Introduction

Site Kit’s visitor groups feature allows you to gain deeper insights into your website visitors. It uses Google Analytics audiences to allow you to view data for specific groups that you define. Examples of possible groups include new visitors, returning visitors or purchasers.  

By segmenting your site visitors into groups, you can understand how different types of visitors interact with your content and contribute to your business goals. This feature is available within Site Kit as of version 1.140.0.

Note: Within Site Kit, the plugin refers to your Google Analytics audiences as visitor groups. 

Setting up visitor groups

Note: The below guide covers setting up visitor groups for the first time. If another administrator has already enabled visitor groups, the feature will be active by default for all other users. See the Viewing the visitor groups section after another user has set it up section for more details on visitor groups if the feature is already enabled. 

Visitor groups can be configured by clicking on the Enable groups button that appears within a notification banner in the header of the Site Kit dashboard when this feature becomes available. This banner will only be visible once the Google Analytics module has been connected and is out of the gathering data state.

A screenshot of the Audience Segmentation set up banner
Audience Segmentation set up banner

Once the Enable groups button has been clicked, you’ll be directed to the oAuth screen where you will need to grant access for Site Kit to connect with your Google Analytics account to create audiences and a custom dimension as needed, unless previously granted. You can click on the Maybe later button to dismiss this banner. Once dismissed, it will appear once more after two weeks have elapsed, this time with a Don’t show again option replacing Maybe later. Clicking on this option will permanently dismiss the banner.

Visitor groups set up banner, after clicking on Enable groups

Once visitor groups have been enabled, you’ll see a success banner. Clicking on Show me will scroll the page down to the visitor groups area within the traffic section of the Site Kit dashboard. Clicking Got it will permanently dismiss the banner.

The success banner that appears after setup 

You can also enable visitor groups via Site Kit > Settings > Admin Settings > Visitor groups. Clicking on Enable groups will start the process. 

The option within Site Kit’s settings to enable visitor groups 
Visitor groups being enabled
A success notification appearing once visitor groups are enabled from within Site Kit settings

If you wish to disable visitor groups, you can do so from within Site Kit’s settings page, Site Kit > Settings > Admin Settings > Visitor groups. Toggle off the Display visitor groups in dashboard option to disable.  

The visitor groups  options within the Site Kit settings screen, toggled off

If you have already created audiences within Google Analytics

If you already have custom audiences defined in Google Analytics, Site Kit will make these available for selection as visitor groups as long as there is existing data for them. Visitor groups with the highest visitor count will be used to determine the default groups initially displayed if there are a number of audiences added from Google Analytics.

You can change the visitor groups that are displayed. See the Changing the visitor groups displayed section for more information. 

The Purchasers default audience, which Google Analytics creates by default for all Google Analytics properties, will only be considered for inclusion as a visitor group if there is at least one pre-existing audience added to the selection and the Purchasers audience has ever had any users. 
The All Users default audience will never be considered for inclusion in the initial selection.

If you have not yet created audiences within Google Analytics

If you don’t have any eligible custom audiences defined, Site Kit will create the below visitor groups for the connected Google Analytics property:

  • New visitors: This visitor group allows you to view data based on new visitors to your site. 
  • Returning visitors: This visitor group allows you to view data specific to returning visitors to your site. 
The visitor groups section of the Site Kit dashboard, displaying New vs Returning visitors
The visitor groups selection panel

Viewing the visitor groups section  

The visitor groups section of the Site Kit dashboard will appear within the Traffic tab. You can navigate to this by clicking on the Traffic tab and scrolling down to the Understand how different visitor groups interact with your site section. 

The visitor group tiles on the Site Kit dashboard

For each visitor group shown, a tooltip info icon will appear in the top right of the visitor group title. This will display a message to provide some insights into the group. 

The tooltip icon that appears for each visitor group

Placeholder Tiles

If all of the selected audiences have been archived, a banner will be displayed on its own in the section where visitor groups are typically displayed. This banner will let you know that your previously selected visitor groups are no longer available, while suggesting you select other groups to be displayed.

A banner that appears when the previously selected visitor groups no longer exists

If all visitor groups have been removed from Analytics, the following variant of the banner will be displayed. The banner will include a link to the audiences page in the Google Analytics support documentation.

A banner that appears when there are no visitor groups remaining to select

If only one visitor group tile is selected, and there aren’t any groups remaining to select, the following will be displayed. 

Create more visitor groups placeholder

If only one visitor group tile is selected, and there is at least one group remaining to select, the following placeholder will be displayed. The Select link button will open the selection panel.

Compare your groups placeholder

If a visitor group tile is selected but it doesn’t have any data yet, a placeholder will appear mentioning that data is being collected. Clicking on Temporarily hide will hide the tile until data is available for this group. Data will appear within this selected visitor group once there is data available. 

Data is collecting 

A similar placeholder image may appear but without the ability to temporarily hide in cases where there are no other visitor groups that do have data.

Data is collecting 

Viewing the visitor groups section after another user has set it up

For administrators who login for the first time after another administrator set up visitor groups, or for view-only users via Dashboard Sharing, a popup will be displayed in the lower right corner of the page on desktop for the first time, as a notification that the feature has been enabled. 

A notification that appears for users if visitor groups has been enabled by another administrator

The user’s initial selection of visitor groups will be automatically determined based on the audiences that are available, with user-defined custom audiences that have data over the past 90 days taking top priority, followed by the Site Kit-created new visitors and returning visitors audiences if they exist, followed by the Purchasers default audience if it’s ever had data.

