How to Setup Your Dashboard in Google Analytics

Ah, the GA dashboard. It's the first screen you see when you log-in and click over to your profile. Often times I bypass this screen and go directly to Traffic Sources. That is, until recently. And that's because I finally setup my dashboard screen. And you can too. So save yourself a click and get all the good stuff in one spot with the below steps!

First, I decided what I wanted to see the most. For me, the following reports are most important:

1. Traffic sources
2. Keywords (from Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.)
3. Search terms (Etsy internal search)
4. Top items being viewed.

Once you've made your list, you can begin adding them to your dashboard. To do this, navigate to the actual report and click "Add to Dashboard" at top. Go through your list and do this for each report. Time range does not matter. (Click image below to enlarge.)

Add Item to Dashboard in Google Analytics

Now visit your dashboard by clicking "Dashboard" in the left main navigation. Your Dashboard will open up with your newly added reports. Hover over the grayed bar with the report name in it to move it up or down and left or right. You can also remove reports you don't use. For me, I removed the Map Overaly, Visitor Overview, and Goals Overview. Keep in mind you want this to be quick and concise, so remove any extraneous reports you never use or don't care about. And just keep in mind that everything can be re-added.

Use the below video to visualize the directions above.

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Google Analytics for Etsy QUICK Tip: Use the Annotations Feature or You'll Be Sorry!

So, quick post today folks with a handy little GA tip. Run promotions? Get spikes in your Etsy traffic? Use the annotations feature in GA to remind yourself what went on during certain times to make interpreting historical data, spotting trends, or remembering successes easier. See the enclosed YouTube video on how to setup an annotation. Doing so is quick and easy, and really makes the data in there more meaningful!

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Where are your Etsy sales coming from?

So, by now you all should be aware that you NEED to get Google Analytics ("GA") running on your Etsy shop. If you haven't yet, see here. Also read this article on understand your traffic sources. In order to proceed with the rest of this article, you must have GA set up.

Ok. So you've got GA running and you're using my Google Analytics for Etsy tutorials to better interpret the data. Great. Today we're going to go over how to determine where your sales are coming from. And unfortunately, Etsy does not have the e-commerce feature turned on, so getting at this data is tricky and not 100%, but its the best we've got. So without further ado, here's how to figure out where your Etsy sales are coming from.

1. Log into Etsy and make a list of the items you sold and the dates they sold. Keep note of multiple items in one order.
2. Log into GA.
3. Adjust the date range to fit the first day in question. (We are working day-by-day.)
4. Click "Content" and then "Content by Title".
5. Find your first item sold that day & click the item's title.
6. On the next screen, click the drop-down box that says "None" and select "Source/Medium". You will now see all the possible sources that brought in the sale.
7. Look over the list. Any visit to the item that lasted only a couple seconds can be thrown out. Jot down the remaining sources.
8. Do this for your remaining sales. For sales of multiple items in one order, look for overlaps in traffic sources. Remove any that only delivered a view to one item.
9. Once you've done this for your full list, tally the sales per source. You should now have a rough list!

Now, I will say that this methodology is very crude. It assumes people buy on their first visits to your shop and it attributes the sale to the most recent source and rejects other previous sources. (i.e. found your shop through organic, favorited it, then came back directly and bought days later). BUT, it's the best there is and it should give you a trend, at least, to go by. Do this for a month or week at a time to get enough data. Then use the data to your advantage! And as usual, comment with questions!

Hope this helps!

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Etsy Item Views vs. Google Analytics Pageviews: Which to monitor?

(Repost of my article for Handmadeology.)

Traffic. Besides sales, it's the thing we crave as shop owners. We live to track it, measure it, and chop it up into little tiny pieces to scrutinize it.

With Etsy, you have two main options in measuring your item's traffic:

1. Item views on the Etsy item page.
2. Pageviews through Google Analytics.

A recent post in the Etsy forum has brought to light a common issue when using what is called "server-side" tracking: it will incorrectly count "bot" (search engine & other crawler) visits as well as visits from you. See this thread for a full explanation from Etsy. This is bad, since it will inflate your item pageviews, making it look like it's getting more traffic than it is. And even with a fix in sight, there is a better tracking solution!

The solution is (drumroll please!): Google Analytics. (I bet you knew I was going to say that.) Why? It's browser-based, which simply means that it can filter out visits from automated programs. In fact, it does this automatically. You can also filter out visits from yourself, either at work, from home, or anywhere else you access your shop. Need to setup Google Analytics? Check out this Etsy how-to. Need to exclude visits from you? See this Google tutorial.

