Best Google Analytics Reports in 2023

Introduction

Google Analytics gives its users the ability to measure every aspect of their website. Some of the metrics that Google Analytics users can measure include bounce rates, click-through rates, time on page, etc. 

Google Analytics reports comes with pre-configured that you can easily use to analyze your website data. You can also create your own Google Analytics reports from scratch to help you gain more valuable insights from your website statistics data. 

If you use the right reports, you will be able to see the parts of your website that are doing well and the parts that need improvement. The most difficult part is knowing which reports to use. 

In this article, I will be discussing the best Google Analytics reports that you can use to track your website performance and make improvements. 

Pre-requisites:

This is what you need for this article:

• A Google Analytics Account. 

Here’s a snapshot of what you will be looking at:

• What is Google Analytics?
• How to Use Google Analytics
• The Best Google Analytics Reports
• Limitations
• Conclusion

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a free web analytics tool developed by Google to help its users to analyze their website traffic. Web analytics may sound like a small area, but Google Analytics makes it huge. Most companies rely on their website as the source of all their digital traffic. 

If you choose to run any marketing activities like search ads or social media ads, your users will visit your website at some point along their user journey. This makes your website the best tool to help you know the effectiveness of all the campaigns that you’re running to promote your brand online. That’s why companies are using Google Analytics. 

How to Use Google Analytics

To use Google Analytics, you should have a Google Analytics account. If you already have a Google account that you use to access services like YouTube, Gmail, Google+, Google Calendar, etc., you can use it to set up your Google Analytics account. 

To access Google Analytics, use the following URL:

https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/

The URL will take you to the Google Analytics Home screen which looks as follows:

The navigation pane shown on the left side of the screen shows the various tools that you can use in Google Analytics. At the centre of the screen is the Google Analytics Home which shows the various statistics that have been gathered from your website visitors. The right side of the screen shows statistics for the currently active users, that is, users who are currently viewing your website. Before you can begin to track your website/app visitors with Google Analytics, you should first add your website/app to Google Analytics.

You can accomplish this by following the following steps:

Step 1: Sign in to your Google Analytics account. You will be taken to the Google Analytics Home screen. 

Step 2: Click the “Admin” button located at the bottom left part of the window. 

Step 3: This will take you to a page with three columns, that is, Account, Property, and View. Click the “+Create Account” button located on the “Account” column. 

Step 4: The  “Account setup” page will be opened. Enter a descriptive name for the account. Also, check the “Link this account to your current organization:” checkbox to link the account to your organization. Click “Next”. 

Step 5: Choose either “Web” or “Apps” or “Apps and web”  depending on what you need to measure. Click “Next”. 

Step 6: You will be prompted to enter the details of the website/app. 

Note that for web, you must enter a well-formatted URL as shown below. You must also select the industry category to which it belongs. 

Also, select the reporting time zone. Click “Create”. 

Step 7: Check the two checkboxes to accept the terms and click “I Accept”. 

A success message should appear and you will be finally taken to a page that shows a tracking ID. 

Congratulations! You have successfully added your website to Google Analytics. 

The Best Google Analytics Reports

Here are the best Google Analytics reports that can help you to improve your website:

1. Mobile Overview Report

With the increased use of handheld devices, people use mobile phones to search and buy products and check whether the website is difficult and slow to use. The Mobile Overview Report helps website owners to know where pain points are on their mobile website. 

If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, users won’t stay on it for long and Google will reduce its ranking. This report will also show you the kind of device that users are using to view your mobile site, as well as the channel they enter from. It will also show you mobile improvement opportunities that can help you increase traffic and ranking.

To access this report on your Google Analytics account, click “Audience” from the navigation bar shown on the left. Choose “Mobile”, and then click “Overview”. 

2. Channels Report

This report gives you information that can help you know how much traffic is coming from particular paid versus unpaid channels. From there, you can know the number of users that you have had, the amount of time they spent on your web page, and if they were converted. 

Such information will help you know the channels that you should optimize. To access this report, click “Acquisition” from the vertical navigation bar shown on the left side of the Google Analytics home screen. 

Choose “All Traffic” and then click “Channels”. 

3. Navigation Summary

This report helps you know the path users take to get to particular URLs on your website. It allows you to specify the URL that you need to analyze as well as the date ranges. You can also know where users are coming from and where they go after browsing your site. 

This way, you will know the patterns that are important to users. You will also know the paths and pages that you should optimize and whether you should add shortcuts. 

With this report, you can determine the questions that users may have. If you find users moving back and forth between two particular pages, it’s a signal that users have questions that your pages aren’t answering. You can then optimize the pages to prevent the users from visiting your competitor’s website. 

To see this report, click “Behavior” from the left navigation bar, choose “Site Content” and then click “All Pages”. 

Click “Navigation summary” tab on the new page that is opened. 

4. Landing Pages Report

This is another report that is worth looking at. It shows the page that is visited most often and where users are coming from. You can also get information on the number of goal conversions that are gained from the first page that a user lands on. It also gives information about the number of users who land on your page and interact with your website versus the users who leave right away. 

If a high number of users are leaving a certain page right away, you can take measures such as making the page more engaging or reducing the page load time. To access this report, click “Behavior” on the navigation bar provided on the left side of the Google Analytics home screen and choose “Site Content”. 

Next, select “Landing Pages”. 

5. Site Speed Overview Report

This report tells you the pages that are loading slowly and why. Such pages are a great problem because people will rarely stay on your page if it takes too long to load. You will also get suggestions on how to improve the speed of your site to enhance user interaction. 

The report will show you the average load time per page and per browser. You will also know how fast your website pages are loading in different countries. 

To access this report, click “Behavior” from the left navigation bar, choose “Site Speed” and then click “Overview”. 

6. Goal Overview Report

This is probably the most useful report provided by Google Analytics. You can set up certain interactions, like form downloads and submissions, to track as goals. Once a user converts, your company will have a qualified lead that is most likely to complete a purchase. 

The report shows the pages that are driving conversions and the channels they are coming from, and you can filter this data based on time. You can also compare recent data with historical information. The report will help you know whether your company goals are being met and whether there are areas that can be improved. 

To access this report, click “Conversions”, choose “Goals”, and then click “Overview”. 

Limitations

The following are the limitations associated with the above Google Analytics reports:

1. The reports may be difficult to read and interpret, especially for new Google Analytics users. 
2. To get each type of report, you have to go through a series of different steps. 

Conclusion

In this article, you have learned what Google Analytics is and how to use it. You have also seen the different types of reports provided by Google Analytics and how to access them. These individual reports, however, may not be enough especially for a beginner & this is where Hevo saves the day. 

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