Google Analytics is a very popular free website health checker and analysis tool today. You can know on your website which websites, what content are customers interested in, which advertising channels are really effective, bringing quality traffic from interested customers…. Google Analytics is really a useful website analysis tool, providing a lot of important information for Website administrators, Internet Marketing specialists , SEO , ... and managers.
However, when analyzing website metrics with Google Analytics, you may come across some confusing situations. Let's analyze some "thought it is, but it is not" situations!
1. Average Time on Page - Average Time on Page
Average stay on page is a useful metric for measuring a user's interest in your site's content, whether they're actually reading your content or not. This information can be misleading, especially if the page is a page with a high bounce rate.
To understand why this metric is often misleading, we need to first understand how Google Analytics calculates the time spent on the website. Google Analytics measures how long a user stays on a website by subtracting the time a user exits the page from the time a user visits the page, and bounce is calculated when a visitor visits the site. other on the website. As shown in the picture above, user A starts on Page 1, then goes to Page 2 and the amount of time spent on Page 1 is counted as 45 seconds between the time spent leaving Page 1 and going to Page 2, but user B then only looks at Page 1 and then exits the website, so even though he stayed on Page 1 for a while, Google cannot calculate how long.
This means that if a user doesn't visit another website on that website, then Google cannot calculate this value. Google won't know how long a user has stayed on that page, so the stay on a page is assigned 0 by Google, and as a result, the user's Average Time spent on the page is incorrect.
How to fix
To fix this, you can put a short Javascript code on your website so that every 15 seconds the website will connect to Google Analytics if the user is still on the page. Then you will create a Custom Report on Google Analytics to track the difference between the metrics Google calculated and you adjusted (Average Engagement and Avg.Time on Page). Observe the following Google Analytics report you will see with page 31. Programmer ... Bounce Rate is 100%, Avg.Time on Page is 0, if understood in the normal way, this is the page that users enter and exit. out now. But in fact, users view this page for about 12 seconds, then switch to another website without viewing any other page on the web. And so you will have improvements on the website that are more suitable when you better understand the user's behavior on your website.
2. Bounce Rate - Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is one of the most commonly referenced metrics used to evaluate a website's quality to users. "Bounce" happens when a visitor exits the landing page on which he / she came to (landing page) without going to any other page of the website. This is a sign of whether the website content is relevant, useful to the user and how to send them to other necessary websites on your website.
This information is also one of the most common misunderstandings when analyzing website with Google Analytics. The bounce rate determined by Google Analytics is as follows:
Bounce rate (of a website) = total number of users pointing to and viewing that page and then exiting (Bounces) / total visits to that page (Entrances).
How to fix
A high bounce rate can be caused by one or more factors such as:
• Website is single-page format
If your website only has a single website full of necessary items. As a result, your website has a high bounce rate. Now to learn more about user behavior on page sections, you can implement an Event-driven measure of efficiency.
• The Google Analytics code setting is not correct
A common reason is that you have incorrectly installed Google Analytics code on some websites. In particular, if you see an exceptionally high Bounce Rate on some pages, double-check that you've added the same tracking code to all pages of your website.
• The content and design are not suitable
If all your websites contain the same tracking code but you still see a high bounce rate, you can review the design, content, and user experience on the page. You need to optimize those pages so that they are tied to the search terms that bring users to your site, relative to the ads you're running. You can also change your ads or keywords to target your target customers more relevant to the content of the page.
If you ask, then “What is a good Bounce Rate?” The answer really depends on your business. You need to track your business performance and regularly evaluate the improvements you have made to Know what the actual customer behavior is with your industry and what the Bounce Rate is like.
3. New - Returning Visitor
The process of Google Analytics tracking new users to the website and old users can also go wrong. Returning users are tracked, recorded by "cookies" stored on the computer, which means that anyone who has deleted their browsing history will be treated as new users when they visit the website. of you again. Additionally, if a user previously visited your website from another device, that person will be counted again as a new user instead of a returning user. Of course, you will want to have more users coming back to your website because it proves that your product or service has attracted the attention of customers and maybe they will gradually form buying intent. . However, these figures on Google Analytics are not accurate,
To do a good job of webmaster, website SEO or Internet Marketing expert, remember to regularly read and analyze data on Google Analytics to better understand customers, about the effectiveness of campaigns. but there are improvements to be effective. With website analysis data on Google Anaylics, you will know a lot of useful and valuable things.
Good luck !
Natural Science University Informatics Center