Google Analytics Announces New Features!

When over half of us log on to a computer, the first thing we do reportedly do is check our social networks. I can honestly say that I am not one of these people. I have to admit that the first website I check is Google Analytics.

I like to think that says more about my job than just how social I am! I do have Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin profiles and often use them but usually they can wait. After all, checking statistics which are the result of hard work is strangely addictive.

I use Google analytics with all of the websites that I am involved with, including this one! And it is especially useful for tracking the views on to the blog. Ask anyone who is involved with monitoring and tracking online performance and they’re sure to tell you that Google Analytics is one of the best tools to use (and it’s free)!

Google have announced plans to upgrade the service. I have to confess that this announcement isn’t news to us, we have been using the beta version for the last two months and I’m really impressed with what I’ve used so far. New features include: Linking a new AdWords or AdSense account, a completely redesigned, faster interface, Multiple dashboards, Event goals and in page analytics.

In page analytics is probably my favourite feature of the service because it makes checking the number of clicks to a particular page of your website almost effortless (it displays what percentage of clicks each link on your page has received out of the page total, obviously a function that was designed with SEO in mind).

Proving that social is the way forward, Google analytics have unveiled changes which will make it easier to use the service to monitor activity and referrals via social media. Google now tracks how socially engaged visitors are on your website through tracking the links via social engagement on the site. This is automatically traced with the 1+ but requires a little more effort with social networking rivals (such as Twitter and Facebook). You actually have to install the tracking code on each button but it is worth it.

With their latest e-mail, Google have announced that they’re upgrading all accounts to match the new version in the coming weeks, which will hopefully introduce us to more of the new features including:the ability to email and export reports into PDFs and a key terms word cloud: no doubt a lot of fun for those of you addicted to visuals.