Things I track or would like to be able to track in GA (and other tools when GA falls down)
- Page views
- Accurate time on page google for "bounce rate time on page issues")
- Referral traffic URL (it's great that I got 50 views from reddit, but which post so I can go read comments - currently have to use Reddit Domain search)
- Amazon Affiliates reports (I have affiliate links on book review posts)
- Twitter stats (tweets, retweets, etc - currently have to use Twitter Search)
- RSS Subscribers
- Conversion from reader to RSS/Email/other CTA
- Page load time (one number ala github dashboard, link)
- Browser/mobile/desktop breakdown (with smarts, I don't care about what version of mobile Safari, more about "mobile" vs "desktop")
- Some kind of trends (15% up this week)
- Email alerts if there is a large spike of inbound
- A better way to annotate spikes - front-page HN, on XYZ newsletter
Things GA has that I never use
- Geographic stuff
- Ad campaigns
- Anything in the "Audience" tab
- Anything in the "Real-time" tab
- Anything in the "Conversions" tab
- Anything in the "Intelligence Events" tab
- Very rarely view keyword stuff
- Very rarely view the "Behavior Flow" and "In Page Analytics" features