Did you ever wonder, “How many people are on my website, right this very second?” Or perhaps, someone popped your desk (or called your phone) and said, “Our banner campaign has just gone live; what are people doing on our website, right now?”
Well, if you are a Google Analytics user, from today you can answer them! Google Analytics has just announced Real-Time Reports , a set of reports that show you what is happening on your website, right now.
Real-Time Reports are a little different to your standard Google Analytics reports. Google Analytics data is processed about every 3 hours, and then again every 24 hours, so mostly you are looking at “yesterday” as the most recent reports. Real-Time Reports, instead, have about a 2 second delay, and give you some information about what is happening on your site right now. Fun!
Real-Time Reports show you:
- The number of active visitors on your site, and new vs returning visitors
- The pageviews over the past 30 minutes, and the past 60 seconds
- Referral sources for active visitors (including keywords)
- What content is being viewed
- Where in the world your visitors are coming from
There is even a Google Earth plugin that spins and zooms in and out, visualising visits from around the world.
Why this is useful
Real-Time reports can be quite distracting if not placed in the proper context. They are probably most useful for distracting a HiPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion) while you get down to doing some deep data analysis!
They’re useful for keeping an eye, and getting the broader team excited by, product or campaign launches, especially if they are global (that spinning earth is very mesmerising). It’s also great for your search team to see what keywords are driving traffic right this second – maybe your PPC team can hop to it, get bidding, and drive even more traffic! You’ll also see referral traffic coming through to your site in real-time.
If you’re running offline campaigns, such as television commercials, you’ll be able to see in real-time the effect on your web traffic.
It could also be useful in a conference environment if you are directing people to websites – show them what they are doing right that second!
What it looks like
There were 36 people on with Quirk website when we took this screenshot. Two of them were checking out our very own Carlos Menezes . There was a fair amount of interest in Quirk SearchStatus . And there is an old article that keeps getting a lot of love!
Things to bear in mind
Currently, in order to get the reports as close to real time as possible, the data is not filtered. Bear this in mind if you have excluded sections of your site, or visitors, from the reporting profile you are using.
You can only access these reports if you are the administrator on the account, or have access to an unfiltered profile.
Real-Time is not the place for deep data analysis, and it can be easy to get distracted by the novelty of what is happening in the moment. It’s a very small sample of your total traffic at any given time (it’s only the last 30 minutes’ worth). The best analysis comes from being able to understand patterns and trends in your reports, which needs more data.
However, it’s really fun to play with. So, go play!
How to access the reports
Real-Time Reports are rolling out to all Google Analytics users over the next few weeks. You’ll only be able to access reports for profiles where you are the administrator, or the profile is unfiltered. The reports are in the new reporting interface only .
Go to Dashboards in the new interface, and you’ll see the link to the reports in left hand menu.
If you don’t have access to Real-Time Reports yet, and you want to try to get it sooner, you can use this form to request access . Remember, everyone will be getting them over the next couple of weeks.
Have fun!
Nice article Sarah!
I guess real time analysis will become mainstream when middelware/backend tracking and front end tracking (Such as GA) collaborates to give true up to the minute ROI.
Like you said real time tracking will probably be event, geographically, time, or campaign based. This brings a new meaning to micro conversions (ie we have to increase our sales of product A by x over 1 hour) as well as customer engagement profiling (for example can we obtain x amount of primary school kids after school between 14:00 -16:00)
Theunis
Posted by Theunis Stoffberg on 2011/10/05