The Fresh Face Of Google Analytics
May 19th, 07 | 4 remarksGoogle finally gave the green light for all users to partake of the new face of Analytics yesterday. Woohoo! After the announcement came last week for select users, I’ve been anxious for my turn to check it out first hand. Before now, I didn’t think too highly of Analytics, or use it often simply because it seemed so overwhelming to me. True, it provided a lot of solid information, but it was too much to sift through and I was never sure where to spend my time in it.
The new UI is a dramatic improvement, however, especially for the very visually oriented (like me). The differences are noticeable right away on the Dashboard, which now displays first and foremost a charted view of visitors and site usage stats. Four subsequent modules consisting of Visitor, Content and Traffic Overviews, along with a Map Overlay are also available by default.
The modules are all drag/drop enabled, so you can rearrange them to your liking. You can also add or remove modules on your Dash to customize it further, giving you quick access to the stats most important to you. I think this is my favorite new feature.
Moving a little further in, all the pages have been “opened up” considerably, giving you larger views of the graphs/charts. You can also switch quickly between pie charts, graphs, or numeric stats view with one click, to have data presented in a way which makes the most sense to you. All the same data Analytics provided before is still available to you via drill-down of the sidebar categories… it’s just more accessible, and presented in a much cleaner fashion.
I’m very happy with this upgrade, and I’m sure I’ll be using Analytics a lot more now. If you haven’t been a big fan, it’s definitely worth a second look… and if you’re new to it, now is a good time to get on board!
Some of the stuff they’ve done has made it much simpler to use, but on the flip side it took me almost an hour last night to set up a report that used to take me 5 minutes on the old interface - so it’s not totally perfect! ;)
May 19, 07 | 3:52 pmDo you mean adding a new website profile, or are you referring to a specific report found within a profile? The term Report is a little confusing to me, because Google seems to use it interchangeably. I’ve only scratched the surface of Analytics at this point, so I’m not familiar with setting up reports for detailed analysis if that’s what you mean. Maybe you could shed some light on it for me?
May 20, 07 | 3:52 pmSorry..! To clarify, I was referring to Goals and Funnels - but to be honest, the chances of you needing this part of Analytics is slim, as it doesn’t really apply to blogging!
I have profiles set up for 11 other projects (both personal and client) that require this kind of detailed analysis - and it’s definitely not as simple in the new interface as it was in the old one.
Having said that, I’m sure once I get used to the way it’s changed I’ll be using it at the same pace again! ;)
May 20, 07 | 5:10 pmThanks Paul, and sorry about the delayed response. I just discovered your comment caught in Akismet for some reason. Anyway I guess now you’ll be my go-to guy if I ever reach the point where I need to do anything with Funnels. LOL ;)
May 22, 07 | 3:06 pm