International Student Lab – Web Analytics Report
1. Introduction
In this project, I created International Student Lab, a blog-style website designed to support international students with practical, data-backed tips about studying and living in the United States. The site focuses on topics such as budgeting, housing, and daily life, and is built to be both informative and easy to navigate. To understand how visitors interact with the site, I implemented a full analytics stack using Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google Search Console, BigQuery, and Looker Studio. These tools allowed me to track traffic, user behavior, and basic conversions, and to visualize key patterns in dashboards that inform future content and optimization decisions. My objective is to use these insights to continually improve the website and help new international students settle in more confidently during their first few months in the U.S.
2. Data & Methods
To collect behavioral data for my website, I first set up a Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property titled “ISL – Website (GA4)” and created a web data stream for my Weebly site International Student Lab. I installed the GA4 gtag tracking script by inserting the measurement tag into Weebly’s header section and published the changes. After installation, I verified that the key events—page_view, scroll, user_engagement, and form_submit—were being captured in the GA4 Realtime dashboard.
I then connected my site to Google Search Console using the URL prefix verification for https://internationalstudentlab.weebly.com/. Since the GA4 tag was already active on the site, Google automatically verified my ownership through Analytics. This integration allows me to track how my site appears on Google Search, including clicks, impressions, and top-performing search queries.
For deeper and more flexible analysis, I created a Google Cloud project named ISL-BigQuery and linked my GA4 property to BigQuery. I enabled both the daily export and intraday export, which generated the datasets:
analytics_514120376.events_YYYYMMDD(daily tables)analytics_514120376.events_intraday_YYYYMMDD(near real-time streaming data)
These datasets gave me direct access to raw event-level information, allowing me to analyze user interactions such as page views, scroll depth, engagement, and form submissions with greater precision.
Finally, I built a two-page Looker Studio report to visualize the data:
On Page 1, I used my BigQuery event tables to create charts that highlight traffic distribution, event volumes, device categories, and user actions. This page focuses on understanding what users do on the site—especially the four primary events: page views, scrolls, user engagement, and form submissions.
On Page 2, I added the GA4 connector (ISL – Website (GA4)) to access higher-level session and user dimensions such as New vs Returning users, Top Pages by Engagement & Value, and Session Default Channel Group. These metrics complement my event-level data by showing who my users are, where they come from, and what content they value most.
Combining BigQuery (granular event data) with GA4 (session and user metrics) allowed me to build an integrated dashboard that supports my goal: using data-driven insights to improve the website and help new international students navigate their first months in the U.S. more confidently.
3. Findings
Using the Looker Studio dashboard built from my GA4 and BigQuery data, I identified several patterns in how users are currently interacting with the International Student Lab website.
3.1 Audience geography and device usage
From the “Event Count by Country and Event Name” bar chart and the world map (Country by Event Count), most interactions come from a concentrated set of countries, with Vietnam clearly dominating total events, followed by a smaller but noticeable volume from countries such as Germany, the United States, and several other regions. This suggests that while the website has reached a global audience, it is currently most visible and relevant to Vietnamese students, which aligns with my own network and outreach so far.
The “Device Category by Event Count” pie chart shows that a majority of events are generated from desktop devices (around 58%), with mobile devices contributing roughly 40% and tablets accounting for a very small share. This indicates that many users may be accessing the site from laptops or desktops—possibly while researching study-abroad information or working on applications—while mobile still plays an important secondary role.
3.2 Key on-site behaviors and engagement events
The “Event Count by Event Name” chart reveals that the four main events I am tracking—page_view, scroll, user_engagement, and form_submit—have very different volumes:
page_view is the most frequent event, showing that visitors are actively loading and exploring pages on the site.
user_engagement and scroll events are also relatively high, which suggests that users are not just bouncing immediately but are spending at least some time reading and scrolling through content.
form_submit has a much smaller event count in comparison. While this is expected because form submissions represent a deeper action, it also highlights that only a small subset of visitors currently convert into form completions (for example, downloading tools, accessing templates, or submitting questions).
