1. Google Analytics Reports with Google Data Studio
Logan Loertscher | IT Web Team
Welcome,
My name is Logan Loertscher with IT Web.
Today, I'll be talking about viewing "Google Analytics with Google Data Studio" 

2. Agenda Why Do You Need Analytics? What is Google Data Studio?
What are Data Studio Reports?
In this presentation, I'll be covering
- A brief overview of why you might need Google Analytics. 
- What is Google Data Studio?
- and what Data Studio Report are?

3. Why Do I Need Analytics? Helps you know where to put your focus.
Focusing on your top viewed pages is a great place to start.
Are your top viewed pages accessible?
Helps you see if your efforts are paying off.
Are your SEO efforts drawing in more visitors? 
Are your marketing campaigns working as intended?
 Helps you spot trends.
See if any trends stands out. 
You might want to change content based on what you find.
Do you ever get overwhelmed with where to put your focus, when it comes to your site?
Well,   Google Analytics can help you know where to put that focus.
Focusing on your top viewed pages is a great place to start. 
If this is your first time getting into Google Analytics, Pageviews is where I suggest spending most of your time. 
Make sure your top viewed pages all have Page Titles and Descriptions. 
This will help Search Engines, like Google, find your content, and bring many more visitors to your site.
Also, Make sure your top viewed pages are accessible to ALL visitor of your site.
Keep users who use a screen reader, and users who might only use a keyboard to navigate your site in mind.
If this is not your first time looking at Google Analytics,
There are many other useful stats that can help you know what to focus on.
For example,….. Landing Pages can show you what pages are first seen by your visitors.
You may be surprised that it’s not you home page. 
With search engines like Google,    It's becoming more and more common for them to get directly to the content they want, without ever seeing your home page. 
Make sure the first pages they see, represents your site.
Another reason you might need Google Analytics, is to help you see if your efforts are paying off.
For example, you can see if your SEO efforts are drawing in more visitors.
You can also see if your marketing campaigns are working as intended?
Google Analytics also helps you spot trends. 
You can see if any trends stand out, by looking for a spike in a graph or a random drop.
You might want to change content based on what you find.
But before we all get carried away in glorious Analytics, There are somethings to keep in mind.

4. Shortcomings of Analytics.
In a perfect world your data would be 100% accurate and reliable.
Remember that analytics should NOT drive 100% of your decisions. 
Use analytics as a support tool to make informed decisions. 
Would you like to exclude your own traffic to help improve the data?
In a perfect world your data would be 100% accurate and reliable.
Those who work in analytics a lot, know that is not the case.
At the end of the day, Remember that analytics should NOT drive ALL of the decisions you make regarding your site.
Use it as a support tool, to help you make informed decisions.
But one way to make the data a little more reliable, is to exclude your own traffic from the data.
If you would like to exclude your own traffic from Google Analytics,
IT Web has setup an easy way do to this.

5. Excluding Content Manager Traffic.
Visit  it.usu.edu/web
Click Special Features
Search "Analytics"
Click "Google Analytics with Data Studio"
In the right column click
(Do this for every browser you use and on every device.)
(This is based off of Browser Cookies. Check this every so often)
If anyone here wants to excluded their traffic right now, and have a laptop, feel free to follow along.
If you encounter any problems along the way, come and talk to me after.
First visit it.usu.edu/web
Then in the navigation, click on “Special Features”
In the search box, type “Analytics”
Then click on "Google Analytics with Data Studio“
In the right column, click “Exclude may Browsing Data” and you should be good to go.
If the button did not change to a green success message, Try refreshing the page.
If a refresh did not help, you might have an ad blocker running. You might have to temporarily turn off.
Again, If you encounter any problems, come and talk to me after.
Note: You will need to open this window in every browser you use (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.) and on every device you use (office computer, home computer, phone, laptop, tablet, etc.)
At this point I would copy the URL of this page into a note, or make a bookmark.
You’ll want to keep an eye on the status of your exclude, as is set by a cookie, and from time to time they get cleared.

6. What is Google Data Studio?
Simple and Interactive way to view your Google Analytics. 
A way to access your analytics without logging into Google Analytics. 
How the IT Web Team provides easy access to your Google Analytics data.
Alright, now that we have all of that out of the way, let's dive into Data Studio!
Let's start by answering the question, "What is Google Data Studio?
Well, simply put, it's a simple and interactive way to view your Google Analytics. 
Note the word interactive. I will get back to that shortly!
It's also a way to access your analytics without logging into “Google Analytics” actual website.
No more getting overwhelmed with too much data!
I don't know about you, but the first time that I lodged in Google Analytics, I was very overwhelmed by so many options.
We now have a tool that can be as simple or as complicated are you want it to be.
And finally, It's How the IT Web Team provides easy access to your Google Analytics.

7. What are Reports?
Reports can be as simple or as complicated as needed.
Reports can consist of one page or multiple pages.
Reports can consist of one site or many sites. 
Reports can be shared with anyone you send the link to. 
You can change the date range anytime without reaching out to the Web Team.
Anytime you want to make changes it’s very easy and fast. Just reach out.
Inside of Google Data Studio, we have reports. 
When you request your Google Analytics form the IT Web, we’ll send you a link to your new report.
      
Let go over some of the basics point of what a report can be.
 - Reports can be as simple or as complicated as needed.
- Reports can consist of one page or multiple pages.
 - Reports can consist of one site or many sites. So if you are over multiple sites, you can see all of your data in one place.
 - Reports can be shared with anyone you send the link to.
 - You can change the date range anytime without reaching out to the Web Team.
If you would like to change the report from defaulting to the previous full mouth, we can change it.
 - Anytime you want to make changes to the layout of your report, it’s very easy and fast. Just reach out to me.
The Break Down
- (go though the different components of the report. Like tables graphs interactive stuff )

8. Thank you! Please share your feedback! Additional Resources:
It.usu.edu/web/special-features/analytics
And that’s where I'm going to end today. But if you would like to learn more, Please visit our page about Data Studios. It has a link to an example report that can give you ideas of lots of different options that we can give you.