Google Analytics is a premium service provided by Google for free. People usually think that it just tracks and reports website traffic but it actually does so much more. It was first launched in November 2005 after Google acquired Urchin. It is the most popular web analytic service out there with millions of active users. Google Analytics has two additional versions, one of which is a subscription-based Google Analytics Premium which is targeted for enterprise users and the second one is for Mobile apps, a Software Development Kit (SDK) that gathers data from mobile apps.

One must thoroughly understand the features offered by Google Analytics, in order to drive more and more traffic to one’s website. Here’s are some pointers on how this service can help you:

1. Determining which country produces maximum traffic

Google analytics shows detailed stats on how many users visited your website and from which country. If you ever consider advertising via Facebook, StumbleUpon, Google, or any other services you won’t have to fret when selecting a specific country to focus on. The worldwide stats can be found in Location tab under Visitors menu.

2. Learn about the search Keywords:

Learning about the most popular keywords on your site can help your ranking in the long run. You can exploit that by creating more and more content on the most search keywords. The site search tracking option can be enabled in Site search settings tab under the Profile settings menu. Similarly, for the least searched Keyword either try to improve the quality of the content or completely remove it for better content.

3. Identify best performing pages:

Understanding the bounce rate of the website and average time spent by the users per page can be very helpful. These stats provide you information about the most popular content on the website. You can take advantage of this and create more creative content related to it and at the same time try to avoid the topics on you worst performing pages.

4. Find out if you need a mobile site:

If you have been wondering whether you need a mobile site or not, then you can easily get the answer to this question with the help of Google Analytics. Under the Visitors menu, look out for the mobile option. It shows how many users logged into you site using mobiles and how many used desktops to do so. If you have huge traffic generated from mobile users, then you must consider creating a mobile compatible site.

5. Determine when shopping carts are abandoned:

If you have a multi-step checkout process, then you should most certainly use Google Analytics. Most people tend to abandon their shopping carts if the checkout process is too hectic for them. Using a Goal funnel in the Google Analytics, you can discover, where most people gave up. Henceforth you can take suitable steps to reduce the length of the checkout process.

Google Analytics can be your website’s best friend if you know how to utilize it properly. Every single website on the top of the ranking list has Analytics installed. But only the installation doesn’t help you reach the goal. Reacting appropriately to the loopholes and inferior content is of prime importance!