article: Understanding Why Google Analytics 4 Is Necessary

The key to understanding the difference between Universal Analytics (previously known as Google Analytics) and Google Analytics 4 is that UA had things like a Session object, and GA 4 does not. Everything becomes so much easier to understand once you realize this fact. It also becomes clear why GA 4 is needed now. More →

article: Add Session Count To Google Analytics 4 Reports

It is easy to get a Session Count fields added to your Google Analytics 4 reports — just add a custom dimension for the existing event parameter! The data doesn’t start collecting until you do this, so do it now! More →

article: Google Analytics 4: Add Session ID And Other Custom Dimensions

Did you know you could report on individual sessions in Google Analytics 4? You just need to add the Session ID dimension to your report. Before you can do that, you need to create the Custom Dimension to capture it — the event parameter already exists! More →

article: Adding Page Count To Google Analytics 4

There are a lot of things from Google Analytics (Universal Analytics) that I miss in Google Analytics 4. Although page engagement metrics are much improved, I was frustrated by the lack of any ability to gauge the Page Depth of my visitors. Do they look at 1 page, 3 pages, or 20? The averages just don’t tell the whole story. Here is how I added a Page Count dimension and a couple of early observations I made with the data. More →

report: Google Analytics 4 User Engagement Analysis

This free Excel report works with the Analytics Core Add-in premium license and Google Analytics Pro connector to summarize the user engagement of your top website pages. More →

article: Reporting Bounce Rate in Google Analytics 4

If you have transitioned to the new Google Analytics 4, you have probably noticed that there is no Bounce Rate metric available. Instead they push an ‘Engaged Sessions’ number, which is kind of like the opposite to a Bounce Rate. What if you really want the old metric? Well, a little math and you get your answer, but you probably won’t like it. More →

article: Google Analytics 4 Report Automation

Now that the Google Analytics Data API has been released, it is possible to automate your GA4 reporting. Analytics Edge makes the process easy with a powerful add-in for Microsoft Excel and the Google Analytics Pro connector.

article: Misunderstood Metrics: Google Analytics 4 Sessions

As more and more people start the process of switching over to the new Google Analytics 4 for website tracking, they are discovering that the session counts are significantly different from the previous release of Google Analytics (a.k.a. Universal Analytics). My recommendation: stop focusing on sessions — focus on user engagement with your content instead.

article: Reading Google Analytics 4 Detail From Big Query

If you have already setup Big Query linking from Google Analytics 4, here are the steps you need to get that detailed data into Excel via Analytics Edge…simplified. More →

article: Misunderstood Metrics: Google Analytics 4 Sessions for Pages

Since Google Analytics 4 is still under development, this is just an introductory article.

Google Analytics was plagued with custom reporting problems by mixing metrics and dimensions with different scopes (e.g. sessions for pages). Well, even though Google Analytics 4 is very different, it shares the same problem: it has dimensions and metrics that are user-scoped, session-scoped, event(hit)-scoped, and item-scoped. More →

report: Google Analytics 4 Traffic Dashboard

This free workbook provides a quick summary of your website traffic over the past year, highlighting key changes last month. More →

article: Google Analytics vs GA 4: Pages Reporting Is Flawed

Comparing Google Analytics 4 page reports to the old Universal Analytics version exposes another ‘little’ difference between the measurement systems: your page titles can be shown in different languages, spread across twice as many rows (your data will vary).

article: Google Analytics vs GA 4: Sessions Spanning Midnight

Updated 2021-03-27 after a deep dive into additional metrics…

As reported in one of my Misunderstood Metrics articles, one of the quirks we discovered in Google Analytics is that sessions that span midnight are restarted on the first hit after midnight, even though the session id (and Count of Sessions dimension value) doesn’t change. But what quirks await us in Google Analytics 4?

article: Google Analytics vs GA 4: Different Cities

I dug into the detailed data behind Google Analytics 4 and compared it to the old Google Analytics we have come to know, and something popped out that was unexpected: sometimes the city being recorded for a specific user’s visit was different. More →

function: Google Sheets – Open With Analytics Edge

In order for the Analytics Edge Add-in to show Google Sheets files and folders in the Read Google Sheets or Write to Google Sheets function wizards, you need to associate the files and folders with the Add-in. This is done in the Google Sheets web interface by selecting the files and folders you are interested in, then right clicking and selecting Open With > Analytics Edge Add-in.

