Dive summary:
- The first step to understanding Google analytics is to break it down into five core areas and study each of those. [see the full list at Search Engine Watch]
- The five core areas of analytics are 1) time spans and comparing time periods, 2) traffic changes, 3) sources of traffic, 4) why traffic is entering and leaving, 5) everything else.
- The "everything else" core area includes demographics, behavior, technology, mobile, and site speed which are all useful data groups once you've learned the basics.
From the article:
"When you want to gain insight into how your website is performing, one of the most basic, yet crucial functions (and one beginners are completely unaware of) is how to change the time period you're looking at and compare one time period with another."