6 replies to this topic

[lister]

Hi is it possible to implement a per page analytics for each page on Google Analytics?

I.e. I would like to know specifically where the traffic came from for that specific page. Is GA good for that or would you advise another package?

Thanks

[Jill]

Yes, Google Analytics can do that. Just go to the Content report. There are other ways of doing it as well.

[Michael Martinez]

You're really not going to get much detail on a per-page basis from Google Analytics, however. And the new version takes away some of that, even.

Google Analytics is a poor source of referral data in any event because it strips URL parameters from the referral strings. If you receive a lot of traffic from sites like forums, for example, you won't see which pages are sending you the traffic.

You're probably better off looking for a different analytics package but keep in mind that they all have limitations.

[Jill]

You're really not going to get much detail on a per-page basis from Google Analytics, however.

Actually, you can get quite a bit, pretty much all you need to know, as long as you know where to find it.

Google Analytics is a poor source of referral data in any event because it strips URL parameters from the referral strings. If you receive a lot of traffic from sites like forums, for example, you won't see which pages are sending you the traffic.

At first glance it appears that they do, but actually that information is also available fairly easily. You just have to dig deeper into your analytics and do the proper cross referencing.

You're probably better off looking for a different analytics package but keep in mind that they all have limitations.

I completely disagree. Just learn to use Google Analytics to its furthest extent. It's actually a lot easier to learn properly than some of the other (expensive) packages, imo.

[Michael Martinez]

Google Analytics offers a very clumsy approach to looking at page-level referral data. The kind of convoluted nonsense people have to resort to in order to get the information they need is simply unjustified. When a free tool like Webalizer with ALL its faults DOESN'T force you to jump through all those hoops just to see where a click came from, that's a pretty solid condemnation about the quality of Google Analytics' native capabilities.

The vast majority of GA users have neither the time nor the inclination to become GA gurus who write all these silly filters and pseudo-procedures to reconstitute data that shouldn't have been broken up in the first place.

The search referral data should be provided "as is" to the user without requiring any special processing.

[Jill]

The search referral data should be provided "as is" to the user without requiring any special processing.

It is.

For instance, to see what keywords brought visitors to a particular URLs from organic Google searches simply do this:

Search Engines > Google > nonpaid > landing page

Or you can reverse it and do landing pages first, then keyword (using the drop downs)

[Michael Martinez]

It is.

For instance, to see what keywords brought visitors to a particular URLs from organic Google searches simply do this:

Search Engines > Google > nonpaid > landing page

Or you can reverse it and do landing pages first, then keyword (using the drop downs)

That's not what I'm talking about, though. GA requires the user to put too many pieces of the puzzle together.

But I think this discussion has shifted from what the original poster requested. I don't really want to get into a debate about Google Analytics. I use it often enough that I'll remain dissatisfied with it.