Understanding the Audience Reports in Google Analytics Part 2

Understanding Audience Reports in Google AnalyticsToday we will continue our earlier post on the Audience Reports in Google Analytics. We have already discussed the Demographics, Interests, Geo, and Behavior Reports in Part One of the series. In this post we will learn about the rest of the reports available in the Audience Reports section of Google Analytics.

Technology

The Technology Reports allow you to see stats on your visitors based on what operating system or browser they are using to view your site. These reports can be useful in determining if a certain OS / Browser combination may be having difficulties using your site. As well as Operating System and Browser information, you can also see the difference between users with different screen resolutions, color depth, what version of flash they have installed, as well as if their browser supports Java applications. The Network Report allows you to see your visitors based on their Internet Service Provider.

Mobile

The Mobile reports breaks down your visitors based on the device type they used to view the site. The Overview Report shows the difference between Desktop, Mobile, and Tablet users on your site. This report can be useful to determine if you need to build a mobile specific, or responsive design website in order to appease low converting smartphone and tablet users. The Device Type Report shows your stats for specific mobile and tablet devices.

Custom

The Custom Reports Section is only available if you have manually coded them within your website. There are functions you can send to Google Analytics in order to store information specific to your website about users. The User Defined Report is an old report that comes from the old version of Google Analytics before it went Asynchronous. This was a single variable you could use to mark certain users within your code with a specific designation. This may have been as a custom id number, whether they visited a certain page on the site, or performed a specific action.

With the Asynchronous version of Analytics, Google introduced Custom Variables. Custom Variables were similar to the User Defined Variable, but allowed you to store 5 variables for each visitor instead of the original 1. With the introduction of Google Analytics Premium, Premium members are now allowed to store up to 50 Custom Variables. We will cover Custom Variables in a later post, as well as the new Custom Dimensions and Metrics offered with Universal Google Analytics.

Visitors Flow

The Visitors Flow Report shows the most common paths taken by visitors on your site. By default it shows the flow of those visitors up to their third interaction after coming to the site, but more interactions can be added by clicking the ‘Add Step’ link in that report. It also can show us the drop-off rate of those visitors for each path.

The Audience Reporting Section of Google Analytics is where you can determine the Visitor Profile of your site. It helps you determine the most common types of visitors coming to your site, and allows you to make decisions based on how your target audience interacts with it. With Audience Reporting, Google Analytics allows you to make decisions about your visitors with ease and accuracy.

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