You’ve read my article on adding Google Analytics to your blog. Now that you have taken those steps and added it to your blog, you may be wondering how to use it. If you are left with the question, “How do I use Google Analytics?” Let me show you!

Log in to Google Analytics. Once you have login you will see in the center of the page “Website Profiles.” If you have more than one blog listed then click on the “View Reports” next to the link to the blog you’re interested in viewing reports of.

This will take you to the dashboard.

Your dashboard will look something like this above screen capture.

• Visits tells you how many visits there were to your blog.
• Pageviews tells you how many times the pages on your blog have been viewed.
• Pages/Visit tells you how many pages, on average, users view when they come to your blog.
• Bounce Rate tells you the percentage of users who left after viewing only one page of your blog.
• Avg. time on site tells you how long visitors stayed on your blog.
• New Visitors shows you the number of first time visitors to your blog.

In the menu on the left, click on the word ‘Visitors.’

The Browser Capabilities feature allows you to see what browsers people use to visit your blog.

Connection Speed Data tells you your visitors internet connection. If most visitors to your blog are using dialup then you may want to speed up the loading time on your blog, by making it less graphic heavy.

Screen Resolutions: While most visitors to your blog are most likely viewing at 1024×768 or above, there are still some who will visit your blog at the 800×600 resolution. With this information you can design your blog with your visitors in mind.

See about your Traffic

Traffic sources shows you how people are finding your blog. From the ‘Traffic Sources Overview’ you’ll see that traffic sources are split up into three categories.

Direct Traffic: This refers to the visitors who type your url into their browser or click on their favorites to be taken to your blog.

Referring Traffic: If someone arrives at your blog by clicking a link on another website or blog then that site will be listed as a referring site. ( Example: This month 78 visitors have clicked on a link at bloggertalk.net to arrive at my blog.)

Search Engines: If someone clicks on your link via the search engines after searching for a specific keyword or phrase than it will show up here.

In the menu on the left, click on the word ‘traffic sources.’ In the center of the page, you will see a list of the ‘top traffic sources’ and a list of the ‘top keywords’ or phrases visitors are using to find your blog. Click on ‘full report’ to get a more detailed view for the last month.

Content Overview

Content Overview lists the most popular pages on your blog. You’ll see a list of the 5 most viewed pages on you blog.

Click on ‘view full report’ to see how many times each page has been viewed, how much time the average visitor stayed on that page, and if they left your blog after viewing that page.

Google Analytics is an excellent tool. I realize that this post only covered some of the basics of ‘Google Analytics,’ but I hope it was enough to get you started and help you better understand how Google Analytics works.