Google Analytics is the best resource for being able to keep track of the performance of your site; best of all, it’s free to use and simple to implement.
You can easily see data relating to your audience, website and conversions in just a few clicks; helping you to shape not only your marketing campaigns, but your actual website too.
With such a plethora of information to hand, it can be easy to overlook vital information that can aid your SEO campaigns.
To help, we’ve rounded up five of our favourite Custom Reports that you can import into your account in seconds. But before we begin, you need to know how to import a custom report.
How Do I Import A Custom Report?
Importing these reports is really simple. First of all make sure you’re logged into Google Analytics and have access to the account you’d like to add the report to. Some of the links in this article will automatically take you to Google Analytics to add to Report, whereas others will take you to the Google Analytics Gallery, where you’ll need to select the ‘Import’ button on the top left.
You’ll then see this screen.
Simply select the account you’d like to view the report in; name the report and click ‘Create’. The report can then be viewed from the Customisation tab in Google Analytics.
- Social Sharing Behaviour
What Does It Do?
Available to download direct from Google, the Behaviour: Social Sharing Custom Report is a great way to see social engagement on your site.
The report is split into four tabs that show you: Shared Content, How this is split by social network, how socially engaged visitors are and the outcomes and conversions from these visitors.
Ricemedia’s Tip
Use this report to decide where your social focus should be and which channel is the most profitable. Thinks about what the report says about your content and how you should shape it for different social channels in the future.
- Link Analysis Report
What Does It Do?
The Link Analysis Custom Report is a great way for seeing what links to your site are the most valuable… the results may surprise you.
The report is split into Sessions, Goal Completion, Pages Per Session, Bounce Rate and % New sessions; giving you a quick and clear overview of where your best referrals are coming from and if they’re converting.
Ricemedia’s Tip
It’s worth paying attention to the bounce rate in this report – if a link has a very low bounce rate, think about how you can drive those visitors to convert.
- Internal and External 404 Report
What Does It Do?
We know that to be successful in SEO, a site needs a clean bill of technical health: the Internal and External 404 Custom Report is split into two tabs, showing you any pages that are bringing up a 404 error (from both internal and external links); along with how many entrance views the page has had.
You can combine this report with technical data from Webmaster Tools when reviewing your site’s technical health.
Ricemedia’s Tip
Use the entrances column as a priority marker – any page that’s had a high number of visits in the last six months should be at the top of your list to be addressed.
- Ecommerce Conversions Report
What Does It Do?
Although this data is readily available in Analytics, the Ecommerce Conversions Report is a really simple way to view ecommerce effectiveness from a Source/Medium level.
The report shows Sessions, % New Sessions, Unique Purchases, Revenue, Average Order Value and Per Session Value for each Source/Medium. You can easily filter the report too, meaning that you could see the data for all organic channels together, to get overall channel figures.
Ricemedia’s Tip
Compare the Unique Purchases column with the % New Sessions column to get a feel for how many of your new visitors are converting.
- Content Efficiency Analysis Report
What Does It Do?
In a similar way to the Social Sharing Report we discussed earlier, Avinash Kaushik’s brilliant Content Efficiency Analysis Report breaks down the effectiveness of your pages to show Entrances, Bounces, Average Time on Page and Goal Completions (plus even more data).
From the report, you can see the types of content users are interacting with the most, whether it be video, product pages or blog posts.
Your landing pages are listed by page title rather than URL though, so you will need your site to be well optimised to be able to benefit from this report.
Ricemedia’s Tip
Go deep into this report to see the list of Cities your clicks are coming from – you can then use this data to effectively target your audience with Paid Search.
Bonus!
Add this Organic Monitoring Dashboard to get a super quick top level snapshot of how your organic traffic is performing. You’ll see total visits, non-branded visits, top landing pages, top keywords and which cities your traffic is coming from.
Reports and Dashboards are a great way of filtering your data in Analytics to make it into bite size, related chunks. They can be shared with other users of your account and easily exported for team members in the office, meaning that you get to see the data you want, without the confusion. Want to learn more about Google Analytics & Reports? Talk to a member of our team today.
