Eat Pray Run DC

Running hard, eating well and living a grace-filled life in Washington D.C.

Searching for something?

  • Start Here!
    • Featured In…
    • 30 before 30 List!
    • My Favorite Things
    • Wedding
  • Eat!
  • Run
  • Blogging 101
    • How to Start a Blog
  • Contact Me!
    • Disclosure and Privacy Policy

Google Analytics Custom Reports

December 2, 2014 By: Courtney @ Eat Pray Run DC27 Comments

Last week, we talked very broadly about Google Analytics – what it is, how to install it and some basic definitions. This week, we’re going to dive  a bit deeper and talk about custom reports. I honestly didn’t even know about custom reports until about a month ago. Seriously – that’s how confusing I’ve found Google Analytics and I really hope this breakdown of Google Analytics Custom Reports will give you an idea of some of the custom reports you can run for your site. 

Google Analytics Custom Reports

 

There are three custom reports that I’ve found really helpful and I think you might be interested in as well. First, the Busiest Day report. This report will tell you (no mystery here) what days of the week are busiest. It’s easy to set up. From your home page within GA, click on customization. Click on new custom report and then give your report a title (mine is called busiest day, no surprise there!) Under metric groups add sessions and then under dimension drilldowns add day of week. It should look like this: 

Screenshot 2014-12-01 at 6.06.47 PM - Display 1

 

The fun thing is that you will learn which days get the most traffic over any time period you choose. I learned that I have the highest traffic on weekends, followed by Fridays (no surprise there due to our Friday Five linkup). With this info, I’m going to try to start posting on one weekend day and not posting on Wednesdays (the day I have the least amount of traffic). I’m interested to see how this experiment works! 

The second report I’ve been using is the Busiest Time report. Just like the Busiest Day, this one is super simple to set up. You’ll go through all the steps above, just change your dimension drilldowns to hour – everything else remains the same. I learned that by far, my blog sees the most traffic in the evenings. This was news to me! I just assumed that people were reading blogs before they headed into work. WRONG. My busiest time is 9pm. Followed by 8pm, 10pm, 11pm then 7pm. This was so eye opening and it means that I will devote more time to pumping my blog posts in the evening hours. It makes sense that people would catch up with blogs before bed, I just never really connected it all.

Finally, the last report I’ve been using is Unique Visitors by Page. I use this report to see how many people are visiting each page and to examine a particular page / posts success. It’s very helpful and a little more detailed to put together – but still very simple. Your metric groups are users and sessions. Your dimension drilldowns are page, source and keyword. Boom.

I’m still exploring customized reports on GA and having fun with the process. I’d love to hear about any reports you LOVE!

Do you use customized reports? Which ones?? 


Comments

  1. Jennifer says

    December 2, 2014 at 7:21 am

    GREAT GREAT post!! This was super fun playing around with the time report. Until today I only had the busiest day report for me (Sunday, Monday, followed by Friday).
    Jennifer recently posted…2014 SOME Trot for Hunger 5K Race RecapMy Profile

    Reply
    • Courtney @ Eat Pray Run DC says

      December 2, 2014 at 5:14 pm

      i find it so fascinating!

      Reply
  2. Deborah @ Confessions of a Mother Runner says

    December 2, 2014 at 8:04 am

    Still trying to figure this all out myself thanks for the tips!
    Deborah @ Confessions of a Mother Runner recently posted…Quattro Vegetali Bake-Meatless MondayMy Profile

    Reply
    • Courtney @ Eat Pray Run DC says

      December 2, 2014 at 6:26 pm

      me too! i’m taking it one step at a time

      Reply
  3. Meranda@Fairytalesandfitness says

    December 2, 2014 at 8:31 am

    GA has more reports then I will ever know what to do with…haha. thanks for breaking it down some! -M

    Reply
    • Courtney @ Eat Pray Run DC says

      December 2, 2014 at 6:28 pm

      me too, girl!! so many choices!!

      Reply
  4. Chaitali says

    December 2, 2014 at 9:02 am

    Really useful, thanks! I had no idea that you could do custom reports for things like busiest day or time. I clearly need to play around on there a bit more.
    Chaitali recently posted…Tasty Tuesday – parmesan oatmeal cookiesMy Profile

    Reply
    • Courtney @ Eat Pray Run DC says

      December 2, 2014 at 6:28 pm

      i’m learning as i go πŸ™‚

      Reply
  5. Kathryn @ Dancing to Running says

    December 2, 2014 at 9:25 am

    Interesting stats. I too thought that early morning was the busiest time for blog reading, and I’ve read from multiple “experts” that the busiest time on Social Media is from 1-4pm.
    Kathryn @ Dancing to Running recently posted…December 2014 Monthly GoalsMy Profile

    Reply
    • Courtney @ Eat Pray Run DC says

      December 2, 2014 at 6:29 pm

      i think it definitely depends on your audience. clearly, i have some night owls πŸ™‚

      Reply
  6. Rebecca Jo says

    December 2, 2014 at 10:18 am

    You’re teaching me how this all works… thanks!
    Rebecca Jo recently posted…The story of my appendix…My Profile

    Reply
    • Courtney @ Eat Pray Run DC says

      December 2, 2014 at 6:29 pm

      thanks for reading – i’m teaching myself as i go along!

