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Understanding Google Analytics and How To Use It

Aug 10 2026 | By: PhotoBiz Knowledge Base

Understanding Google Analytics and How to Use It

Overview

Google Analytics helps you understand how visitors find and interact with your website. You can use this information to learn which pages attract attention, where your visitors come from, what devices they use, and whether they complete important actions on your site.

For photographers and small businesses, Google Analytics can help you make better decisions about your website, marketing, content, and advertising.

This guide explains some of the most useful Google Analytics 4 (GA4) reports and metrics and how you can use them to understand your website's performance.

Important Information About Google Analytics

PhotoBiz is not affiliated with Google. Google Analytics is a third-party service owned and operated by Google.

The PhotoBiz Support Team can help you add your Google Analytics tracking tag to your PhotoBiz website. However, questions about Google Analytics reports, account configuration, data collection, or Google's features should be directed to Google Analytics Help.

If you have not connected Google Analytics to your PhotoBiz website yet, see How to Add Google Analytics.

Understanding Your Users

Google Analytics includes several metrics that help you understand how many people are visiting your website.

Common user metrics include:

  • Total users: The total number of users who visited your website during the selected date range.
  • Active users: Users who engaged with your website during the selected date range.
  • New users: Users who interacted with your website for the first time.
  • Returning users: Users who have visited your website before and returned during the selected date range.

Why This Is Helpful

Comparing new and returning users can help you understand whether your website is attracting new visitors while also encouraging previous visitors to come back.

For example, new visitors may discover you through Google Search, advertising, social media, or referrals. Returning visitors may be reviewing your portfolio, comparing services, or preparing to contact or book you.

Understanding Sessions

A session is a period of activity from a visitor on your website. One session can include several actions, such as viewing multiple pages, clicking links, submitting forms, or completing purchases.

By default, a Google Analytics session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity. A visitor can create multiple sessions over time.

Why This Is Helpful

Sessions can help you understand how often people interact with your website. Comparing users and sessions can also show whether visitors tend to return and interact with your site more than once.

Reviewing Engagement

Google Analytics measures how actively visitors interact with your website.

One useful metric is Average engagement time, which measures how long your website is actively being viewed or used.

Why This Is Helpful

Engagement data can help you compare different pages and identify content that holds your visitors' attention.

For example, if visitors spend more time on a portfolio, pricing page, or blog post, that may indicate the content is especially useful or relevant to them.

Engagement time should not be evaluated by itself. Some pages are designed to provide information quickly, so a shorter engagement time does not automatically mean the page is performing poorly.

Understanding Where Your Traffic Comes From

Google Analytics groups website traffic into channels based on how visitors reached your site.

Common traffic channels include:

  • Direct: Visitors who arrive without a clearly identified referring source, which can include typing your website address or using a bookmark.
  • Organic Search: Visitors who find your website through unpaid search engine results.
  • Paid Search: Visitors who arrive through paid search advertising.
  • Referral: Visitors who click a link to your website from another website.
  • Organic Social: Visitors who arrive through unpaid social media activity.
  • Paid Social: Visitors who arrive through paid social media advertising.
  • Email: Visitors who arrive through links identified as email traffic.
  • Display: Visitors who arrive through display advertising.
  • Unassigned: Traffic Google Analytics could not classify into another channel.

Why This Is Helpful

Traffic sources help you understand which marketing channels bring people to your website.

For example, increasing Organic Search traffic may indicate that more people are finding you through search engines. Referral traffic may show that directories, publications, business partners, or other websites are sending visitors to your site.

Reviewing Visitor Locations

Google Analytics can provide geographic information such as the country, region, or city associated with your website traffic.

Why This Is Helpful

Location information can help you determine whether your website is reaching people in the areas you serve.

For example, a local photographer may use this information to see whether website traffic is coming primarily from nearby cities or from locations outside their normal service area.

Geographic information should be treated as approximate. It is not intended to identify a visitor's exact physical location.

Reviewing Your Most-Viewed Pages

Google Analytics reports can show which pages and screens receive the most Views.

For a photography website, these may include your:

  • Home page
  • Portfolio or gallery pages
  • Pricing information
  • About page
  • Contact page
  • Blog posts
  • Service pages

Why This Is Helpful

Your most-viewed pages can help you understand what visitors are interested in.

Pages receiving less traffic are not necessarily performing poorly. Some pages have a very specific purpose and naturally receive fewer views. Instead of focusing only on totals, compare page traffic with the purpose of each page.

Tracking User Activity Over Time

Google Analytics includes reports that compare active users across different periods, such as daily, weekly, and monthly activity.

Why This Is Helpful

Looking at user activity over time can help you identify broader traffic patterns.

You may see increases after:

  • Launching a marketing campaign
  • Publishing a blog post
  • Sending an email campaign
  • Sharing content on social media
  • Running an advertisement
  • Receiving press coverage or a referral

Looking at trends over several weeks or months is often more useful than focusing on a single day's traffic.

Checking Realtime Activity

Google Analytics also includes a Realtime report that shows recent activity on your website.

Realtime reporting can help you see active users from approximately the last 30 minutes.

Why This Is Helpful

Realtime data can be useful when you want to confirm that traffic is reaching your website shortly after launching a campaign, sharing a link, or making a major update.

Realtime reports are best used for immediate activity. Use your standard reports when evaluating longer-term website performance.

Reviewing Device Usage

Google Analytics can show whether visitors are using:

  • Desktop
  • Mobile
  • Tablet

Why This Is Helpful

Device reports can help you understand how your audience experiences your website.

If a large percentage of your visitors use mobile devices, for example, you may want to pay close attention to how important pages, forms, galleries, and calls to action appear on smaller screens.

Your PhotoBiz website is responsive, but it is still a good practice to review your website on multiple device sizes when making design or content changes.

Understanding Key Events

A key event is an action that you consider especially important to your business.

Depending on how your Google Analytics account is configured, key events could include actions such as:

  • Submitting a contact form
  • Completing a purchase
  • Completing another important website interaction

Not every website will have the same key events, and additional Google Analytics configuration may be required to track specific actions.

Why This Is Helpful

Traffic tells you that people are visiting your website. Key events can help you understand whether those visitors are taking actions that support your business goals.

This makes key events especially useful when evaluating marketing campaigns or website changes.

Keep Your Analytics Data in Perspective

Google Analytics is a valuable measurement tool, but its reports should be viewed as estimates and trends rather than a perfect record of every person who visits your website.

Analytics data can be affected by factors such as:

  • Visitor privacy and consent choices
  • Browser privacy settings
  • Ad blockers and tracking prevention
  • Google Analytics configuration
  • Reporting thresholds and privacy protections
  • Differences between Analytics reports and other platforms

Because of this, it is normal for Google Analytics numbers to differ from information shown in other marketing, advertising, or website systems.

Look for patterns and changes over time rather than focusing too heavily on small differences in individual numbers.

Google Analytics Training

If you want to learn more about Google Analytics, Google provides free training through Google Analytics Academy on Skillshop.

These courses cover topics ranging from basic Analytics concepts to more advanced reporting and measurement.

Visit Google Analytics Help for current Google Analytics documentation, training resources, and support.

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