Google Analytics is an incredibly useful, powerful way to analyze your site’s performance. A lot of it can seem daunting for a first-time user, and what you find valuable might depend on what type of site you run. A gambling operation may find some metrics more valuable, while an affiliate or a blog may value entirely different things.

Here’s a collection of some Google Analytic metrics that everyone should find useful and important, and how you can take advantage of them.

Acquisition: The source of your traffic

Where are your visitors coming from? Are they coming direct to your landing page, or did they find you through an organic search (they Googled you)? Is your social effort working and driving views to your page, or are you getting referral traffic from other sites?