Analyzing Website Traffic is an important measurement for webmasters or website owners to be aware of the visitor characteristics when they engage with websites. For digital marketing, it is an important indicator to tell if the marketing campaign or strategy has achieved its objective such as conversion rate of visitors. It also shows the effectiveness of SEO effort by looking at the organic traffic coming into the websites.
Our company helps our web design clients to analyze website traffic by using Google Analytics to know how many visitors have come and how the visitors have interacted when they are visiting. This way, our clients can have insights on their customers’ journey when they are interacting with the website. With a clear customers’ journey mapped out, we can know our customers’ experience and how our products and services help to solve their problems.
Using Google Analytics, we can understand the users’ patterns and the behavior of visitors enables website owners to have informed decisions about the content creation, popularity of the webpages, the design of the websites and the effectiveness of the online marketing strategies. Knowing such information also helps owners to draw up strategies and improve users’ experience so that more traffic can be earned and increase conversions.
Universal Analytics, a version of Google Analytics will be sunsetted by Google from 1 July 2023 and it will be replaced by Google Analytics 4 (GA4). This change is a technological leap ahead compared with the previous version and this is also to deal with people’s online privacy concerns and the EU GDPR laws.
We will be using GA4 for our web design clients from this moment forward. In this page we will show:
- Brief description how we will help our web design clients to install GA4.
- Features of GA4.
- Why deploying the GA4 is in compliance with the EU GDPR law.
How to track website traffic?
We allow Google Analytics to analyze our websites by inserting a javascript code into the header section of our websites. It consisted of a unique identifier to allow Google to collect and analyze and present the data in forms of tables and graphs for website owners to understand visitor behavior and engagement.
This data is linked to a Google account that is normally owned by the website owners. This access privilege is restricted to webmasters or owners of websites who can access the back end.
Prior to going live, in the final stage of web design, the GA4 code snippet will be added to the header of the website. Typically, it takes around 48 hours for data from GA4 to become visible. However, for new websites, it may take several weeks to several months for web crawlers like Google Bots to index the website and for the search algorithm to rank it. During this time, website traffic may start off slow and gradually increase as more organic traffic comes in, resulting in more internet traffic. This increase in traffic allows GA4 to gather and display useful website traffic data.
New features of GA4
Event Based Tracking
GA4 Event Based Tracking is automatically implemented in a website, it tracks specific actions by users such as loading a page, clicking a link or playing a video. Using this data model, webmasters can define these events by putting them in categories so that it will be easier to analyze at a later time. Website owners can expect to see data such as how many users are first time visiting, repeated visitors, users interacting with a form, completed a form or completed an online transaction etc.
Machine Learning Capabilities
GA4 Event Based Tracking is automatically implemented in a website, it tracks specific actions by users such as loading a page, clicking a link or playing a video. Using this data model, webmasters can define these events by putting them in categories so that it will be easier to analyze at a later time. Website owners can expect to see data such as how many users are first time visiting, repeated visitors, users interacting with a form, completed a form or completed an online transaction etc.
Closer Integration with Google Ads
Website owners may need to promote their services via Google Ads to display in Google Display Network using Google Ads. GA4 makes conversion of ads easier to track both online and offline conversions in a campaign. This allows complete pictures of the ads performance and how to optimize ads biddings.
Audience groups can be created based on certain behaviors and events, so that the personalized ads can reach users that are most likely to convert.
Smart ads bidding systems allow the system to optimize bids in real time based on various factors such as behavior and conversion probability.
Cross devices tracking allows GA4 to track behaviors of users to see how users interact with websites before converting. This helps to understand customers' journeys and we can have a clear picture of the customer's journey and optimize ads campaigns accordingly.
Enhanced Privacy Controls
GA4 Event Based Tracking is automatically implemented in a website, it tracks specific actions by users such as loading a page, clicking a link or playing a video. Using this data model, webmasters can define these events by putting them in categories so that it will be easier to analyze at a later time. Website owners can expect to see data such as how many users are first time visiting, repeated visitors, users interacting with a form, completed a form or completed an online transaction etc.
GA4 and Privacy Laws
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is designed to be compliant with the GDPR and other data privacy regulations. One way GA4 achieves compliance is by not relying solely on cookies to track user data. Instead, as mentioned earlier, GA4 uses a combination of techniques, including machine learning, to track user behavior and provide insights into website performance.
GA4 also includes built-in features to protect user privacy, such as IP anonymization and the ability for users to block all cookies tracking. IP anonymization masks the user's IP address, so it cannot be used to identify the user. Additionally, users can choose to opt-out of tracking by blocking all cookies, including those used by GA4.
By complying with the GDPR and other data privacy regulations, GA4 provides website owners with a powerful analytics tool while also protecting user privacy. It's important for businesses to ensure that they are complying with data privacy regulations not just to avoid possible fines for non compliance but also to maintain users' trust.
- GA4 does not rely on cookies to track internet traffic
- GA4 uses machine learning
- GA4 is IP anonymous
What we do for our clients
At Bennware Web Design, we understand the importance of web traffic analysis and its role in optimizing our clients’ website's performance. Our team can help you by:
- Implementing GA4 to clients websites.
- Implement cookie notification in clients’ websites.
- Implement cookie consent if clients' websites serve EU users.
Why we can help you?
Provide in depth understanding of users' behavior.
Measures your website traffic.
Data driven decisions, not gut feel.
Ensure users' privacy choices are respected.
Install GA4 for our clients' websites.
Visualize web traffics in visual formats.
Gather insights of your websites.