A browser window should open showing this page.

Returning to the Analyics Edge Add-in, those files and folders should now be visible in the Read Google Sheets and Write to Google Sheets function wizards.

article: Exporting Universal Analytics Data

Analytics Edge has everything you need to export your Google Analytics/Universal Analytics data to Excel, Google Sheets or CSV files. This article shows how you can do it using the new Analytics Edge Desktop App, but a similar process can be followed with the Excel Add-in.

function: * Analytics Edge Desktop App

Early Access Trials Started: contact support@analyticsedge.com with feedback or assistance

Installation

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS DURING EARLY ACCESS

The early release currently contains connectors for Google Analytics, Google Ads and Google Search Console only. The rest of the connector are coming soon…

On a Windows PC, run the AppInstaller here:
https://www.analyticsedge.com/downloads/AnalyticsEdgeApp.appinstaller

Run the installer. The App should install and launch.

On a Mac, run the Package file here:
https://www.analyticsedge.com/downloads/AnalyticsEdgeApp-0.9.25.0.pkg

Run the installer. The App should install.

The Analytics Edge Desktop App is a standalone application that brings the capabilities of the Analytics Edge Add-in for Excel to Google Sheets and Excel files on both PC and Mac computers.

article: Building a Google Search Report: Macro Capabilities

This article explains what was done in the introductory video demonstrating macro capabilities. It pulls in Google Search data for your website pages and produces a report showing the totals and top queries for your popular pages. More →

article: Google PageSpeed Insights API: No Connector Required

Google’s PageSpeed Insights API reports on the performance of a page on both mobile and desktop devices, and provides suggestions on how that page may be improved. The service works with a simple URL request and requires only a static API key for volume use. The Read Text/Web File function in the Analytics Edge Core Add-in lets you make these types of web queries — no need for a special connector.
More →

report: Google Search: Data Skeptic

Inspired by work provided by Britney Muller (and Masaki Okazawa) at Mozcon21 (bit.ly/mozcon-21), this workbook provides an excellent SEO analysis highlighting keyword cannibalization, performance changes and top page categories.

function: GA 4 Reporting – Options

this tab is currently disabled

The Options tab provides access to several options that affect how the Google Analytics data is presented in Excel. More →

function: GA 4 Reporting – Filters

Use this Analytics Edge wizard to define filters to use with the query. More →

function: Google Account Login

This wizard is not seen in normal use. During a normal login sequence, a new browser window will open in front of it requesting you to login to your Google account. After you login, this wizard will close automatically. More →

error: 403 Quota Error: Number of recent failed…

This Google Analytics error indicates that you have made many failed queries in a short period of time. More →

error: 400 Regular expression too long

This error occurs when your regular expression exceeds 128 characters. More →

error: 400 bad request

This error usually appears when the combination of values in your query is not valid. More →

error: 401 authError Authorization

This Google Analytics API error indicates that the security token for the account you are using has failed. Normally the security tokens are auto-renewed, but if you changed the account password or otherwise changed your security settings, the renewal can also fail. More →

error: 403 User does not have sufficient permissions for this advanced segment

This Google Analytics API error means that the selected advanced segment is not available to the account you are using. This usually happens when you share a report with a coworker. More →

error: 403 User does not have sufficient permissions for this profile

This Google Analytics API error indicates that the account you are using cannot access the Google Analytics view (profile). This usually happens when the Google Analytics account owner removes your access (a typical agency problem). More →

error: 400 Selected dimensions and metrics cannot be queried together

This Google Analytics API error indicates that the metrics and dimensions being requested cannot be used together. This usually happens when you are creating a custom report, and you added a combination of fields that the API rejects. More →

error: 400 invalidParameter

This error means one of the values in your query is not valid or properly formatted. More →

function: Read Google Sheet

This Analytics Edge wizard is used to read the data from a Google Sheets worksheet. It always reads the entire sheet. More →

article: Building the Google Analytics Traffic Dashboard

This article describes the steps taken to build the Google Analytics Traffic Dashboard report with the Analytics Edge Core Add-in. It follows the approach described in the article Building a Marketing Dashboard in Excel. More →

article: Filter Working-From-Home Employees In Google Analytics

With the surge in working-from-home employees, many people are trying to figure out how to exclude this “internal” traffic from their Google Analytics reports. There is a simple option for sites with low to moderate traffic. More →

article: Google Analytics: Reports Limited To 25 Months?

