How does website data collection begin?
A snippet of JavaScript tracking code that's included on every web page of the site
where you want to collect data.
What is the goal of a tracking code?
Track each user interaction that occurs on your website. These interactions can be as
simple as loading a page or something more specific like clicking a video play button or
a link
Uses the domain of the website you are tracking to define it as a "site" in your reports
The Analytics tracking code
What happens once a tracking code is installed in the domain of the website you are
tracking?
Google Analytics will drop a cookie in the user's browser for that website and any
related subdomains. This makes it easy to track traffic on a single website URL domain
or subdomain by default.
What happens if you install the same default tracking code on pages with different
domains?
Analytics will count these users and sessions separately.
What is a "hit"
A URL String with parameters of useful information about your users. With each user
interaction on your website, the Analytics tracking code sends a "hit" to Google
Analytics
What happens if you break down the URL string?
It passes off useful information to Analytics about the user that triggered the hit (the
language the user's browser is set to, the name of the page they're viewing, the screen
resolution of the user's device, the Analytics ID that associated that hit to the correct
Analytics account). The hit will also allow Analytics to differentiate between new and
returning users
What are the three most common types of hits?
Pageview, event, transaction
How is a pageview hit triggered?
When a user loads a webpage with the tracking code.
What is the most common type of hit?
Pageview since it occurs every time a user opens a page with the tracking code, a new
pageview hit will be sent
What is an event hit?
Lets you track every time a user interacts with a particular element on your website
(video play buttons, particular URLs, product carousel)
What four parameters does an event hit pass in the URL?
Event action, category, label and value which categorizes interactions in reports that are
specific to your website
What is a transaction (ecommerce) hit?
, This kind of hit can pass data to Analytics about ecommerce purchases such as
products purchased, transaction IDs, and "stock keeping units" (or SKUs)
What additional ecommerce data can you receive if you've set up Enhanced
Ecommerce with GA?
Product category, whether items have been added or removed from a shopping card, or
how many times users viewed a product on a website
What can social hits pass?
Likes, shares, or tweet data
What can page timing hits do?
Allow you to report on page timings, but the Pageview, Event, and Transaction hits are
the three most common
Although some information passed in hits includes language and page title, GA widens
that data using other sources such as IP address, server-log files, and other ad-serving
data. Using this additional information, Analytics can understand things like:
A user's location, specifics about their browser, operating system and service providers,
their age and gender, and the source/medium that referred them to a site
What are dimensions?
Ways to categorize metric data like all the metrics for a specific "country" or "device
type"
What are the first few steps in with GA processes data?
First, Analytics determines new vs returning users. Then it categorizes hits into session
(or periods in which the user engaged with the site). Next, it joins data from the tracking
code with other data sources.
What happens when a user arrives on a page with tracking code?
Google Analytics creates a random, unique ID that gets associated with the user's
browser cookie. Analytics considers each unique ID to be a unique user
What happens if a user clears or has blocked a cookie in their web browser?
Analytics will count that user as "new" rather than "returning"
Google Analytics does not recognize users who visit your website from different devices
by default and will count each device as a unique user. If you wish to track users across
devices, then you'll need to turn on what?
User ID feature
What are sessions?
Google Analytics groups user hits based on the time in which they were generated. To
measure these periods, Analytics uses a metric called "sessions"
When does a session begin?
When a user navigates to a page that includes the Google Analytics tracking code and
generates a pageview hit
When does a pageview hit end?
It will end after 30 minutes if no other hits are recorded. If a user returns to a page after
a session ends, a new session will begin
Once GA has organized data by session, it can calculate a number of metrics that show
up in your reports such as:
sessions, pages per session, average session duration, and bounce rate
This protocol lets you send data from any web-connected device like point-of-sale
systems of web-connected kiosks to GA.