If you aren’t already using Google Analytics for your website, you’re missing out on a lot of potentially game changing information. By simply adding some code to your website, Google Analytics will track each visitor that comes to your site, where they came from, and where they went next. Using Google Analytics, you can begin to grasp the thoughts of your customers, clients, and prospects. While Google Analytics has been around for years, it hasn’t always been the most user-friendly of web tools, and updates have been few and far between. Last March however, you may have noticed a link to the “New Version” of Google Analytics that appeared in the upper right hang corner of your screen. At a glance the new version, dubbed Google Analytics 5, can be a bit overwhelming. So here’s a look at what’s new in Version 5 to help you get the most out of your data and your website.

Improved Navigation

The first novel idea: navigation that makes sense. With Google Analytics 5, there are 5 tabs. A Home tab, which contains navigation to each site within your account; a new and improved Dashboards tab; a My Site tab, containing information on visitors, traffic sources, etc.; a My Conversions tab; and a tab devoted to Custom Reports. The left-hand menu has also undergone some pretty major changes, fortunately for the better as well. Now that you aren’t driving around with a blindfold, you might find it easier to put Google Analytics to work for you.

Multiple, Widget Based Dashboards

For most people, the dashboard is the first thing you’ll see when opening up your Analytics account. Previously, Google Analytics only offered one, standard dashboard as the main page for each website. With Google Analytics 5, you can now have up to 20 dashboards, allowing you to create and customize individual dashboards for a variety of purposes. In addition to being able to create multiple dashboards, Google Analytics dashboards are now entirely widget based, making them highly customizable and easier than ever to use.

Event Goal Tracking

The new version of Google Analytics also offers opportunities for goals and tracking that were previously only available with the use of JavaScript. Earlier versions of Google Analytics allowed you to create URL goals for tracking conversions, but there was no way to drill down to conversions within a unique URL. With Google Analytics 5 and the introduction of Event Goals, you can now track events that take place on individual pages. This becomes useful in tracking events like file downloads or video views. You can also add values to these goals, making our ROI calculations all the more accurate.

Intelligence Reporting

Google Analytics Intelligence has the capability to search your website traffic for irregularities and alert you whenever it finds something that’s out of the ordinary. With Analytics 5, you can now organize and sort through these events using tables. From there you can drill down into the details of individual events, explore each event, and create custom intelligence alerts.

There’s a lot more to discover and a lot more to enjoy with Google Analytics 5, so try it out, and don’t forget to let us know what you like and what you don’t!