If you find your Google Analytics reports won’t download any data beyond 25 months, chances are this is due to your data retention settings. By default, they are set to purge after 26 months.

To change this, go into your Google Analytics Admin settings for your account: Property Settings > Tracking Info > Data Retention.

article: Recreating the Google Analytics User Explorer Report

With the [undocumented] addition of the Client ID dimension to the Google Analytics API, you can now use the Analytics Edge Core Add-in and Google Analytics Pro connector to recreate the User Explorer report in Google Analytics. More →

function: Google Analytics (Free) vs Google Analytics (Pro) Connector

Analytics Edge provide 2 connectors for Google Analytics: Free and Pro. For many people using the old Universal Analytics version of GA , the Google Analytics (Free) connector is all they need. The Pro connector provides many extra features, including full support for GA 360 customers as well as the new Google Analytics 4. This article describes the differences in more detail.

article: Google Analytics: API Filter Expressions

FAQ: do NOT encode the “ga:” in the field names of your expression!

Custom filter expressions can be used in the Google Analytics connectors, but there are a number of rules you must follow. This is documented in Google’s API Reference, but it is part of the old v3 API documentation, which could be removed at any time, so I have copied and embellished it here.

article: Google Search: Eliminating Noise

As discussed in a companion blog article, while trying to create an annual report for my own websites, I discovered that Google Search data is full of ‘noise’ — data that actually makes it harder to make useful observations about trends. This article includes the workbook I used.

article: Google Search: Annual Reporting

Long-term reporting with Google Search Console data is fraught with challenges. This article discusses some of the unique problems time can create, and how Analytics Edge products can save you time while solving them. More →

article: Error: 403 User does not have sufficient permissions for this advanced segment

This Google Analytics API error means that the selected advanced segment is not available to the account you are using. This usually happens when you share a report with a coworker. Advanced segments in Google Analytics are personal assets and are associated with your login account. More →

article: Error: 403 User does not have sufficient permissions for this profile

article: Error: 401 authError Authorization

article: Error: 400 Selected dimensions and metrics cannot be queried together

article: Error: 400 invalidParameter ids

This Google Analytics API error indicates that you are referencing an invalid view ID. The view ID is the number that appears beside the view in the Accounts wizard (Analytics Edge connector for Google Analytics), or in the Google Analytics web interface when you click on the account selector at the top. More →

article: 4 Creating Custom Reports

Analytics Edge was designed to create the customized reports people need for their website or campaign tracking needs. This video explains the common errors you may run across and what you can do about them. More →

report: Google Analytics: Returning Users

This free Excel workbook gives you a full 12 month view into the number of returning users on your website, along with a breakdown by the channels they used to reach your site. More →

article: Google Analytics: Basic Reporting

This article gets you started with some simple Google Analytics reports with Analytics Edge. More →

article: Meaningful Metrics: New vs Returning Visitors in Google Analytics

“I want to increase the number of returning visitors.” Now you need a report to track your progress. This article will help you navigate Google Analytics to find the right data, and to produce a meaningful report using Analytics Edge. More →

article: Google Analytics: New vs Returning Report

Google Analytics provides a New vs Returning report to measure the pull of your site and the extent to which you are encouraging first time users to return. Making this report with Analytics Edge allows you to easily track these metrics the way you want to see. More →

function: 2 Your First Google Analytics Query

Make your first Google Analytics query (be sure to create an Account entry first). More →

function: 1 Add a Google Analytics Account

Once you have installed and activated the trial for the Google Analytics connector, you need to log in to your Google Analytics account. More →

article: Unsampled Data From Google Analytics For Free

Google Analytics sampling can really mess up a custom Excel report! The Free Google Analytics Connector included with all Analytics Edge Add-ins has the ability to minimize sampling problems with large sites and long time frame queries. More →

article: Misunderstood Metrics: Google Analytics Users

Why do the Users numbers in my report not add up to the total in Google Analytics? This Misunderstood Metrics article explores the Users metric in Google Analytics, why the numbers are different, and why both of them are probably wrong. More →

report: Google Search: Branded/Non-Branded Report (Premium)

