A beginner’s guide to Google Analytics: How does it work? What are the benefits?

 

Date: 22/03/2025

Author: Ryan Walsh

Are you looking for a beginner’s guide to Google Analytics?

Well, look no further because here at Walsh & Partners, our agency has been using both Google Search Console and Google Analytics for over 10 years.

Now, we know when you see the Google Analytics dashboard, it can look like a bunch of graphs, figures and live stats, which may have you thinking, well, this is just super complicated.

However, it’s not that complicated, and you may need some of the statistics; you may not need them all.
So, this is a beginner’s guide aimed at those businesses that haven’t got the foggiest of what Google Analytics is all about.

And because Google Analytics 4 is now out, often called GA4, there’s even more data that you as a business could be using to improve your website.

When we say improve your website, we don’t just mean from a search engine optimisation perspective; we also mean from a web design perspective.

Because, as any good agency worth their salt will tell you, SEO and good web design now need to work together. This is to lower bounce rates and increase engagement, for example.

Google Analytics is a free tool that you should use to improve your business marketing. If you were to ask our agency which of the two primary tools we use, we would have to say Google Search Console.

We spend a large amount of the working day using Google Analytics, as it’s super reliable and gives you practically up-to-date information on where your website is ranking in the SERPs for a range of keywords. However, that’s not to say Google Analytics should be ignored; it should be. It’s good because it tells you important metrics such as bounce rates, time on site, and how visitors find your website.

 

Tell me more: what can Google Analytics do?

Well, it can do a lot; for example, it can provide reliable data on user behaviour, session duration and user demographics.
Now, notice how we keep using the term “reliable” data; well, there’s a good reason: Google offers ultra-reliable data. Simply because they are Google, you’re getting the SEO data relating to your company website straight from the horse’s mouth.

In our humble opinion, some 3rd-party SEO tools, and we shall mention no names here, but some other companies’ data doesn’t seem as accurate to us.

That’s why at this agency, we primarily use Google tools; they are super reliable, allowing you to decide what to work on and what needs improvement. Plus, what’s also great about both of these tools is that you get a large amount of information over an extended timeframe, which allows you to judge whether the SEO is improving.

First, you need to set up your Google Analytics tracking code.

One of the first things you must do is set up your Google Analytics code. Now, most of the websites on the World Wide Web are built using a CMS called WordPress.

If you have a WordPress website, it’s a piece of cake to add your Google Analytics tracking code to your website. It’s simple: obtain a Monster

Insights plugin through the WordPress dashboard, and with a few clicks of your mouse, you will be set up and good to go.

But what is a tracking code?

A tracking code is just code written in JavaScript that allows Google Analytics to track visitors to your website.

Again, if you have a WordPress website, then this is a piece of cake to set up.

 

Reports

Using Google Analytics, you can set up reports; again, this is a piece of cake to do, and here are some of the reports you can generate.

Users

How many visitors have visited your website in a specified period? You could set the last 24 hours, 7 days or 12 months; that’s up to you.

However, it lets you see whether more visitors are coming to your website. Has the number of visitors declined?

What SEO agencies will be particularly interested in is, after, say, a significant Google core algorithm update has rolled out, well, did the number of organic visitors decline or go up?

It could be widely reported, for example, that the Google core algorithm update aimed to lower websites with a lot of spam or low-quality content marketing. For example, the update could have targeted businesses with a lot of “content, thin” pages. Therefore, you may have noticed that your business’s organic traffic fell off a cliff after this update.

Well, this gives SEO companies something to work with, as they should devise a plan for how to rectify this situation. For example, you could “beef up” and improve content through pages on your company website.

 

New visitor’s vs returning

Many businesses are interested in visitor numbers, such as how many visitors are returning or brand-new visitors.

Average engagement time

Average engagement time gives you an idea of a visitor’s average time on your website. Some marketing agencies call this dwell time, which tells you how long shoppers spend on site.

Ideally, you want to improve your business time on site, which is called dwell time.

The reason is that Google will rank websites at the top of the SERPs with higher engagement. If the website is retaining shoppers for, say, over 5 minutes, yet the direct competition has less than a minute on site, this shows shoppers are more interested in your business.

Therefore, e-commerce businesses and all businesses which have high engagement, these websites will rank higher on Google.

Realtime Reports in GA4

Realtime reports

Some businesses, especially in our opinion, e-commerce businesses, are often interested in knowing how many visitors are visiting their website at any one time.

Now, let’s say you’re an e-commerce business and running a special promotion or offer; well, you might want to know how the sales are drawing in business. For example, is your advertising on social media helping draw 70k shoppers to your website now?

Some businesses, giant companies, will have targets for how many active shoppers they want on their website at any moment. For example, if there are fewer live visitors, they may spend more on Google Adwords or social media advertising to draw in more visitors.

 

Acquisition Report

The acquisition report

The acquisition report on Google Analytics is arguably one of the most important reports to most businesses.

I will tell you how your business has acquired those visitors; for example, have they found your business via social media, direct, Google Adwords or organic traffic?

Let’s look at each category separately, as it’s essential to understand how shoppers find your website. This allows you to work where you best place to spend on your advertising budget.

For example, if 80% of visitors come via organic SEO, the SEO consultant needs a pat on the back first. Secondly, you are going to want to continue your marketing spend there. You may see that 2% come from social media, so you might want to move your advertising spend from there and recalculate it to, say, improving organic and local SEO.

 

Direct.
It is simply when someone knows your website address and enters it into the browser; this is generally a returning visitor. However, it might not be; the person may see your company advertised on TV, in a passing van, or on the side of a bus stop, for example.

 

Paid search

So, if your business is paying for Google Adwords, the number of visitors you receive through your PPC spend will appear here.

 

How Walsh & Partners can help your business

If you run a company with Cardiff, South Wales and you need help and guidance on how to improve your organic SEO, we are the business to call. No matter if you sell your items locally or perhaps nationally or internationally we can help.

If you need help and advice on how to get your business on page one of Google, we are the company to call.