How does google analytics collect data

The previous three versions of GA — Urchin, Classic, and Asynchronous — all sent data through the tracking pixel utm. Then Universal Analytics came along. The development of Universal Analytics fundamentally changed how data was compiled and sent.

Its parameters specify and store the information you want to collect. We have a great post about these types of tools! With Universal Analytics, we can now send data into Google Analytics from any internet-enabled device by simply following a specific set of instructions, called the Measurement Protocol.

Parameters are added to the Measurement Protocol in order to further customize the information GA receives. Here is a list of more parameters! Again, by default — the Google Analytics tracking code does all of this for you quietly behind the scenes.

It captures all of the information listed above, puts it into the correct order, and sends it off using the Measurement Protocol. The Measurement Protocol can be implemented in just about any environment. If there is a way to record the given information, you can analyze it in GA with the Measurement Protocol.

This especially includes offline transactions and conversions. If you run a website, chances are that you have already installed a Google Analytics tag to your site. Although there are alternatives to Google Analytics , Google Analytics is a very user-friendly and free platform for you to track your website traffic and goals. Recently, Google has rolled out Google Analytics 4 GA4 , which also allows website owners to select what data they want to collect from visits to their website.

Google Analytics is a valuable tool that lets website owners know where their consumers found them, what actions they took on their website and can even show where the users are geographically located. It shows valuable insights into user behavior and tracks a lot of data, including pageviews, session data, event hits and ecommerce metrics.

You can learn more about who your website visitors are with demographic reports that will give you data such as age, gender and interests. Google is able to provide you with so much insight into your users because they collect a lot of information on users for your benefit. It gives you greater insight into your customers, especially when it comes time to running effective advertising campaigns. Google collects aggregate data from around the world. Because it is the de facto search engine and vastly popular, it has data sets rich in contextual information that it publishes on Google Trends.

Community Mobility Reports leverage the same kind of information that tells you how busy your local businesses are, and Google has enough data to provide baselines to let us know when the world is returning to normal. This kind of information can be leveraged in various ways.

One way we have been using these reports is by reading the trends in physical mobility to better implement geotargeting in our digital marketing efforts. The Google tracking code pulls a lot of information when a user visits your website. Visitor information is sent to Google Analytics through a utm. The analytics script collects a lot of information about a visit to your site, from the page they visit utmdt to the resolution of the computer screen it was viewed on utmsr.

Not all parameters are sent with each page load; for example, ecommerce data is only sent on pages where it is relevant. If you have a custom website created for your business, you have a lot more options and flexibility in managing your analytics. Our recommendation is that you implement your tracking code through Google Tag Manager GTM , where you can also build all of your events out. If you have your website built through WordPress , there are lots of useful plugins that integrate with your ecommerce platform to make it easy to measure ecommerce events from product views, cart actions and successful transactions, including how much they spent.

To access your data you might also want to use Google Analytics Core Reporting AP,which allows you to build your own reporting tools and a custom dashboard to display your data. Google Analytics is a fundamental tool that can help you to both improve your content as well as your user experience.

Thanks to it you can find out useful info, like what content performs best and what performs worst, where your readers are located, when the majority of readers navigates your site and what are they specifically searching for, just to name a few.

Having an understanding of the way it works can help you make the most out of it and achieve more blogginggoals! Back to you! Take action with this post by asking your support specialist for tips on how to use and set up your Google Analytics account.

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