For my clients: How to access your site statistics with Google Analytics

Step 1. You must have a Google account. A Google account gives you access to a variety of Google services, such as GMail, YouTube, and of course, Google Analytics. They're free, and I've never been spammed by them. If you have a Google Account, skip to Step 2. To create a Google Account, click here.

Step 2. Once your account is created, you'll need to let me know the email address used to create the account. This might be a GMail account, but it is typically the primary email address you use. Once you have alerted me to this, I'll add you to your statistics account so you can view your stats.

Step 3. Once I have given you access to your statistics, you can view them at any time without needing my assistance. Go to the Google Analytics home page at http://www.google.com/analytics. Find your site address and click on "View report".

A Quick Overview of Google Analytics

The first page you are taken to is your Dashboard. Here you get the high level site-health-at-a-glance view. The date and graphs on the right side of the page allow you to customize the time period and view, currently set to a default of the past month by day. Another common choice is to view the past year by month, or you may choose to compare this month to last month.

Visitors is where you'll find information about the number of unique and returning visitors, and information about them such as where they are located and which browsers they used to view your site.

Traffic Sources tell you how people are finding your site, such as via search engines and other sites that link to yours. It's quite useful to see which keywords are driving people to your site.

The Content section identifies which pages people are viewing the most, which ones are "landing pages," and more.

I've written more articles on how to mine information from Google Analytics,be sure to view these here.