According to Google, a “hit” is “an interaction that results in data being sent to Analytics.” Some of the more common hit types that you should be aware of include eCommerce hits, event tracking hits, and page tracking hits. Whenever the tracking code is signaled by a user action, Google Analytics will make a record of this action. The types of user actions that could result in a hit include everything from purchasing a product on a mobile app to loading a page on a standard blog website. Every one of these actions is packaged directly into a hit, after which the activity is sent to a Google server to be accessed at any time in the future.
Tracking info using Google Analytics is highly beneficial for your business if you want to understand how users react when they are on your website. With this data, you’ll be able to determine how effectively customers are funneled to a sale or lead-generating page once they enter your website.
You can also use this data to identify which aspects of your website work well and which ones might require some additional attention. Likely the most important data that you’ll receive from the info that Google Analytics tracks involves the bounce rate of each page. If one page on your website is accompanied by a high bounce rate, this indicates that the page is poorly designed or doesn’t provide the customer with the kind of content that they’re looking for.
If you want to be able to analyze how well your website is performing, it’s highly recommended that you use Google Analytics with your website, which can be done with one of the many easy-to-use Analytics plugins available for WordPress websites. The benefits of using Google Analytics are numerous. For one, the tool is completely free and provides you with information about the links and pages on your website that visitors like the most. You can also use this tool to determine the effectiveness of your SEO campaign. The following article will provide a comprehensive look at the various types of hits that Google Analytics is able to track.
Pageviews
Pageviews is a type of hit that allows you to identify every instance of a user entering a page on your website. When a user navigates to a page on your website, Google Analytics gathers this information and creates it into a hit that’s placed into your GA report. If you want to know the number of visitors who clicked on a blog post in a given week, the pageviews hit can provide you with this information.
With this information, you can identify which pages are performing well and which ones aren’t attracting many visitors. By knowing if a page is underperforming, you should be able to start making improvements to the page that will appeal to your customers.
Devices
Devices is a common hit that gives you information about the types of devices that are accessing your website. With this hit, Google will take note of all devices that are accessing your website, which includes desktop, mobile, and tablet devices. Under the “acquisition” section of the Analytics report you receive, you will notice the number of sessions, new sessions, and new users per device.
Under the “behavior” section, you will be able to look at the bounce rate, pages per session, and average session duration for each device type. If you find that 85 percent of site traffic occurs with desktop users, this could mean that your mobile experience may be flawed and needs attention. You can use this information to make changes that will improve your numbers for specific devices.
Events
Events is an essential hit that refers to any user interaction with the content on your website. These events can include anything from video plays to clicks on mobile ads. This is a great way for you to determine how much customers are engaging with your website.
If you receive a high number of hits in your Analytics report for a specific video or ad, you can infer that this content is highly popular with your site visitors and customers. This type of hit is also very beneficial for getting rid of useless content. If site visitors aren’t engaging with some of your content at all, you will know to get rid of this content and replace it with something better.
Social Interactions
Social interactions is a hit that measures the number of social interactions that occurred on your webpage, which is only applicable if you’ve implemented social media buttons throughout your website. In the event that site visitors click on these buttons to like your page or share the content, Google will create a hit of the interaction and send it to a Google Analytics report. This is a great way to determine how effective your content is.
If one page is being liked substantially more than the other pages on your website, you’ll be able to determine that the content on that specific page is what your audience wants to see more of. The most popular social media buttons and widgets include Twitter and Facebook. When you want to analyze the data that you receive, you’ll be provided with such metrics as the number of social interactions that took place, the number of sessions wherein a social interaction occurred at least one time, and the number of social interactions for every session. With this data, you can quickly alter your social media campaign to make sure that your readers get what they want.
E-commerce
E-commerce is a hit type that records every interaction made on an eCommerce page. Whenever a customer places an item into their shopping cart, a hit will be made and sent through Google Analytics. The same is true of other eCommerce interactions such as the actual purchase finalization. Obtaining these metrics can be very important for your business. If you want your company to be as successful as possible, it’s essential that you’re able to identify how customers are reacting when they enter your website. When you begin to analyze the data, this analysis can be done in a variety of ways depending on what you wish to compare.
With eCommerce hits, your main goal should be to analyze the tunnel from when the visitor entered your website to the moment they purchase your product. If there’s a significant drop in any segment of the tunnel, you can make the changes necessary to keep your customers engaged until they have purchased a product and have been sent to the “thank you” page. If you find that your numbers for items being placed into shopping carts are significantly higher than the number of purchases, this data tells you that your website isn’t getting prospective customers to follow through with purchasing an item. To fix this problem, you could add discounts to your page upon checkout or other content that could push the user to purchase your product.
Exception Hit
Exception Tracking is a highly useful hit that specifically tracks any crash or error that occurs on your site. The data that you receive from these hits is very important if you want your customers to be provided with a smooth and consistent user experience. If the website crashes or a video fails to load properly, your customers could become frustrated and switch to another website.
This is a very simple hit that gives you a basic description of the error and tells you if the error was fatal. With this information, you can readily identify what the error is and where it’s located, which should be everything that you need to get rid of the error. If you don’t have this information, your customers could be experiencing crashes without you ever knowing. Because of the vast number of different errors and exceptions that can occur with a website, the method for correcting the issue can differ from error to error.
User Timing
User timing is a hit that focuses specifically on measuring load times for each individual who enters your website. It’s been found that a good user experience depends on the website being fast-to-load. The modern audience expects very fast load times, which is why it’s important that you measure this type of hit.
If you can find a way to reduce the load times on your website, you should be able to increase site traffic and customer conversion rates. The user timing report that you receive from Google Analytics will allow you to analyze the performance of individual resources, which include videos, images, and buttons. This information is provided to you in milliseconds. Along with the user timing hits that are captured and reported to you with Google Analytics, you’ll also receive a speed suggestions report, which should help you determine how to make your site pages load faster.
Why You Should Analyze Your Google Analytics Hits
If you have a WordPress website and want to be able to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaign, it’s essential that you track the many different elements on your website, which can include everything from page loads to sales of a product. This tool is also very beneficial for the tracking of your search engine optimization. For instance, Google Analytics allows you to track the keywords that you’ve placed throughout your website, which means that you can determine how users reach your site. The Analytics report that you receive will include extensive data for each element you track.
If you notice that a specific page or keyword isn’t performing well, you can quickly alter your SEO techniques for better performance. Because of the substantial amount of data that you receive on a Google Analytics report, it can sometimes be difficult to read and analyze the report if you don’t have much experience in doing so.
If ever you need help with analyzing the Analytics report or would like some assistance with the optimization of your website, our team at Bryt Designs is ready and able to provide you with everything you require to keep your website running efficiently and effectively!
