Google recently released a new version of Google Analytics in beta for users. However, if you log in to your analytics account you won’t see any major changes straight away.
You need to activate this feature first. So if you want to road test it for yourself, you need to go to the top of your screen and hit the link that says “New version.”
The interface looks different but the information is the same. What is new in the latest version of Google Analytics is the ability to obtain a report on site speed.
This report measures the page load time of your site. However, you won’t be able to see the report immediately.
Before you can activate the report, you need to add in a little bit of code on your site so it can complete the page speed test. Ironically, adding this code onto your site actually slows it down a tiny bit (but apparently not be any significant degree). The people at SEO Moz have a useful report on Page Load Speed.
The site speed report provides useful information such as:
- What landing pages are the slowest?
- How your page load time varies across geographic locations?
- Does your site load slower or faster for different browsers?
- Which campaigns have faster overall load times?
Why Page Speed is Important
Google is passionate about speed and making the web faster. Slow landing pages impact your conversion rate as well as your Adwords Landing Page Quality Score and your ranking in Google Search. This means that not only will it result in fewer visitors taking action on your site, it also means you will pay more in pay per click campaigns and you may not rank as high on Google as some of your competitor sites. Ouch!
It is in your interest to have a website that loads quickly. This is a major negative and nail in the coffin for flash based websites which typically have a lower page load time.