Project Overview

This project focuses on implementing and analyzing website analytics for my personal portfolio websites using Google Analytics 4. The goal was to understand how users interact with my sites, where traffic originates, and how different platforms impact engagement.

By tracking real visitor data, this project demonstrates practical experience with analytics setup, data interpretation, and translating metrics into actionable insights.

Figure 1. This is a report snapshot overview comparing desktop and mobile users.

Objectives

• Track user traffic across multiple portfolio platforms

• Compare engagement between GitHub Pages and Google Sites

• Identify visitor behavior patterns and device usage

• Practice real-world analytics implementation and analysis

I configured a single Google Analytics 4 property to track traffic from two separate websites, allowing direct comparison within one dataset.

Implementation Details:

• Created a GA4 property and web data stream

• Manually installed the tracking ID on GitHub Pages

• Connected Google Sites using its built-in analytics integration

• Verified tracking through real-time reporting

This setup mirrors how analytics are commonly implemented in production environments.

Figure 2. Google Analytics can show you real-time users. Currently, I am the only active user, as shown on the graph on the right.

Key Metrics Tracked

• Page views and session activity

• Traffic sources (direct, referral, internal)

• Device type (desktop vs mobile)

• User engagement time

• Most visited pages

Figure 3 & 4. This shows the distribution of device types and browsers used to access the website pages.

Figure 5. Tracking the most common screen resolutions used to access the website allows me to optimize layouts and improve responsiveness for those specific devices.

Initial data showed clear differences in how users interact with each platform:

• Certain pages attracted higher engagement times than others

• Device usage highlighted the importance of mobile-friendly layouts

• Traffic sources confirmed most users arrived via direct links

These insights provide a foundation for improving content structure and layout decisions.

Figures 6 & 7. This report shows user engagement time of a few of the visited pages. There is a graph that can be customized for better visualization of the data.

Skills Demonstrated

• Google Analytics 4 configuration

• Multi-site tracking under one property

• Interpreting traffic and engagement metrics

• Translating analytics data into UX considerations

• Real-world analytics tooling used in industry

Future Improvements

If continued, the next steps would include:

• Adding custom event tracking (button clicks, project links)

• Setting up conversion goals for portfolio interactions

• Tracking outbound clicks to GitHub and live demos

• Monitoring long-term traffic trends

Why This Project Matters

Analytics is a critical skill for modern developers and designers. This project demonstrates my ability to:

• Set up production-ready tracking

• Understand user behavior through data

• Use analytics to inform design and technical decisions