So, we know that Google's data is more sound than the data available on the Etsy page. Here's a quick run-down on how to access pageviews through Google Analytics and some other quick tips that will make you never look at Etsy-provided pageview data again!

1. Log-in to Google Analytics.
2. Click "Content". Then "Top Content" or "Content by Title" ("Top Content" lists your items by page URL. "Content by Title" lists you items by your Etsy title).
3. You should now see "Pageviews" and "Unique Pageviews". "Pageviews" means all views of you item, even in the same visit multiple times. "Unique Pageviews" means pageviews excluding items viewed multiple times in the same visit. The more accurate of the two is obviously Unique Pageviews.
4. Click the blue URL or name of the page to load the next page. Here you will see only data for the specific Etsy item you clicked on. If you then click "Entrance Sources" under "Landing Page Optimization", you will see the traffic sources that brought people to this item. Pretty cool huh!

Use this data to more accurately understand your most popular items and how people are getting to them. You can then optimize your item descriptions and targeting to sell better to your visitors, as well as add new marketing sources to your arsenal.

One last tip: click the arrow with the box to the left of any blue link within Analytics to open that page in a new tab. This is great for investigating traffic sources without have to type in the URL or leave Analytics.

Good luck and have fun!

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Marketing Monday Quick Tip: Down the Rabbit Hole We Go!

Recently I wrote about using Google Analytics to find new marketing opportunities for your handmade shop. If you haven't read it, read it here: Using the Referring Site Report in Google Analytics. (It was also featured on Handmadeology. Yay!)

From the above exercise, you will most likely find blogs that deliver quality traffic to your shop. When you visit these blogs, also look through the blog author's "Blogroll", "Blogs I Love", "I'm reading", or whatever they call their blog love list. Visit these blogs and evaluate them for other marketing opportunities. This is a great way to find related sites that may not have found you yet!

I call this the "Rabbit Hole" technique, since it will most likely send you through many twists and turns and open up new sites you never knew existed. But it's a fun research project for sure. Just set aside some time and be structured about it!

~Hope this helps~

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Using the Referring Sites Report in Google Analytics to Build Traffic and Revenue to Your Etsy Shop

Google Analytics is a great tool to help you be successful on the Web. Today I'd like to introduce you to the Referring Sites report--a report that will help you find other sites to leverage in order to continue to build your customer base. But before I go any further, I'd like to remind you (or introduce you) to the fact that the way Etsy has Google Analytics integrated on our shops isn't completely correct. Read this post on Understanding Traffic Sources to Your Etsy Shop to see what I mean.

Now that I've got that out of the way...

Building links and awareness outside of Etsy is just as important as engaging the community within Etsy. This is because:

1. Search engines like links for SEO. The more quality links you have, the more traffic you get from them.
2. Links bring in more referring traffic.Traffic brings in sales.
3. Links build awareness, which could equal shop features, giveaways, and other opportunities.

So, where can you go to quickly find quality sites to engage for links? The Referring Sites report!

How to Get to the Referring Sites Report

Log-in to Google Analytics (GA) and select Traffic Sources-->Referring Sites from your left navigation. Make sure your date range is long. I'd say view at least 1-2 months worth of data.

Reading the Referring Sites Report

Determining Which Sources Are Best
Ok. So now you're looking at your report. What you're looking for are sites that deliver quality and engaged traffic. How do you measure this? By looking at Pages/Visit, Avg. Time on Site, and Bounce Rate.

Here are some definitions of these:

1. Pages/Visit: The average number of pages viewed during a visit to your site.

2. Avg. Time on Site: The average duration of a visit to your site. 

3. Bounce Rate: The percentage of single-page visits (i.e. visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page).

Ok. So we're looking for quality sites that are delivering us traffic. Quality sites are those that give us plenty of pages/visits, a high time on site, and a low bounce rate (50% or less). Of course, these values will be relative based on how your shop performs, so see how how users behave and choose your values accordingly.


Sorting Your Report
A really quick way to get at the best data is by sorting. Pressing the column name will sort your sources from lesser to greater or greater to lesser.

To sort your data even more granularly, use the "Advanced Filter" option at the bottom of your screen. Set your visits to greater than 10 (or higher if you get a lot of traffic) by clicking the down arrow in the green source box and selecting the "visits" radio button. Then press the down arrow in the "Less Than" box and select "Greater Than". Enter "10" in the open field. Now select "Add New Condition" and follow a similar process for bounce rate. Set bounce rate to less than 50%, or higher if your shop's average bounce rate is higher. Press "Apply Filter" and your best referring sites should come up. If the list is short, broaden your filter values by selecting "Edit Filter".

