by Cara Callaghan

The latest version of Google Analytics has some additional reporting and updates which will benefit your hotel. While the old Google Analytic's reports are still available to you, the new version should now be the default when you log into your account. So if you haven't already had a chance to familiarize yourself with the new features, now would be a good time to.

The new layout has been a focus of the updates and there are more to come. The most recent of these include:

i.

Google now offers real-time site analytics

ii.

Google Analytics Premium is launched

iii.

Flow Visualisation - allows you to analyse site insights graphically, and instantly understand how visitors flow across pages on your site.

1. Real Time Analytics

Previously with Google Analytics there was no real way to track same-day stats.. To see these newly available stats you must be logged in to the 'New Version' of Google Analytics as illustrated below. You will have access to Real-Time reports if you are an Administrator on your Analytics account, or if you have access to a profile without profile filters. Real-Time does not support profile filters.



To access the Real Time reports and see activity on your site as it happens go to the 'Home' tab at the top of the page and 'Real Time' on the left hand menu.



Real Time Analysis is very useful is to measure the impact of social media sending visitors to your site. If your hotel goes out with an important tweet or Facebook post, for example, you can immediately see the impact it has on traffic to your website. If you add campaign tagging to the links you use, it is possible to see how much traffic each channel is driving.

'Real Time' reports also provides the ability to check if campaign tracking is working properly before you launch a campaign.

There are some great reports available including:

1.

Number of active visitors on your site at any current moment

2.

New versus returning visitors

3.

Top referring sites

4.

Top active pages

5.

Geographic location of visitors

6.

Page views and much more

2. Google Analytics Premium

This new service was launched by Google at the end of September '11. Google said they learned from some of their largest customers 'that they had some specific needs that the current version of Google Analytics couldn't meet in its entirety.'

Therefore, this new service covers the following areas:

•

Extra processing power - increased data collection, more custom variables and downloadable, unsampled reports.

•

Advanced analysis - attribution modelling tools that allow you to test different models for assigning credit to conversions.

•

Service and support - experts to guide customized installation, and dedicated account management on call - all backed by 24/7 support.

•

Guarantees - service level agreements for data collection, processing and reporting.

Currently Google Analytics Premium is available for a fixed annual fee of $150k in the United States, Canada, and the UK so it is really only aimed at sites that need a huge level of detail that can't be achieved with the free version. You can get it directly from Google or through Google Analytics Premium Authorized Resellers. Premium Analytics may pose a very serious threat to tools like Webtrends, Omniture and Coremetrics.


3. Flow Visualisation in Google Analytics

In mid October at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Google announced that it is releasing tools that will help narrow the advertising conundrum even further. Google showcased a new analytics tool called "Flow Visualization" that can track the path users take when navigating a website.

We have always been able to see where visitors come from, the % of first time visitors, and the amount of time visitors spend on the site but now it will be possible to see what visitors do on the site in a graphical format. Due to difficulties users have experienced when using traditional path analysis tools, Google have made these changes.

Flow Visualization takes the data Google collects and then creates an interactive visual map. We will now see the path visitors take on their journey: entering through the home page, clicking on any internal links and viewing ads along the way.



Nodes are automatically clustered according to an intelligence algorithm that groups together the most likely visitor flow through a site.

Goal Flow provides a graphical representation of how visitors flow through your goal steps and where they drop off.

Flow Visualization is available in the free version of Google Analytics, although it is currently in beta, and will be available to all Google Analytics users in Q4 of this year.

The changes are likely to keep coming so do keep an eye on Google's blog to get the latest information as it happens. http://analytics.blogspot.com/