Adrian Vender
We all want to know that our content works but we know that not all content will work unfortunately cause, well, it’s not all great:) So the goal is to find out which content is great and working and which isn’t. So how do we know what content is working and what’s not? Web analytics to the rescue! You, along with most everyone else, can obviously easily see the basic analytics that we are all used to seeing and working with but you need to look further, there’s a lot more to know. Tracking page views is all fine and good but you need to see more, see how the user is interacting with the site and moving through your content. Content reporting is difficult but it can be done:) Detailed content tracking simply involves some additional JavaScript on your site in the form of Google Tag Manager. Google Tag Manager is one container code placed on your site that will tell you oodles of useful information. Yes oodles! You can learn lots about GTM on Analytics Academy.
To use Google Tag Manager set up the “Tag” then set up a “Trigger” and go from there! You can then begin to track things like content scrolling, you may also do Youtube and Vimeo tracking and track URL fragments etc.
So, how do you use all this data that you collect?
For starters you need to understand Google Analytics event reporting, this will help you fully utilize Google Tag Manager. When you are working in Google Analytics it’s a great idea to set up and use shortcuts and dashboards, you can also connect content interaction to conversion using custom segments. Segmentation in Google Analytics is one of the most powerful tools in Google Analytics. Use it:)
We need to be better analytics in general, it’s not easy to go through all the data in depth but it’s worth it:) Know your tools, customize them, use the tricks and shortcuts that you have put in place from your previous work, this will make it easier for you to use in future and streamline your analytics experience.