Why Use Google Analytics

Why do so many people around the globe use Google Analytics? There are many more tools available. What does Google say about their product? Let’s take a look:

“Google Analytics not only lets you measure sales and conversions, but also gives you fresh insights into how visitors use your site, how they arrived on your site, and how you can keep them coming back.”

I started working with Google Analytics in the early days. Not only do I use Google Analytics on personal websites, but also in my daily job to measure, analyze and optimize client sites.

In this article I provide you with 25 reasons for using Google Analytics.

Relatively easy basic setup; a basic implementation is easy compared to tools from many other vendors. However, in order to fully benefit from all the features of Google Analytics, deeper knowledge is required.
FREE to use; you don’t have to pay any (monthly) fees for using this product. This way you can invest a decent budget in resources, instead of only/mainly in tools.
Documentation available on almost every aspect; on both the implementation as well as the configuration part thorough documentation is available. This Google Analytics Tracking code library is a great start.
Intuitive tool; set aside some time and you will soon understand the interface, the different report sets and how to work with the tool.
Powerful customizable reports; create your own reports with an easy drag and drop interface. Add many different dimensions and metrics in one report.
Great Analytics API; for more advanced users, you will love the Google Analytics API.
Handy way of tracking campaigns; you can literally track any campaign that is driving traffic to your website. In order to get this right, you have to understand how to work with utm parameters.
Integration of WMT; it’s easy to connect your Webmaster Tool data to Google Analytics. For anyone serious about SEO, this information is great.
Lots of great add ons available; add ons can make your Google Analytics implementation, configuration and monitoring life a lot easier. Check out this great list of 12 Google Analytics add ons.
Send reports periodically via email; it may be useful for you to send out powerful custom reports to clients or internal stakeholders.
Easy to connect to other tools; I am a huge fan of exporting data and automatically building reports & dashboards via Next Analytics. And there are many more ways to automate data reporting and uncover insights more easily.
Export to Excel at a breeze; the data export function works flawlessly and the opportunities are endless.
Setup custom alerts to save you time; uncover insights more easily.
Easy use of annotations; you can add private or shared annotations. In this way the data gets more meaning and causalities can be shared on the surface.
Ability to measure internal site search; know what people on your website are searching for. Make effective changes to your navigation and product offers.
Advanced segments for ad hoc analysis; powerful on the fly analysis on a group of visitors.
Setup profiles for long term segmentation analysis; you can choose to exclude ‘own’ traffic, focus on certain traffic channels, include only traffic from a specific region etc.
Powerful real time reporting; great way to get direct feedback on campaigns you are running. Very effective when testing implementations.
Powerful integration with AdWords; it takes a few steps, but it’s worth it. Many insights on your AdWords campaigns are waiting for you in Google Analytics.
A large group of specialized consultants to offer help; Google Analytics has an enormous network of qualified consultants around the globe. So in case you need help, it is easy to find someone who can assist you.
New features added periodically; the Web Analytics package has evolved to become a high-end solution for small, medium and large (multinational) companies.
Monitor your mobile and tablet traffic; it is easy to see how your mobile and tablet traffic is growing and whether this visitors segment is converting or not.
Easy testing via experiments; if you want to try out testing, start with experiments in Google Analytics. Later on you can choose to invest in a paid solution.
Easy integration with survey and testing tools; great to enhance your quantitative data with other data from tools like Qualaroo, 4Q survey, Google Website Optimizer and Visual Website Optimizer.