Real time tracking data from Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a great program for monitoring web traffic and user habits.

Until a little while ago I was under the impression the data only updated itself once every 24 hours. This is correct for the default settings in Google Analytics, but if you play around with a couple of features, you can get real time data!

I came across this quite by accident one day when I was getting information for a report, but it was one of the best mistakes I have ever made!

This is what you do – log into your account (obviously!), go to the dashboard and look for the date range. The default setting is for the previous month ending with yesterdays date. Look for the grey down arrow and click on it.

When the window expands and the date range is highlighted blue, you will notice that today’s date is not highlighted, but the number is clickable. Click today’s date then apply and you have the real time data you have been looking for.

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Tagged as: data, Google Analytics, hack, How To, real time, statistics