Ok so we just got access to Google Annotations, after it was released aaaaaages ago – they failed to tell us that it was being rolled out slowly – I’m not sure if those in the United States got it first, but it’s now in the UK.
So, how should we use Google Analytics Annotations, well we’ve been having a think and here are some of our ideas…
Ways to use Google Analytics Annotations
Tracking Changes on the Site
Everytime you make a tweak to the design/page/content, add in an annotation specifying which page and what was done, that way when you notice a change in the performance of the site, or a page you can see why there has been a change.
Explaining Traffic Spikes
Last year we had a few posts that really did well, so you can use these annotations to explain what happened – this is very useful if you have SEO’s working on different accounts and they cover for each other for example.
Explaining Intelligent Reports
Another recent feature of Google Analytics is the Intelligence feature – this highlights higher than normal changes in various metrics such as visits, conversions, bounce rate etc. A good way of using the annotations is to explain these – especially if you have clients logging into the same Google Analytics account.
What not to use Google Analytics Annotations for
Tracking Hangovers
Telling people you secretly hate them
16 Comments
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If they only could allow the same thing in Adwords I’d be mucho happy. You can add comments in the editor, but I want something visual like this
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Looks a good feature… i wonder how long its been enabled in my analytics, never really thought to click on the dots of the graph.
Very useful for explaining spikes to clients who also access the analytics data
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Sorry for the two comments.. would be nice if we could edit as long as nobody had replied
Whilst this is very handy, you do have to wonder Googles reasoning behind enabling such a feature. I know they do “no evil” but maybe in some cases they could be looking out for annotations such as “brought 50 links today” etc?
Just a thought!
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I can see this will be really useful. Especially for tracking changes. Thanks for highlighting it.
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It details show tracking change, from this we can able to know how customer reaction in our post and also helps website to make easy analyze.
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It has been a bit difficult to correctly analyze what is happening on the blog before.The annotations make things a lot easier.
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I have multiple profiles setup in GA and can only add annotations to one profile, any idea why or how I enable it for all my profiles?
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Just noticed this. I have been waiting so long for it. Up to this point i have been using a firefox plugin but it simply didnt cut it. The private and public annotation feature is particularly nice. Let the fun times begin.
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I agree with DiscoStu – something visual like this in AdWords would be very useful to keep quick notes on changes made to campaigns
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I just annotations today, and I look at GA quite often. I must admit, I absolutely love them.
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Haha good article. Absolutely love annotations – very very useful!
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Hi Dave hope you are well, Yahoo Web Analytics has had this for ages. Also if you have time check this guy out http://powazek.com/posts/2090
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I can not wait for annotations to hit my account. Would really help with matching traditional media (radio spots) with traffic. Google and their silly slow roll-outs!
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Can`t believe i have been that busy that i missed these annotations, put to good use already for the beginning of the year. Thank god for Google Reader, this one nearly slipped through
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We can certainly make suse of this. We are always tweaking design to improve conversion and traffic and this will save us from maintaining a seperate log of changes.
Thanks very much today our site smashed all previous records due to a mention of a free gift in a popular money saving forum, the spike is incredible, I have just added my first annotation thanks David!