Aspects of Google Analytics

Dr. Ram in her third lecture told us about 2 aspects of google analytics.
1. Mechanical Aspect: It relates to some things on your blog like How do I set timeline, What is it showing, different widgets present on dashboards.
She told us that KPI's were kind of metrics itself which are tightened into objectives and goals or how we gaze health by looking certain indicators whether we are reaching it or going down.

She told us about Avinash Kaushik's blog and Devi added more interest to my curiosity by telling us how Avinash uses his concepts to explain things and as I read it I came across many interesting articles which I am posting here on my blog today.

"What is the difference between a metric and a key performance indicator (KPI)?"

"What is a dimension in analytics?"
"What is segmentation?"
"Are goals metrics?"
And many more.


Goals:

Goals are specific strategies you'll leverage to accomplish your business objectives.

It goes something like this. . .
Sell more stuff really means we have to:

1. do x
2. improve y
3. reduce z

The beauty of goals is that they reflect specific strategies. They are really DUMB: Doable. Understandable. Manageable. Beneficial.. They are priorities.


Metric:


A metric is a number.

That is the simplest way to think about it.
Technically a metric can be a Count (a total) or a Ratio (a division of one number by another).
Examples of metrics that are a Count is Visits or Pageviews.

Key Performance Indicator:
Key performance indicators (KPI's) are metrics. But not normal metrics. They are our BFF's(Best Friends forever)
A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric that helps you understand how you are doing against your objectives.

I run www.bestbuy.com. My business objective is to sell lots of stuff. My web analytics KPI is: Average Order Size.

I run www.nytimes.com. My business objective is to make money. One of my KPI's is: Visitor Loyalty (number of visits to the site by the same person in a month) and another one is # of clicks on banner ads.


No matter how metrics rich you are. You'll be information poor. Forever. So. Don't be.

Business Objectives -> Goals -> KPI's -> Metrics -> Magic.


Dimension:

A dimension is, typically, an attribute of the Visitor to your website.

The activity a person performed such as the landing page name, the subsequent pages they saw, videos they played, searches they did on your website and the products they purchased are all dimensions.
Finally the day they visited, the days since their last visit (if returning visitor) the number of visits they made, the number of pages they saw are all dimensions as well. I know, I know, they sound like metrics. But they are, as the definition says up top, attributes of the visitor and their activity on your website.
   



2nd Aspect of GA:
Analytical Aspect: Here we ask questions..Why Peaks and Valleys? When they are happening? from Where people are coming from?..Why this is happening?

Believe me once you get over this, it would become a nice addiction..:)