In this one report, see the impressions and number of unique keywords, by month, for branded and non-branded searches, split into 4 search engine ranking groups: More →

article: Google Search: Branded vs Non-Branded for Large Sites

If you manage several large websites, the Analytics Edge Core Add-in allows you to build an efficient template for separating branded and non-branded search queries from the Google Search connector. More →

article: Google Search: Branded Versus Non-Branded

The filtering capability in Google Search Console is very restrictive (single phrase match), making it useless for separating branded from non-branded search terms in all but the simplest cases. Enter the Analytics Edge Core Add-in — a quick regular expression filter and your work is done. More →

article: Google Search: Get 16 Months Of Search Data

The Google Search API now supports a full 16 months of historical data, but the only date-related field is ‘date’, so this is how to get all that data out in a meaningful way — in weekly or monthly buckets. The Google Search Connector from Analytics Edge provides a MultiQuery tab that does just what you need, and your appears in Excel in seconds! More →

function: * Google Search Help

To get started with the Google Search Console connector, just add an account, then make your queries! On the Analytics Edge ribbon bar, click the Google Search button and select the Accounts menu item. More →

function: * Google Analytics Help

To get started with the Google Analytics connector, just add an account, then make your queries! On the Analytics Edge ribbon bar, click the Google Analytics button (Free or Pro) and select the Accounts menu item. More →

function: * Google Ads Help

To get started with the Google Ads connector, just add an account, then make your queries! On the Analytics Edge ribbon bar, click the Google Ads button and select the Accounts menu item. More →

function: * Analytics Edge Add-in for Excel

How can I help? Email: support@analyticsedge.com

First Steps: Installation Activation Add Connectors

report: Google Search: CTR vs Position Analysis (Premium)

When embarking on an SEO review for a website, it helps to be able to see what queries are already ranking and how successful they are (click-through rate) at generating traffic. More →

report: Google Search: Position Distribution – More Than Just An Average

The Google Search Console metric for “position” is an average, and it doesn’t tell the whole story. This report looks at the individual queries used for each of your pages over the past 12 weeks, groups them by position, and shows you the distribution of impressions and clicks by position.

article: Direct ‘Spam’ in Google Analytics

A number of my clients have seen unexplained direct traffic in their Google Analytics accounts. There is no apparent purpose or reason behind this traffic — it just exists; sometimes for a short period of time, and sometimes for months. More →

article: Google Search: Download All Your Page And Query Data

Downloading your Google Search Console data into Excel is easy with Analytics Edge. The Google Search Connector uses the API to pull down all of the query and page metrics — without the 1000 or 5000 row limit imposed by the web interface. More →

article: Google Search: Trends Reporting

With the Analytics Edge Google Search connector, you can easily get week-to-week or month-to-month reporting in a single query. More →

report: Google Analytics: WTF is Happening to My Traffic?

Joe Kelly of Workshop Digital created this custom dashboard to easily analyze what is causing organic search traffic to decline, and I adapted it to work with the free license of the Analytics Edge Core Add-in. More →

article: Reporting Multiple Google Analytics Segments

When you want to combine two or more queries, such as multiple Google Analytics segments, the Analytics Edge Core Add-in provides the tools to automate it. More →

report: Google Analytics: Annual Summary Report (Premium)

This quick overview report shows all the key performance metrics for the past year in a single tabular view. More →

report: Google Search: SEO Summary Report (Premium)

Search Engine Optimization is a changing market. It’s not about keywords, it’s about topics and long-tail in aggregate. This free report summarizes your website’s appearance in search, showing the distribution of the # of keywords, impressions and clicks by position.

seo-summary-report-2 More →

function: Analytics Reporting – Output

The Output tab (available only in the Google Analytics Pro Connector) offers the ability to download direct to a CSV (comma-separated) file instead of returning the results to Excel. More →

article: Google Analytics Premium Support

The Google Analytics Pro connector from Analytics Edge supports the extra dimensions and metrics available to Google Analytics 360 customers. It also supports the new resource quotas, allowing GA 360 customers to get unsampled reports up to 100 million sessions! More →

report: Google Search: Top Queries Trend

See 10 weeks worth of Google Search Console data in one report. Analytics Edge makes it easy with this workbook and the Connector for Google Search. More →

report: Google Search: SEO Results Trends

See how your content marketing or search optimization efforts have affected traffic to your site with this free Microsoft Excel report. Enter the target phrase and your account and website information, then let the Analytics Edge Core Add-in and Google Search Connector take care of the rest.

