Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. It relies on javascript and cookies to capture user behavior, and offers a dashboard for site administrators to log into and analyze the traffic patterns.
Running and using analytics is important for a number of reasons. It lets you see
- what parts of your site are getting the most use
- who is using your site
- where your site traffic is coming from
- whether people are reaching the content that you want them to see
“Data driven decision making” has become a buzzword in the industry. In a nutshell, that means making decisions about web design, navigation, layout, and content based on actual information about site usage. Knowing your content and how that content is being accessed is the first step of this, and analytics is what gives you this information.