Overall, these event patterns suggest that the site is already doing a decent job at getting visitors to land and scroll, but there is still a gap between passive consumption (views/scrolls) and active engagement (form submissions or deeper interactions).
3.3 Traffic quality, content performance, and user types
The GA4-based page (Page 2 of the dashboard) adds more context about who these users are and what they do on the site.
New vs. returning users The “New / returning by Total users” chart shows that the majority of visitors are new users, with a smaller portion coming back for additional visits. This pattern is expected for a relatively young website aimed at students who are still discovering the resource. However, the presence of some returning users is encouraging, as it indicates early signs of loyalty—students who find the content useful enough to revisit.
Top pages by engagement and value
The “Top Pages by Engagement & Value” table highlights that:The home page (/) generates the highest number of views and users, acting as the main entry point.
Resource-heavy pages such as tools & templates, budget-related blog posts, and guides/contact pages also appear near the top, with reasonable average session duration. This tells me that students are particularly drawn to practical, actionable content—for example, budgeting tips, ready-to-use templates, and checklists related to moving and settling in.
Session default channel group The “Sessions and Average session duration by Session default channel group” chart shows that most sessions currently come from Organic Search, followed by smaller contributions from Direct traffic and Organic Social. This pattern suggests that:
Basic SEO optimizations are already helping new students discover the site through Google search.
Direct and social traffic are still relatively small, indicating room to grow through stronger brand presence, direct sharing, and collaborations (e.g., social media posts, student groups, or partner organizations).
Together with the smaller filter tables (device category and session default channel group), these charts make it easier to slice the data and see how behavior changes by device or acquisition channel—for example, checking whether mobile organic visitors behave differently from desktop direct visitors.
4. Discussion and Recommendations
Overall, the analytics suggest that International Student Lab is beginning to reach the right audience—primarily international students in Vietnam and a few other countries—and that visitors are willing to scroll, read, and spend some time on key pages. At the same time, the relatively low number of form submissions and the strong dominance of new users indicate that there is still significant room to improve conversion and retention.
First, the strong share of desktop traffic and the concentration of events in a few core pages (such as the home page, tools/templates, and budgeting blog posts) suggest that students are using the site in a focused, task-oriented way, often from a laptop. To support this behavior, I should prioritize clarity and structure on these high-value pages: for example, tightening headings, using clear step-by-step layouts, and making download or “next step” actions more prominent. Ensuring that forms and key calls to action are easy to see above and below the fold may help convert more engaged readers into form submissions.
Second, the dominance of Organic Search as a traffic source is both a strength and a risk. It is encouraging that students are already finding the site via search, which validates the basic SEO structure of the content. However, the relatively small contribution from Direct and Organic Social means that the site is not yet supported by a strong brand or community layer. To address this, I could invest more in sharing content through social channels, student groups, and word-of-mouth—for example, reposting blog articles in international student forums, collaborating with student clubs, or linking the site from my LinkedIn profile.
Finally, the high proportion of new users highlights that many visitors currently see the site only once. To gently encourage repeat visits, I could introduce elements such as downloadable checklists, multi-part guides, or “save this for later” style content that naturally invite students to return. Over time, tracking changes in the New vs Returning ratio will help measure whether these improvements are successfully building a more loyal audience.
5. Conclusion
This project combined GA4, Search Console, BigQuery, and Looker Studio to build a data-informed understanding of how international students currently use the International Student Lab website. The analysis shows that the site is beginning to attract a relevant, primarily international audience, with strong engagement on key pages related to budgeting, tools, and practical guidance. At the same time, there is still a clear gap between passive browsing and deeper actions such as form submissions or repeated visits.
By using these insights, I can now make more targeted improvements to the site’s content, layout, and promotional strategy—for example, optimizing high-traffic pages, strengthening calls to action, and diversifying traffic sources beyond organic search. In the long term, my goal is to continue refining the website based on analytics so that it becomes a reliable, supportive resource that helps new international students feel more confident and prepared during their first months in the United States.