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A few weeks ago, we wrote about hidden gems in the new version of Google Analytics. One of the most valuable of these is the new “Real-Time Reporting” option, which is still in beta, but is so feature-rich that it deserves its own separate blog post. So, without further ado, let’s explore. How to access it:

1. Select the ‘Home’ tab instead of ‘Standard Reporting’
2. On the left sidebar, click ‘Real-Time (Beta)’
3. Select ‘Overview’ from the drop down menu

This will show you a wide range of statistics about what is happening on your site at this very moment. Let’s take a closer look at a few of these variables:

‘Right now’ The ‘Right Now’ section tells you exactly how many visitors are present on any page on your site at this moment. It also gives you a visual breakdown of how many of those visitors are new (first-time) and how many are returning (have previously been to your site before). While this is information you’ve always been able to find after the fact in the Standard Reporting, seeing the stats exactly as they’re happening allows you to react in real time to any maketing activities currently going on..

Top referrals

Similarly to the ‘Right now’ report, ‘Top referrals’ gives you information you could find after the fact, but presents it in a much more urgent manner. Sometimes, this is necessary.

For example, while you can control the times and locations that you post information about your company, you have no way of enforcing other people who are writing about you. This is why the ‘referring sites’ section has been so helpful in the past – you could look back at your data to see which sites were sending traffic, and react accordingly, perhaps placing messages or ads on those pages.

But since the real-time version of Top Referrals gives you a play-by-play run down of which sites are driving traffic at any given moment, a quick reaction to a rush of referring traffic means that you could join in on a live chat where your company or product is being discussed. Real Time Referrals gives you a way of ‘listening in on the conversation’ even if you didn’t know to look there in the first place.

Top keywords

Ah, keywords. We love keywords (and if you don’t already, here’s why you should), and it’s pretty exciting to see them being searched in real-time. How might this help you? Seeing these keywords in real time may just give that extra boost to your social media efforts.

As we’ve discussed before, success in social media is often contingent upon being on top of trends as they occur. By using Google Analytics’ Real-Time Reporting to view which keywords are currently being searched, you can pinpoint any particularly active ones and perhaps make an effort to talk about them on social media accounts, which can in turn boost your SEO. This could take a number of forms – posting on topics regarding those keywords, sharing sales or information about related products, or just making sure to include those keywords in various tweets in an organic way. The choice is up to you, but Real-Time Reporting gives you the information to take advantage of trending keywords. Top locations

We also appreciate the ability to pinpoint Top Locations from which users are visiting your site.

Have you ever sent employees to speak at a conference? It’s the perfect time to employ this tool; while you should still be monitoring social media for reactions, imagine simply watching this page on Google Analytics to get real time ‘feedback’ from people in the audience. If the conference is in Dallas and the data shows a huge influx of Dallas visitors at exactly the time of your company’s presentation, it’s a pretty good bet that you’re doing something right. If not, then you can let your employees know that they need to talk more about the website or promote your social media sites.

Still not enough data for you? Besides the info remaining on the ‘Overview’ page, keep in mind that the drop-down under ‘Real Time (Beta),’ also provides options for ‘Locations,’ ‘Traffic Sources,’ or ‘Content,’ for a more specific breakdown of each of those variables. Feel free to explore to your heart’s content!

We hope this helps get your on your way towards using the Real-Time Reporting tool with ease. Seeing the website while your customers are interacting with it can be invaluable – sometimes, you have to be right in the middle of things to understand what’s going right or wrong, and Google now allows you to do just that. Enjoy!