Google recently rolled out new analytics reports, which may leave marketers confused about where to find important data.

Marketers: Don’t be alarmed if you can’t find the reports you normally use the next time you log into Google Analytics. Last week, the search engine updated its reporting forum in an effort to provide webmasters with more holistic views of their content ROI, but the refresh has relocated go-to reports such as Traffic Sources and Content.

In the aftermath of Google tapering off keyword data, this change challenges webmasters to rethink the way they approach content creation and performance measurement. Rather than looking at individual metrics, it seems the new reports push them to look at the larger picture.

Instead of the Traffic Sources and Content reports, webmasters can now pull the same information from the “Acquisitions” and “Behavior” sections. Nikhil Roy of the Google Analytics Team wrote a blog post announcing the change with more insights on why they’ve renamed metrics reports.

“The launch of the new Acquisition reports … provide a window on your users’ Acquisition-Behavior-Conversion (ABC) cycle: how you acquire users, their behavior on your site after acquisition and their conversion patterns,” Roy explained.

“The launch of the new Acquisition reports … provide a window on your users’ Acquisition-Behavior-Conversion (ABC) cycle.”

What could become an advantage in the long run might prove challenging for the short-term, as marketers must adapt their routines for culling content analytics data. However, the refresh comes with the addition of Channels Reports that divide traffic based on outlet. By organizing visitor data this way, webmasters can easily see how email traffic performs in comparison to direct, or whether clicks from paid search stay on the site longer than people who clicked organic content.

When news first broke that keyword data was rapidly slipping away (the amount of information not provided is now at 81 percent, according to Click Consult’s Not Provided Count), Brafton’s Head of Marketing Content and Communications Katherine Griwert wrote a blog explaining this does not have to be a campaign deal-breaker. By taking a cue from Google – and looking beyond individual metrics – marketers can see how the numbers in content analytics reports paint a bigger picture about how their brand content is performing.

Lauren Kaye is a Marketing Editor at Brafton Inc. She studied creative and technical writing at Virginia Tech before pursuing the digital frontier and finding content marketing was the best place to put her passions to work. Lauren also writes creative short fiction, hikes in New England and appreciates a good book recommendation.