Google Analytics monitors your website’s traffic flow to help identify significant statistical variations. It then automatically generates alerts called Intelligence Events, when those variations occur. Examining these anomalies can provide vital insight into your site’s traffic flow that you might have otherwise missed. For example, you might get a spike in traffic from a particular city or from a referring site. Perhaps you sent out a newsletter, or coupon and traffic to your site drastically got a jump from that. These variations in traffic flow can be viewed from the Intelligence Events menu under the Home tab.
There are two kinds of Intelligence alerts:
- Automatic alerts are generated whenever Google Analytics detects a significant change in the traffic patterns on your site. Automatic alerts are created for all data in your account, so you can use this report to review past anomalies, as well.
- Custom alerts are triggered and generated when your site’s traffic reaches a level you specify in your account. For example, you can set a custom alert to appear when traffic from Paris decreased by more than 20%. You can opt in to receive email or text message notifications when you create a custom alert, so you’ll know when the event happens even if you’re not checking your reports.
Whats so great about this utility is that at any time, you can look in your Intelligence Reports and create a Custom Alert to become aware of any sudden or unexpected changes in your site metrics. This technology is smart enough to highlight what you should know, while being very simple to use.
