Overview of Google Analytics data collection (2:39) Video Lecture | Google Analytics: For Beginners - Data & Analytics

So Justin, for someone who’s never used
Google Analytics, how does it work exactly?
Remember that Google Analytics is a platform
that collects data and compiles it into useful reports.
To track a website, you first have
to create a Google Analytics account. Then
you need to add a small piece of Javascript
tracking code to each page on your site.
Every time a user visits a page, the tracking
code will collect anonymous information about
how that user interacted with that page. For
the Google Store, the tracking code could
show us how many users visited a page that sells
drinkware versus a page that sells houseware.
Or it could tell us how many users bought
an item like an Android doll by tracking whether
they made it to the purchase confirmation
page.
But the tracking code will also collect information
from the browser like the language the browser
is set to, the type of browser (such as Chrome
or Safari), and the device and operating system
used to access the Google Store. It can even
collect the “traffic source,”
which is what brought users to the site in
the first place. This might be a search engine,
an advertisement they clicked on, or an email
marketing campaign.
Keep in mind that every time a page loads,
the tracking code will collect and send updated
information about the user’s activity. Google
Analytics groups this activity into a period
of time called a “session.”
A session begins when a user navigates to
a page that includes the Google Analytics
tracking code. A session ends after 30 minutes
of inactivity. If the user returns to a page
after a session ends, a new session will begin.
When the tracking code collects data, it packages
that information up and sends it to Google
Analytics to be processed into reports. When
Analytics processes data, it aggregates and
organizes the data based on particular criteria
like whether a user’s device is mobile or
desktop, or which browser they’re using.
But there are also configuration settings
that allow you to customize how that data
is processed. For example, you might want
to apply a filter to make sure your data doesn’t
include any internal company traffic, or only
includes data from a particular country or
region that’s important to your business.
And Justin, one very important thing to remember.
What’s that? Once Analytics processes the
data, it’s stored in a database where it
can’t be changed. Great point, Krista!
So remember, when you set up your configuration,
don’t exclude any data you think you might
want to analyze later. Once the data has been
processed and stored in the database, it will
appear in Google Analytics as reports. We’ll
show you what these reports look like a little later.