WHAT IT IS
In-Page Analytics is a report available from the Content section of your Google Analytics reports. It enables you to visually analyze your website pages in order to assess how users interact with those pages, and helps you understand the answers to questions such as:
- Is my page layout optimal for what I want users to accomplish on the page?
- Are my users seeing the content I want them to see?
- Are my users finding what they're looking for on the page?
- Are my calls to action motivating or visible enough?
- Which links are users clicking?
Beginning with your site's homepage, you see which links users clicked. You can navigate In-Page Analytics the way you navigate your site: click any link on your homepage, and once the new page is loaded, the corresponding data are shown for that page.
Additional benefits of this report include:
- Support for image maps, so you can create a separate tag for each linkable part within a single image
- Support for advanced segments
- Availability of page-level information
- Complete list of incoming and outgoing links
HOW TO USE IT
There's no installation involved. You access the report from the list in the Content section, or by opening the Content Overview report, then clicking the In-Page Analytics link. Your homepage displays automatically.
Here are the main components of the report:
BUBBLES: These indicate the links users clicked, with the numbers inside representing the percentage of clicks on the links. The solid line border indicates that the link leads to the destination page. The dotted-line border* indicates that more than one link leads to the same destination page (for example, if you have links to your home page in both the header and the footer). When you hover over any of the bubbles that contain a numerical figure, the percentage of clicks and any goal values (values you assigned to your goal) are displayed.
* Note: Links indicated by a dotted-line bubble that lead to the same destination URL all appear to have the same data. You can, however, hover over links and get additional information. This is especially useful when viewing multiple segments, as the detail panels show percentages for all segments right next to each other for easy comparison.
CONTENT DETAILS: This section, as well as Inbound Sources and Outbound Destinations, provides more insight into specific metrics. As with other reports, you can apply advanced segments. Simply use the Advanced Segments menu at the top of the report.
TROUBLESHOOTING
Trouble viewing the report:
- Condensed view: The minimum recommended horizontal resolution is 1280 pixels. If you still can't see enough of your site, consider hiding the information panel (click the divider that frames your site), or maximize the site view (click the full-screen icon in the top left of your site page).
- Site in new window: If your site appears in a new window, it's likely that your site is using a mechanism to prevent a third-party site from putting your content in a frame. In this case, certain features of In-Page Analytics (including the ability to apply filters, set advanced segments, or change the date range) may be unavailable. You may want to consider disabling the mechanism in order for In-Page Analytics to operate to its full potential.
Data unavailable:
You may not see data in a bubble where you expect it if you are viewing an advanced segment that doesn't have data for a link.
The site is loaded, but no data overlay appears:
When you open In-Page Analytics, the initial page is derived from the Website URL and Default page fields, as specified in the profile settings. Check your profile settings to make sure those values point to a valid page in your site.
Website URL: In your profile settings, enter the exact URL for the web page on which you want the In-Page Analytics report to launch. For example, if you want the report to launch on the landing page for http://www.example.com and you enter http://example.com (omitting www), your page may not open properly in the report. You can enter the domain name (http://www.example.com), you can identify a specific directory within that domain (http://www.example.com/toystore/), or you can enter the path to a specific page (http://www.example.com/toystore/index.html).
To enter the URL, select http or https, and enter the URL as described above.
- You can use only UTF-8 characters when you enter the URL. You cannot use the following UTF-8 characters: & = . $ %20 ? ^ #
- If you enter a URL that is not formed correctly, Google Analytics prevents you from proceeding until you resolve the error.
- If the URL for your website contains non-UTF-8 characters (for example, characters from the Cyrillic alphabet), see this article.
Default page: In your profile settings, enter the name of the default page for any URL on your site that ends with a slash (for example, http://www.example.com/toystore/). The page name varies depending on your web server configuration, but the common names are index.html and default.htm. If you do not know the name of this page, leave the field blank. It's important to correctly identify this page so that the click information for the report is counted correctly.