Google Analytics and My Business

Trey Gordner

Trey Gordner, Founder, Koios, presented the following top 10 tips for Google Analytics.

1. Get certified. Google has an “Analytics Academy” giving courses on various aspects of Google Analytics.
   
2. Check for the code everywhere. Find out the purpose of the code for every subdomain on your site. If the code is not there, you will not be getting information from a part of your site.
   
3. Separate internal and external traffic.
   
4. Connect all things: Google Ads, Google Search Console, etc.
5. Set up goals: special actions for clicks that will find your best traffic. Events are a type of goal that is set up with Java script. You can count them and make a report.
   
6. Conversion: compare database interest. Get a sense of interest in items, which will let you learn as much as possible about site visitors.
7. Acquisition: compare channels to determine where people are coming from.
   
8. Behavior: Get to know your visitors—those who drop off, where they go next, where they give up.
   
9. Locations: Learn who you are reaching (there might be some surprises).
10. Consider advanced tools such as Google Tag Manager, or Google Data Studio.
    

Michael Buono, Reference and Community Services Facilitator at the Brentwood NY Public Library, discussed Google My Business which uses information gathered from crawlers or verified by users to control the business listing that appears to the right of the search results. Here are the steps in creating the listing:

• “Claim this business” or “claim this knowledge panel” will appear below the listing. When this is clicked, Google will call you back to verify the listing. (This does not work well with extensions in which case Google will send a postcard).
• Make sure you have only one listing.
• Specify your hours or Google will make them up.
• Enter data for the listing. You can provide different sections for the box which is part of the data that Google crawls. Many people stop at the listing and do not go on to the website. If people use Directions from Google Maps, you can see that.
• Reviews will be public on your listing whether you claim the business or not.
• Questions come to your cell phone and should be answered quickly. To use this capability, you must have your phone connected to the internet and awake. Your cell phone number is not public, but you can see the number of the person sending the message.