Web Analytics is the concept of measuring
- Who is visiting your site
- How are they navigating through your site (what pages are they going to, what buttons are they clicking)
- What was the immediate prompt that brought them to your site
It does not measure
- Why people are visiting your site
- What is the general mood of the people that are on your site (are they frustrated or happy with the site)
- How to increase traffic to your site
Web Analytics is a tool to measure concrete data, not an overall strategy. In other words, it is meant to inform your overall marketing strategy.
Setting up Analytics Tools
The two most popular Web Analytics tools are:
- Google Analytics (otherwise known as GA or GA4). Learn how to start Google Analytics.
- Google Tag Manager (otherwise known as GTM). This is used in conjunction with GA4 to measure activity. Learn how to start Google Tag Manager.
Are you not sure which one to use? We created a decision tree back when we were working with units to move off of UA. It can help you make a decision on where to go next.
What is this “UA” I see on the Web?
Google had Universal Analytics (UA). This was at the time the most popular Analytics tool, but will be decommissioned in 2024. We recommend if you have information still in UA, you convert to GA4. Learn more about Universal Analytics sunset.
If you are still using Universal Analytics, we have a document that lists the differences and a decision tree that talks through the process of deciding where to go next.