Google Analytics: Are You Flying Blind? Part 1

Updated January 13, 2023

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Imagine running your business without financial reports. No P&L.  No balance sheet. No cash-flow analysis. Crazy, right? Well, if you don’t have a Web Analytics program, like Google Analytics, and it isn’t configured properly, it’s like flying blind.

Theoretically your website is a salesperson who is available 24/7, 365 a year that takes no vacations and is never sick. Yet many business owners don’t know how to manage this tireless resource because communication  requires a bit of technical know-how.

Here are few things you need to know about recent changes to Google Analytics (GA) and how to apply them to your business:

1. Google Analytics Added Real-Time Traffic Data

Available in the newest version of GA, real-time reports provide immediate data on a site’s traffic. Why is this important? Because social media is dynamic and can ramp-up website traffic exponentially if a tweet or video post goes viral. Beyond bounce rates (folks who visited your site and immediately left because it’s not what they were looking for or due to a poor user experience), real-time data can tell you…

2. Google Analytics, Free or Premium, Will Cost You

Whether you use Google’s free Analytics tool or their new Premium package, it will cost you in time spent configuring it properly and add the appropriate codes to your website.  The primary differentiator for the premium tool is the removal of limitations – no ceilings on reporting like attribution modeling, custom variables, as well as an up-time guarantee to name a few. If you have a very large enterprise you’ll find the free version will limit the amount of data processed and its frequency. For example, you’re limited to 10 million hits/per month. For heavier site traffic sampling data will be compiled.

Check our next post for three more recent changes to Google Analytics…