving them full access to anything in your Google Analytics account.

To add a new user from the Access Manager simply take the following steps

Log into your Google Analytics Account
Click on the “Access Manager” link at the bottom of the page
Then click on the “Add User” link on the upper right hand side of the page
Enter the user information including the email address (must be used with a current Google Analytics account), First and Last name and the access type (either to view reports or be an Account Administrator)
Under the Allow Access to section you can add sites that this person can watch or administer over using available and selected website profiles
After this simply click the “Finish” button

If you are a web analyst or you have one in your organization and you use Google Analytics then at some point you may need to take steps to allow other users into your Google Analytics account for various reasons. If you have any questions or problems do this or anything with Google Analytics or Web Analytics in general.

Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, Google Analytics, Tips, Tricks and Tools, Web Analytics | Leave a Comment

Setting Parameters in Google Analytics

December 12, 2007

As I mentioned yesterday about setting goal values there are various parameters (variables) that you need to set in Google Analytics for it to work dynamically. Now, why is this important you may be asking? Well the answer is simple really if you want to track visitors to your website you’d like to track spending as well. Here is a list of Transaction Line Parameters and Item Line Parameters

Transaction line parameters

[order-id] - Your internal unique order id number
[affiliation] - Optional partner or store affiliation
[total] - Total dollar amount of the transaction
[tax] - Tax amount of the transaction
[shipping] - The shipping amount of the transaction
[city] - City to correlate the transaction with
[state/region] - State or province
[country] - Country

Item line parameters

[order-id] - Your internal unique order id number (should be same as transaction line)
[sku/code] - Product SKU code
[product name] - Product name or description
[category] - Category of the product or variation
[price] - Unit-price of the product
[quantity] - Quantity ordered

Here is an example of what the code looks like with the parameters when you add it to your website…

<script src=”http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js” type=”text/javascript”>
</script>

<script type=”text/javascript”>
_uacct = “UA-1250162-1″;
urchinTracker();
</script>

<form style=”display:none;” name=”utmform”>
<textarea id=”utmtrans”>
UTM:T | 13666 | main store | [total] | 0.00 | 0.00 | Toronto | Ontario | Canada

UTM:T | 12345 | my store | 250.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Toronto | Ontario | Canada

UTM:I | 12345 | WF_BB_HandHeld | Pearl BlackBerry | Handheld PDAs | 159.00 | 27
UTM:I | 12345 | WF_Motorola_KRZRv3 | Motorola KRZR v3 | Cell Phones | 195.00 | 13
UTM:I | 12345 | WF_Motorola_RAZRv2 | Motorola RAZR v2 | Cell Phones | 149.00 | 9

</textarea>
</form>

<script type=”text/javascript”>
__utmSetTrans();
< /script>

</body>
</html>

In setting parameters on your website you can track product pricing tied to conversions on your website in Google Analytics.

Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, Google Analytics, Tips, Tricks and Tools, Web Analytics, Web Design Resources, Web Intelligence | Leave a Comment

Tracking E-Commerce Transactions in Google Analytics

December 11, 2007

A question that any Google Analytics user has is how do I get Dollar Values showing on transactions that take place on my site? The easy answer is giving a Goal Value a specific dollar amount but what if you sell more than one product on your website all of them with different prices? After all, most businesses sell more than one product or service. To do this you need to setup Google Analytics in a dynamic manner that allows you to record the price of any product being sold on your website. Don’t worry for now about which payment gateway your site uses because the basic idea is the same.

The first thing that you need to do is enable Google Analytics by telling it that you are running an e-commerce site with the article I wrote a little while back. Once you’ve done this then the next step is to format and code the receipt page to show dynamic transactions in Google Analytics and you can do this by taking the following steps. The first thing that you need to do is install the basic tracking code, if you haven’t done this then please read my article on installing Google Analytics tracking codes.

<script src=”http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js” type=”text/javascript”>
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
_uacct=”UA-xxxx-x”;
urchinTracker();
</script>

Below the tracking code you will want to add the following code. You’ll want to replace the parameters with actual values for it to work correctly.

<form style=”display:none;” name=”utmform”>
<textarea id=”utmtrans”>

UTM:T|[order-id]|[affiliation]| [total]|[tax]| [shipping]|[city]|[state]|[country]

UTM:I|[order-id]|[sku/code]|[productname]|[category]|[price]|[quantity]
UTM:I|[order-id]|[sku/code]|[productname]|[category]|[price]|[quantity]
UTM:I|[order-id]|[sku/code]|[productname]|[category]|[price]|[quantity]
UTM:I|[order-id]|[sku/code]|[productname]|[category]|[price]|[quantity]
</textarea>
</form>

The next thing to add into the receipt page is a function called utmSetTrans() in the body tag, that allows you to record data related to the purchase of goods on your website in Google Analytics. The code looks like this…

<body onLoad=”javascript:__utmSetTrans()”>

If you cannot edit the body tag then you can always write this function which does exactly the same thing and it looks like this…

<script type=”text/javascript”>
__utmSetTrans();
< /script>

Here is an example of what the code should look like when you are done installing and tweaking the code on your website…

<script src=”http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js” type=”text/javascript”>
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
_uacct = “UA-XXXXXXX-X”;
urchinTracker();
</script>

<form style=”display:none;” name=”utmform”>
<textarea id=”utmtrans”>

UTM:T | 12345 | my store | 250.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | Toronto | Ontario | Canada

UTM:I | 12345 | WF_BB_HandHeld | Pearl BlackBerry | Handheld PDAs | 159.00 | 27
UTM:I | 12345 | WF_Motorola_KRZRv3 | Motorola KRZR v3 | Cell Phones | 195.00 | 13
UTM:I | 12345 | WF_Motorola_RAZRv2 | Motorola RAZR v2 | Cell Phones | 149.00 | 9

</textarea>
</form>

<script type=”text/javascript”>
__utmSetTrans();
< /script>

</body>
</html>

Just make sure that you add the code after the form and you should be good to go. It never fails to amaze me that there is so much that you can do with Google Analytics.

Luc

Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, Google Analytics, Site Optimization, Tips, Tricks and Tools, Web Analytics, Web Design Resources, Web Development, Web Intelligence | 2 Comments

Setting your site as an E-Commerce site in Google Analytics

December 6, 2007

If you run an online store which basically means you accept payments on your website then you need to let Google Analytics know this. It’s pretty easy to set this up in Google Analytics.

Login to your Google Analytics account
Under “Website Profiles” find the online store you want to show as an E-Commerce Store
Click the “Edit” link under Settings
Under the “Main Website Profile Information” area click “Edit” on the right hand side
This brings up the “Edit Profile Information” page where you will say that “Yes, an E-Commerce site” and then you need to select the main currency that your website uses
Then click the “Save Changes” button and this will complete the change.

Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, Google Analytics, Tips, Tricks and Tools, Web Analytics, Web Intelligence | 1 Comment

What is the difference between a Visit and a Visitor in Google Analytics?

December 6, 2007

When you are using Google Analytics to track your customer’s behaviors there are visits and visitors. So what is the big difference?

Visits are the number of times someone accesses your website so that means that each time some lands on a web page in your website the hit is counted as a “Visit”.
Visitors are the unique people who visit your website usually defined by their IP addresses since an IP address is a unique identifier.

In Google Analytics, it is important to understand the difference between a “Visit” and a “Visitor” so that when you are reading your report you can easily understand the data in front of your eyes.

Posted by Lucas | Filed Under General, Google Analytics, Web Analytics, Web Intelligence | Leave a Comment

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