Changing the visitor groups displayed

The visitor groups can be changed by clicking on Change groups. The active groups a user selects are specific to that user. 

Highlighting the Change groups option

After clicking on the Change groups link, an overlay selection panel will appear, allowing you to choose your preferred visitor groups to be displayed within the visitor group section. After selecting your preferred tiles, you can click on the Save selection button. After doing so, the visitor group section of the Site Kit dashboard will be updated with your selection. 

The selection panel will also display a prompt to create the new visitors and returning visitors audiences if these do not already exist. 

The maximum number of visitor groups that can be displayed on the dashboard at any time is three. 

Selecting your visitor groups

Metrics 

Each tile in the visitor groups section will display the following metrics for each group selected. These metrics are specific to each visitor group for the selected reporting period 

  • Visitors: Total visitors to your site (using the  “total users” metric)
  • Visits per visitor: The average number of sessions per visitor
  • Pages per visit: The average number of pages visited per visitor
  • Total pageviews: The total number of pages viewed 
  • Cities with the most visitors: The top three cities where your site traffic comes from
  • Top content by pageviews: The pages your visitors read the most. See the Top Content by Pageviews section for more details on this metric. 

The visitor groups section will also show a banner which displays a sequence of informational messages. Each message can be dismissed by clicking “Got it”. After 14 days, a new message will appear if there are any remaining to be displayed. 

The notice will no longer appear once all messages have been dismissed. This will only appear when there is suitable data available. 

The visitor groups  information banner

Top Content by Pageviews

This visitor group metric is used to display the three posts with highest overall traffic by pageviews. The googlesitekit_post_type custom dimension is used to filter the data for this metric. This will be created for you when enabling visitor groups if it doesn’t already exist. It may also exist if you are using key metrics on your site. 

If the googlesitekit_post_type  custom dimension is no longer available, a No data to show message will appear. Clicking on the Update button will allow Site Kit to create this custom dimension in order to obtain and display your top content. 

No data to show for the Top Content by Pageviews metric

FAQs

Do I need to be a Google Ads user to define an audience?

No. Visitor groups can be configured with only the Google Analytics module enabled. 

What are the benefits of using visitor groups?

Visitor groups allow you to review your audience by segmenting different visitors. This can help ensure your targets and goals are met. Examples of how it may benefit site owners include:

  • Determining which visitors bring the most revenue 
  • Determining what content brings the most visitors, for new or returning visitors 
  • Determining how to optimize your content to bring in more returning readers 

If I don’t want to use visitor groups, can I disable the feature?

You can disable visitor groups via Site Kit > Settings > Admin Settings > Visitor groups. Toggle off the Display visitor groups in dashboard option so that the section does not appear in the Site Kit dashboard.

What happens if you change the connected Google Analytics property?

This will reset the visitor groups feature. You can choose to set it up again if you wish. The choice of whether the section is shown on the dashboard will persist between resets.

If I set up an audience within Google Analytics, will this be accessible for others to view within Site Kit’s visitor groups selection panel?

Yes, any audience that has been created at the Google Analytics level, will be available to select from the visitor group selection panel. 

Can I use visitor groups with Dashboard Sharing?

Yes. If the Google Analytics module was shared, all users with view-only access can view the visitor groups section of the Site Kit dashboard. They will also be able to select their preferred group, specific to them. 

View-only users will not be able to create a new visitor group from within Site Kit. 

What happens if my visitor groups are no longer available or are removed?

If selected visitor groups are no longer available, which can occur if the related audiences in Google Analytics were archived, a placeholder tile or banner will be displayed in place of the missing group tiles. This is covered in the Placeholder tiles section.

If all visitor groups have been removed from Analytics, a banner notice appears in place of the visitor group tiles. The banner will include a link to the audiences page in Google Analytics article instead.

I’ve enabled visitor groups, but I’m not seeing correct data. What’s wrong?

Data is gathered for your audience from the date of creation of these audiences onwards, and it can take 24-48 hours for a user to show up in an audience from when they visited your site. This means that if Site Kit created the groups for you, it will take time for data to collect specific to these groups.

I encountered an error, “Failed to set up visitor groups”. What can I do?

If you encounter this error, please click on the Retry button. Should the issue persist, you may be encountering a third party plugin conflict, or an issue communicating with your Google Analytics account. Please try to enable visitor groups from another browser or device. If the same occurs, please open a support topic on the plugin support forums for assistance. 

I have a Purchasers audience in my Google Analytics account. Why is this not available for selection within Site Kit?

The Purchasers audience is one of the default audience groups that Google Analytics creates for each property. The other audience that Google Analytics creates by default is All users, which is known as All visitors within the visitor groups selection panel in Site Kit. 

The Purchasers visitor group will only be available for selection as a visitor group within Site Kit if the related Google Analytics audience has ever had any data. 

I’m seeing a “Partial data” notice in a visitor group tile. What does this mean? 

A message regarding “Partial data” means that there is not a full range of data to cover the currently selected date range. For example, you may be viewing data for the previous 28 days, but there is only data for the past 14 days. 

Please also note the following: 

  • “New” and “Returning” visitor groups will never show a “Partial data” badge at the top of the visitor group tile. This is because, under the bonnet, Site Kit can use the standard newVsReturning dimension to retrieve the report data for these audiences while the audiences themselves are being populated.
  • The “Top content” metric area can show a “Partial data” badge if there is not a full range of data for the underlying googlesitekit_post_type custom dimension.
  • There will only be one “Partial data” badge in a visitor group tile, the one at the top takes precedence over the one in the “Top content” area.