Google has upgraded the Google Analytics web statistics and reporting system to now have a new highly customizable interface.  As always, Google is constantly tweaking, upgrading and providing better ways to use and interpret data, and this time, they’ve really hit the nail on the head.  I have barely even touched the surface of what is available in the new analytics interface,

but here are just a few of the new features that are offered in the new and improved Google Analytics that I found to be extremely helpful. My only criticism is that they could definitely decrease the font size of the main pages and fit a lot more data onto each page, other than that, I think the new Google Analytics interface is going to be a large success.

Date Range Comparisons

You can now select two different date ranges and view reports that compare the two ranges. The dashboard will give you an overview of all data during the two date ranges.  This can be very helpful when you’re looking to see if new changes to your site have helped to increase/decrease traffic, etc.

Statistics by Heat-Maps

Now you can look at a map of a region (USA for instance) and see where most of your traffic is coming from through the use of a heat-map.  Heat maps show higher traffic through darker colors.  Looking at the heatmap below, you can see that California has the highest number of visitors, followed by Texas, Florida, etc.

New Improved Navigation Menu

The new analytics navigation menu gives you simple and easy ways to break down the reports and you can get right down to the nitty-gritty.  There are now 5 main categories, which are then broken down into sub-categories, but the main screens for each of the 5 categories are very helpful and give a quick overview of each site.

• Dashboard – Gives a solid overview of the four following categories
• Visitors – Let’s you look into your visitors, how long they spend on your site, where they’re coming from, etc.
• Traffic Sources – Show’s you where your traffic is coming from, whether it be from search engines, direct, or referring sites.
• Content – Show’s you how the content on your site is performing.
• Goals – If you have setup any goals, this page lets you know each goal is doing.

Checkout the the overview of the new Google Analytics here: http://services.google.com/analytics/tour/index_en-US.html