Blog Post 
November 26, 2014 As we gear up for a nice, long holiday weekend here at Analytics Pros, we can’t help but think about how thankful we are. We’ve got a talented, growing team and great customers that enable us to keep the lights and the heat on.
Light and heat keeper-oners, we appreciate you. We’re thankful for you.
And we’re thankful for Google Analytics because we have the privilege of seeing every day how GA tools help our customers achieve their goals.
One of the many great features of GA is the ability to see complicated data in simple to read reports.
In the spirit of thankfulness, 6 of our team members weighted in on what report views they are most thankful for (and 1 SKD update in a pear tree), and we’ve included links to helpful articles as well. Here’s what they had to say:
Mark McLaren, AP’s SEO Strategist is thankful for the Hostname Report:
“I love the Hostname Report. Not only does it allow you to quickly identify possible issues of inaccurate reporting in GA, but for SEO purposes, it allows you to identify (with one click) any “mirror” websites: sites that are identical copies of a main website that are running on a different domain.
Mirror sites are an old, misguided “SEO” technique employed by some companies who don’t really understand how SEO works. They think that having the same content on more than one domain makes them more likely to rank well in search results. In fact, the opposite is (and has always been) the case.
The problem is easily corrected. So it’s a quick find for us and a quick fix for our clients. It’s also a great starting point to educate clients about duplicate content, which surfaces in lots of different ways. Helping clients eliminate all forms of duplicate content strengthens their SEO across the board.”
Learn more about the Hostnames Report here: Google Analytics Hostname Report (Search Engine Land)
Dan Rowe, Director of Analytics is thankful for the Product List Performance Report:
“I am thankful for the Product List Performance report since it allows us to visualize the flow of products through an ecommerce site as the user views the product, selects the product, adds it to their shopping cart, checks out and buys. We can quickly flip this report to see the same metrics grouped by different product attributes – categories, colors, brands, and more!
The exciting insight that the Enhanced Ecommerce suite of reports allow us to give to customers come from a fundamentally different way of thinking about the data. It’s easy to get myopic with ecommerce sites and focus on user path analysis, that through great effort, ultimately provide little value. Looking at the site as a series of related steps in a process allows better visualization of bottle necks and identification of where optimizations can be made.”
Learn more about Enhanced Ecommerce Reports: 3 Steps to Get Started with Enhanced Ecommerce & 10 New Powerful Reports
Justin Goodman, on of our AP Analysts is thankful for the Core Reporting API:
“I am most thankful for the Core reporting API and the ability to automate reporting. Clients appreciate the efficiency and I appreciate the ability to be freed up to do analysis instead of reporting.”
Learn more about Core Reporting here: Tutorial: Google Analytics Core Reporting API using Magic Script
Danielle Bradford, on of AP’s Account Managers is thankful for the Top Conversions Path Report:
“I’m most thankful for the Top Conversions Paths report because sometimes first impressions and standard reports don’t represent the full picture, and there are usually some fun surprises about user behavior in there too.”
Learn more about Conversion Path here: Analyzing Conversion Paths
Dani Walter, one of AP’s Account Managers is thankful for the Behavior Flow Report:
“I’m thankful for the Behavior Flow report in GA due to its ability to reveal customer behavior. I love that it exposes the way people navigate through the site, and gives lots of actionable insight into parts of the website that are the most popular with your viewers. It also can help you place your ads for maximum visibility.”
Learn more about Behavior Flow Reports here: Better Insights, Better Marketing
Luka Cempre, AP’s Software Developer is thankful for the Real Time Report:
“The Real Time Report is Great for knowing what is going on with your website in that moment and a helpful tool for testing new implementations.”
Learn more about Real Time Reports: What’s happening on your sit right now?
John Clem, AP’s Mobile Software Engineer is thankful for the Google Analytics Services SDK version 3.10:
“I’m thankful for the release of the Google Analytics Services SDK version 3.10, because I no longer have to see the warning “GAIHit and GAIProperty classes missing” 30 times every day”
Learn more about Google Analytics Services SDK here: Downloads – iOS SDK
Need help getting the most out of your Google Analytics reports? Let’s talk.