Overall Satisfaction with Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics on our own web sites and for all web sites we develop and host for our clients (over 100 of them). It provides terrific insight into how visitors are using each web site and the effectiveness of online marketing efforts. We've also integrated Google Analytics into Sitefinity, the content management system that we recommend for many of our clients.
- Easy implementation
- Fast "dashboard" approach to analytics
- Ability to dive much deeper into analytics as needed
- Some terms are confusing.
- Custom reports are not user friendly to build. Takes time to get the right data and have the report look good.
- Takes some time to get used to the interface. It's not particularly intuitive at first.
- Increased insight into web traffic - where visitors come from, how they got to the site, what devices/browsers they use, etc.
- Helps calculate ROI on marketing campaigns. We can track how people visit the web site, dedicated landing pages, etc. This helps measure the effectiveness of online advertising, e-mail marketing, social media campaigns, etc.
- Improves search engine optimization and web content. We can see where people are entering the site, how they are finding it, etc. We also see where they leave the site so we can improve those pages to keep people where we want them.
I haven't used other analytics solutions for several years. Google took over the market for small business web site analytics. They give us the info we need and we have no reason to change for ourselves or our clients.
Google Analytics Implementation Rating and Lessons
- Implemented in-house
Change management was minimal - When Google changes/updates technology, there is a chance that you'll need to update the Google Analytics code.
- Need to implement on every page of the site.
- Custom reports can be challenging to set up.