Google Analytics is a powerful and useful tool that is available to anyone who is running a website. There are so many different features you can use on Google Analytics and it collects a lot of important data you can use to your advantage.
One of these features and data types is tracking hits.
But what are hits and how does Google Analytics track them? Why are they even important? In this article, we’ll be going over everything you need to know about tracking hits with Google Analytics and the different types of hits it can track.
What Is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a web analytics service that helps websites track and improve their Search Engine Optimization through the use of statistics and basic analytics tools. As long as you have a Google account, you can use this service for free.
The Analytics service is used to collect visitor insights and track the performance of your website.
Some of the features Google Analytics includes are discovering trending patterns on your site, trends in user engagement, user traffic, tracking goal completions, and gathering user information, such as demographics.
Google Analytics offers a lot more than just these examples. It is overall a great tool for anyone who is running and managing a website. It will help you learn what you need to do in order to have your website running at its most optimal condition.
What Are Hits On Google Analytics?
So, what are hits on Google Analytics? They are basically little bits of information that are sent to the Google Analytics servers after a website that is linked to it has had any interaction. Once they are received by GA, the hits are then processed.
Hits recorded users’ behaviors when they are on the website. This included whether or not they are on mobile or on a computer, how long they are on the website, what they are clicking on, and what they are engaging with the most.
Every single interaction and behavior is sent over to the Google Analytics servers as data. Once it is processed, the appropriate information is sent to the right part of the Analytics page.
Types Of Hits Tracked
There are quite a few different types of hits that Google Analytics tracks. There are seven altogether and each one is just as important as the other. Let’s have a little look at the different types of hits now:
User Timing Hits – These hits track the time actions take to complete, such as button click duration, image load time, and page load time.
E-Commerce Hits – If you are offering a service that requires payment, the E-commerce hits will track things like when someone places an item on their page in the shopping cart or finalizes a purchase.
Exception Hits – This hit type records any errors or crashes on the site.
Pageview Hits – This hit type is tracked whenever a user views any page on a browser, even if they have viewed it already. It will record every single page view.
Social Interaction Hits – This hit type measures every type of social interaction on a specific webpage. This includes things like sharing content, liking any content, and sharing it.
Screen View Hits – This hit type is tracked whenever one views a screen within an app. This hit type helps you work out which content of yours is most viewed by users.
Event Hit – And finally, this hit type records any interactions on the webpage like someone clicking a link, playing a video, or downloading something on the webpage. This hit type is measured separately from Pageview Hits.
Each of these types of hits will help you see what areas are doing the best on your website and what areas you need to improve on.
What Are Google Analytics Metrics
If you’re going to use Google Analytics, then you need to know a bit about Google Analytics Metrics as well, as they go hand in hand with each other.
Google Analytics Metrics are information that tells you the performance of very specific and certain aspects of a website or app in a specific timeframe. If you want insight into users’ behavior, then this is where Metrics come in handy.
Metrics lets you see how each aspect of your website works and what your users like and dislike, so you can improve what needs to be improved. It is an important part of Google Analytics you need to learn to master.
Why Are Google Analytics Metrics Important?
Google Analytics Metrics are important because they will help you make your website as optimal as you need it to be. When you have a better understanding of your audience, you have a better understanding of where your website needs to be.
One of the most important Metrics is called “Bounce Rate”. It shows you if a user clicks on your website and then leaves really quickly, or if they stay longer.
This is an important metric to monitor because you want to keep users engaged and interested for as long as possible. When you know they are leaving quickly, you can work on making the website better and more engaging.
There are lots of metrics you can look into and monitor. Once you understand which metrics you need to focus on, it will vastly improve the quality of your website and the overall traffic and engagement coming in.
Conclusion
So as you can see, tracking hits is a very important part of using Google Analytics. It will keep you informed of the behavior of users who are coming to your site and will show you what you need to do to improve the overall performance, engagement, and traffic.
When you incorporate the use of Google Analytics Metrics into your market research as well, the sky is really the limit. When you know your strengths and weaknesses in terms of the performance of your website, you can stop any issues and problems from occurring.
You’ll need to spend a bit of time getting to know Google Analytics, but once you understand it, there will be no stopping you!
Hi, my name is Justin Shaw, I started my career with a Masters in Computer Science but found writing to be my forte'.
I'm now the Principal Tech writer for GshiftLabs.com as well as a few other well known publications. I help make the complex world of Tech-Jargon easy to understand.