report: Google Search: Top Pages And Queries This Week

See a day-by-day position changes for the top queries and pages for your website over the past week, direct from Google Search Console. More →

report: Google Search: Weekly Ranking Report

See a week-by-week summary of the top queries and pages for your website, direct from Google Search Console. More →

report: Google Search: Long Tail Keyword Analysis (Premium)

This free Analytics Edge report lets you see long-term trends in the individual words used in search queries that showed you site. More →

report: Google Search: Web vs Image vs Video Search Clicks

This free workbook uses the Analytics Edge connector for Google Search to download your website search query performance for the past month, and compares the clicks coming from web search to those from image search. More →

report: Google Search: Keeping Search Analytics Data (Premium)

Google Search Console provides some excellent insight into your website’s performance in search but it is limited to 90 days of history. More →

report: Google Search: Queries by Country (Premium)

This free Analytics Edge report gets Google Search Analytics data for your website and displays your top queries distributed across the countries they came from. More →

report: Google Search: Keywords for Top Landing Pages

Yes, you can get the keywords for your top landing pages, but not from Google Analytics — they come from the Google Search Console. More →

report: Google Search: Top Queries Report (Premium)

Get the top queries from Google Search Console for the past calendar month More →

report: Google Ads: Campaign Report

Download your Google Ads campaign activity for the past 30 days directly into Microsoft Excel. More →

article: First Looks: Google’s New Search Console API

The long awaited Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools) API update is finally out, and here’s a quick review of some of the new capabilities and limitations. More →

article: Google Analytics: Monthly PDF Report

This article describes some of the more advanced techniques used to create the Excel workbook Google Analytics Monthly PDF Report. More →

report: Google Analytics: Trend of Visits by Medium (Premium)

Let Analytics Edge do your work for you with this free report. Automatically download your Google Analytics data and transform that raw data into meaningful information. More →

report: Google Analytics: Summary Report

This free Google Analytics Summary Excel Report is refreshed in seconds using the Analytics Edge Connector for Google Analytics. More →

report: Google Analytics: Acquisition – All Traffic

Based on the standard Acquisition-All Traffic report, this free workbook gives you new perspective into where your website traffic is coming from. More →

report: Google Analytics: Cohort Analysis for Blog Articles

Do your blog articles peak in popularity as soon as they are published or do they gain attention over time? More →

report: Google Analytics: Interactive Behaviour Flow (Premium)

This free interactive workbook lets you see the relationships between Sources and Landing Pages from your Google Analytics data. More →

report: Google Analytics: Interactive Analytical Charts

This free workbook show how easy it is to mimic the alternating presentations of data as seen in the Google Analytics web interface. More →

report: Google Analytics: Time of Day, Day of Week, by Device Type

This free Excel report shows the most popular times of day, by day of week, for each device category tracked by Google Analytics: Desktop, Mobile or Tablet. More →

report: Google Analytics: Email-enabled Monthly PDF Report (Premium)

This free Analytics Edge report demonstrates the capabilities of the Analytics Edge Core Add-in to fully automate monthly reporting. More →

report: Google Analytics: Sampling-Free Annual Report (Premium)

This free report demonstrates how easy it is to use the Analytics Edge Core add-in and Google Analytics Connector to create an annual report that avoids Google Analytics data sampling errors. More →

article: Definitive Guide to Removing All Google Analytics Spam

This is a PROVEN WORKING SOLUTION to remove referral spam in your Google Analytics. Updated for 2021: Bothered by referral spam from the likes of trafficnow.club, bot-traffic.xyz or other domains? Implement a Custom Segment as described in #3 below or, if you catch the spam traffic on the day it happens, a Spam Crawler Filter (#4). More →

article: Google Analytics: Building a Multi-Site Report

With the Analytics Edge Core Add-in for Excel, you can easily build a multi-website report, quickly and without programming. This article and the attached sample workbook show how easy it can be. More →

function: Search Analytics

This Analytics Edge wizard makes it easy to get your Google Search Analytics data into Excel. More →

article: Using the Google Analytics Pro Save Filter Function

The Google Analytics Pro connector contains a Save Filter function that lets you copy view filters from one account to a number of others with ease. More →

article: Google Analytics: Building a Cohort Analysis

This article explains how to build a cohort analysis report in Excel using the Analytics Edge free Google Analytics connector. Cohort Analysis lets you see how one group of people behaved differently from another. More →