Google has continued to roll out new features in Google analytics, allowing the program to really compete with some of the enterprise (i.e. expensive) level platforms. One of the newer features to be released – and still in beta – is their Intelligence reporting which allows you to set up custom alerts when anything major changes with your web traffic.

This feature is particularly helpful for those of us who don’t live and breathe analytics but still need to be aware of changes, as it’s much easier to diagnose a problem when it first occurs. Or if your site hits the front page of Digg – you’ll want to know that while you’re still getting that attention- not a week later.

Look for the new Intelligence tab here:

Setting up these alerts is similar to creating custom reports – you’ll see the same drag and drop functionality for your metrics. Once you select the metric you want to monitor, you chose a threshold for change – and what specifically you want to watch. Here are a few examples:

• Keyword > new PPC keyword Alert when Revenue > greater than break-even threshold
• Medium > Organic Alert when Visits > decreases by 20%
• All Traffic Alert when Visits > increases by 20%
• Referral path > social media campaigns Alert when % of new visits > is greater than your goal value

Hopefully these examples get you thinking about what metrics you should be watching closely. There is a lot of flexibility within this tool, and should also get you thinking about what site objectives are really important to your bottom line.

Happy Analyzing!