Google has recently released a new feature called “Intelligence” (currently in Beta). Enterprise analytics companies including Coremetrics, Omniture and WebTrends must be left scratching their heads as Google has yet released another tool – FREE of charge. So, what is Google “Intelligence” you ask? Unless you are an enterprise level client, you will probably have little use for this tool. But for those of you whose sites draw large numbers of visitors, and more important, large numbers of transactions this tool may prove useful.
The primary function of “Intelligence” is to alert you regarding changing or unusual conditions regarding your site’s traffic. Some of the highlights of Google Intelligence and the reports generated include: *Automatic Alerts* With this tool Google is “Alerting” you to unusual activity in your account. Several pre-built templates such as ‘total visits decreased by 50%’,’total page views decreased by 50%’, and numerous others are included. You may also create your own alert types per your reporting needs. Alerts can be further customized by specifying traffic patterns (landing page, exit page, region, referral, etc.). Alert periods can be set for day, week or month.
Daily alerts can be compared to the previous week or the previous day. *Time Frame* There are two types of time frames involved in this analysis. There is the time of the report you are looking at, at the top of the page, and there is the “Time Frame”, one day, that is in the middle of the page. You can shift this “Time Frame” back and forward (if you are not looking at today). This way you can see if the trend is common each day or just for this day. *Alert Sensitivity Bar* You can adjust the degree of sensitivity so you either receive more of fewer alerts depending on your preference. *Group By Metric | Dimension Function* There are two ways to Group the Information, by Metric & Dimension. Metric refers to the basic metrics listed on the right side.
Dimension appears to be the deeper secondary level metrics like region, new vs. repeat visitor and other more detailed items. By setting up Google Intelligence for your website, you’ll be better informed of changes in traffic (good or bad) and thus better prepared to make any needed changes to content, product or SEO settings to remain competitive.