      Reply
  7. Tiffany says

    December 2, 2014 at 11:36 am

    This is super helpful! I just launched two new websites at work, and Google Analytics has ALWAYS been Greek to me. I’m setting up these custom reports as a start while I continue to play around with the most useful data to pull out of this tool. Thanks for the screenshots!

    Reply
    • Courtney @ Eat Pray Run DC says

      December 2, 2014 at 6:33 pm

      you’re welcome – glad it was helpful!

      Reply
  8. Tara @ Running 'N' Reading says

    December 2, 2014 at 12:33 pm

    This is great, Courtney! I didn’t even know these were available to use in Google Analytics; I”m definitely going to have to take a look around! Thanks so much for sharing this information, and I hope you are busy packing!!! πŸ™‚
    Tara @ Running ‘N’ Reading recently posted…Marathon Training Week 16My Profile

    Reply
    • Courtney @ Eat Pray Run DC says

      December 2, 2014 at 6:37 pm

      im trying!! πŸ™‚

      Reply
  9. Sue @ This Mama Runs for Cupcakes says

    December 2, 2014 at 2:46 pm

    This is AMAZING! Thank you so much! I just set up those reports and it was interesting to see! My busiest times are between 7-9am! And Mondays and Wednesdays are my most popular days which I wasn’t very surprised by. Thank you!!
    Sue @ This Mama Runs for Cupcakes recently posted…I Moustache you some questionsMy Profile

    Reply
    • Courtney @ Eat Pray Run DC says

      December 2, 2014 at 6:37 pm

      isn’t it fascinating???

      Reply
  10. Mar @ Mar on the Run says

    December 2, 2014 at 3:27 pm

    so interesting. My days were Sunday followed my Monday and Friday. Though I had a viral post on a weekend, which I’m sure skewed my numbers and during MCM training my weekly recaps were pretty high traffic. Not much difference between that and Friday Five days. So fun to look at these!
    Mar @ Mar on the Run recently posted…Running Tip of the Month: MotivationMy Profile

    Reply
    • Courtney @ Eat Pray Run DC says

      December 2, 2014 at 6:43 pm

      soooo interesting!! i’m super fascinated with all of this πŸ™‚

      Reply
  11. Cecilia @ MommiesRun says

    December 2, 2014 at 9:35 pm

    I need you to come to Memphis and give me a private lesson on all things blogging related. I don’t even know how to use GA, period! You are just amazing.
    Cecilia @ MommiesRun recently posted…Real life, a new streak, and goals achievedMy Profile

    Reply
    • Courtney @ Eat Pray Run DC says

      December 2, 2014 at 11:30 pm

      i’m still learning myself, lol πŸ™‚

      Reply
  12. Coco says

    December 2, 2014 at 10:16 pm

    Great tips! I probably spend 30 min on blogs in the am, and then 1-2 hours in the pm.
    Coco recently posted…Celebrate Giving Tuesday With CUCBMy Profile

    Reply
  13. Debbie @ Deb Runs says

    February 28, 2015 at 6:33 pm

    After getting Google AdSense up and running two weeks ago thanks to your tutorial post, I’ve pulled up a couple of your older posts from my Pinterest blogging board this weekend. So far, I’ve added Google Analytics and linked AdSense to it. I just set up the three custom reports you suggest. Can’t wait to start analyzing everything! Thanks so much, Courtney! You’re the best!
    Debbie @ Deb Runs recently posted…Five Reasons I Love Doing My Business TaxesMy Profile

    Reply
    • Courtney @ Eat Pray Run DC says

      February 28, 2015 at 8:06 pm

      Oh I’m so glad to hear this! I can’t wait to hear about what you learn πŸ™‚

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Top Ten Blog Posts of 2014 - Eat Pray Run DC says:
    December 31, 2014 at 10:53 am

    […] I hope you all had a wonderfully happy and merry Christmas and are still enjoying family time. I’m back in DC, but just slowly getting into things and getting prepared for 2015. I thought I’d go back and share my top ten blog posts of 2014 – I love reading posts like this and thought you might be interested as well. I got this information using Google analytics. Still not sure what Google analytics is? Check out my primer post here and my post on custom reports here.  […]

    Reply
  2. 2014 Blog Stats by the Numbers - Eat Pray Run DC says:
    January 5, 2015 at 10:27 am

    […] days were Tuesdays, followed by Mondays and then Fridays. Remember when I looked at the month of November and found that I got the most traffic on Sundays? What I’m taking from this data is that as […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Hi, there! I’m Courtney

Welcome to Eat Pray Run DC - I'm passionate about food, running, Jesus, my dog and bacon. Not necessarily in that order. Read More…

Join the Eat Pray Run DC Community & Get Your FREE Copy of Blogging 101!

Follow

Tags

berlin marathon blogger tips blogger tip tuesday blogging blog stats chicago marathon christmas Church cooking dc dinner eat exercise faith fitness food friday five friends gift guide giveaway goals half marathon healthy healthy-living holiday holidays marathon marathon training oiselle pure barre race races recipe recipes relationships richmond marathon run running sweat pink training travel wedding wedding planning wedding wednesday workouts

Categories

Copyright © 2023 · Modern Blogger Pro Theme By, Pretty Darn Cute Design