CheatSheetsHero

Catalog / Google Analytics Cheat Sheet

Google Analytics Cheat Sheet

A quick reference guide to Google Analytics, covering key metrics, dimensions, reports, and setup configurations.

Core Concepts & Metrics

Key Metrics

Users

The number of unique individuals who visited your site during the reporting period.

Sessions

The total number of visits to your site. A session starts when a user arrives and ends after 30 minutes of inactivity.

Pageviews

The total number of pages viewed. Repeated views of a single page are counted.

Bounce Rate

The percentage of single-page sessions in which the user left without interacting with the page.

Session Duration

The average length of time users spend on your site during a session.

Conversion Rate

The percentage of sessions that resulted in a desired action, such as a purchase or form submission.

Dimensions

Source/Medium

Where your traffic originates (e.g., google/organic, facebook/referral).

Landing Page

The first page a user views during a session.

Device Category

The type of device used to access your site (desktop, mobile, tablet).

Country

The geographic location of your users.

Browser

The browser used by users to access your site (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.).

Event Category/Action/Label

Custom dimensions used to track specific user interactions.

Attribution Models

Attribution models determine how credit for conversions is assigned to different touchpoints in the customer journey.

  • Last Interaction: All credit goes to the final touchpoint.
  • First Interaction: All credit goes to the first touchpoint.
  • Linear: Credit is distributed evenly across all touchpoints.
  • Time Decay: More credit is given to touchpoints closer to the conversion.
  • Position Based: A specified percentage of credit is assigned to the first and last touchpoints, with the remaining credit distributed among the other touchpoints.

Reports & Analysis

Acquisition Reports

These reports show where your website traffic is coming from.

  • Overview: A summary of all acquisition channels.
  • All Traffic: Detailed information about each source/medium.
  • Google Ads: Performance data for your Google Ads campaigns.
  • Search Console: Data from Google Search Console, including search queries and landing pages.

Behavior Reports

These reports provide insights into how users interact with your website.

  • Overview: A summary of key behavior metrics.
  • Site Content: Information about pageviews, bounce rate, and exit rate for each page.
  • Site Speed: Data on page load times.
  • Events: Tracking of specific user interactions, such as button clicks and video views.

Realtime Reports

These reports show activity on your website as it happens.

  • Overview: A summary of active users, top pages, and traffic sources.
  • Locations: Geographic locations of current users.
  • Traffic Sources: The sources of traffic in real time.
  • Content: The pages currently being viewed.

Conversion Reports

These reports track the completion of goals and ecommerce transactions.

  • Goals: Completion rates for predefined goals, such as form submissions and newsletter sign-ups.
  • Ecommerce: Data on online sales, including revenue, transactions, and product performance.

Setup and Configuration

Setting up Google Analytics

  1. Create a Google Analytics Account: Sign up at analytics.google.com.
  2. Create a Property: A property represents your website or app.
  3. Get Tracking Code: Obtain the global site tag (gtag.js) for your property.
  4. Install Tracking Code: Add the tracking code to every page of your website, ideally in the <head> section.

Setting up Goals

  1. Navigate to Admin > Goals.
  2. Click + New Goal.
  3. Choose a template or create a custom goal.
  4. Define the goal details, such as the destination page, event, or duration.
  5. Verify the goal to ensure it’s tracking correctly.

Linking Google Ads

  1. Navigate to Admin > Google Ads Linking.
  2. Select the Google Ads account you want to link.
  3. Enable auto-tagging to automatically track Google Ads campaigns in Google Analytics.
  4. Save the configuration.

Custom Dimensions & Metrics

  1. Navigate to Admin > Custom Definitions > Custom Dimensions/Metrics.
  2. Click + New Custom Dimension/Metric.
  3. Define the name, scope, and data type.
  4. Implement the custom dimension/metric in your tracking code.

Advanced Features

Segments

Segments allow you to isolate and analyze specific subsets of your website traffic.

  • System Segments: Predefined segments, such as mobile traffic and converting users.
  • Custom Segments: Segments you create based on specific criteria, such as demographics, behavior, and technology.

Dashboards

Dashboards provide a customizable overview of your key metrics and reports.

  • Add widgets to display specific data, such as traffic sources, pageviews, and conversion rates.
  • Share dashboards with other users.

Annotations

Annotations allow you to mark significant events or changes on your data timelines.

  • Add notes to explain spikes or drops in traffic, such as the launch of a new marketing campaign or a website redesign.
  • Annotations can be private or shared with other users.

User ID Tracking

User ID tracking allows you to identify unique users across multiple devices and sessions.

  • Requires implementation of a unique user ID system on your website.
  • Provides more accurate user metrics and cross-device attribution.
Download PDF