Click image to enlarge.

Cleaning the Data

Now, remember how I said Etsy's GA integration isn't 100% accurate. At this point, you need to make sure these referring sites actually sent traffic directly to you. So, click the blue referring site name. This will open another page where there are URLs of the page of the referring site that delivered traffic to you. Click the pop-out arrow to the left of the page URL and that page will open in a new window. Scour the page looking for a mention of your site. Use Ctrl+F to find your link or shop name. If it's there, this traffic source passes the test. If not, review the site. Does it match your market or niche? If it does, add it to the list anyway!

Click image to enlarge.

Using the Data You've Found With This Report

So, now you have your site list. Now you need to figure out what to do with it. There are a few options, but get creative.

1. Engage with the community by commenting and sharing.
2. Buy ad space.
3. Hold a giveaway or other promotion.
4. Fan, follow, and subscribe.

Hope this helps. And, as always, post comments and questions!

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Become an Etsy Tagging Pro with the Site Search Report in Google Analytics!

Ah, Google Analytics, or "GA" as I will call it from hereon out. Scary to some, but an invaluable tool for making your Etsy shop more efficient. I know some of you may still be procrastinating on setting up an account. If I'm talking about you, run (don't walk) to your computer and do it. Do it now! Don't know how? Use this Etsy setup guide. Follow it closely as it diverges from the normal GA setup.

GA has a lot going on. Being a web marketer by profession, I'd like to share some of the most important things GA has to offer for your Etsy shop. Today I'd like to talk about the Site Search report.

What is the Site Search Report

From Google:

Site Search reports allow you to see how people search your site. You can find out what your visitors search for and which pages they visit as a result. You can also see where they begin their searches, how many pages they visit after searching, and which product groups they are most likely to search.

For the Etsy integration, this will tell you which keywords (e.g. tags) are bringing in traffic to your shop!!

How to Setup Site Search to Work for Etsy

See #2 here.

How to Access the Report in Google Analytics

On your main report dashboard, go to Content-->Site Search-->Search Terms. Done!

How to Leverage the Data

To best use this report, look at blocks of time. Weeks and month(s) work best. What do you see? Any patterns?

In the below screenshot (click to enlarge), it's obvious that "anchors" is a hot term right now. So I made sure all my anchor jewelry had this in the tags, as well as the item description. This also tells me that I should consider expanding my items using anchors since its a popular search obviously in high demand.

What's also important are the words that aren't here. Take note of the tags not bringing in traffic. These may be keywords that just aren't popular and should be removed to test other keywords that might work better for you. In my example, I might try using colors less often, since despite my heavy tagging, none of my top search terms include a color.

Hope this helps & contact me with questions!

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Do you know the best times to list/relist your Etsy items? Easily find out with Google Analytics!

As Etsy sellers, we all know that being successful is part luck and part planning. Today I'm writing to help you with the later--planning.

Whenever I list new items, I always see a surge in traffic. But what times are the best times to list? When will I get the best bang for my listing buck? Luckily, if you have Google Analytics installed on your site, you can answer this question easily. If you don't know what Google Analytics is or how to install it, see here.

Log in to Analytics and click the "Visitors" dimension. Then click the "Visitor Trending" drop down and click "Pageviews." Set your time range in the upper right corner. Make sure your time frame is substantial--at least a month. Also keep in mind special occasions, like Christmas, that might skew your data. Now click the little clock icon. This will give you a 24 hour chart and plot pageviews. Find the peaks. You can do this visually or use the Export option. (Export to Excel and sort page pageviews.) See below for an illustration. Click to enlarge. Image will open in a new window.

Write down the hours that have the highest pageviews. These are your prime hours. For me, its 3pm, 4pm, 10pm, and 11pm EST. Depending on your time zone and region, yours will differ. Now list!

Simple. Easy. Actionable. Use this info to make your shop succeed. Good luck!

<3Andrea

Understanding Traffic Sources to Your Etsy Shop in Google Analytics

The Issue

Being in web marketing as a career, I use Google Analytics daily and really view it as an invaluable tool for being successful on the web. So when I discovered I could add Google Analytics to my Etsy shop, I was ecstatic. And although the directions per Etsy were not as clear as they should be, especially for non-web marketers, I was able to make it through and get Analytics running. But as data came in, I was perplexed.

Why, as a new site that no one really knows of yet, was I getting so much direct traffic? And why was Etsy, which should be my primary source of traffic, not listed as a referrer? And why were sites that do not link to me being listed as a referrer? Hmmm...