Introduction to Google Analytics

About This Course

Nearly every business and non-profit organization has a website, and probably a Facebook page and a YouTube channel. Individuals have them too, to promote ideas, to share a vision, or to educate the public. No matter what brings you to the Web, your hope is that a lot of people see your website, your wall, your tweets, and your videos. Why else go to the trouble of sharing them?

In this course, you'll learn to use Google Analytics to make the most of your online traffic. You'll see how you can track not just the traffic to all of your online content, but also determine which content is the most appealing, where your visitors came from, what devices they used, how long they stayed, which links they clicked, and where they went when they left.

The course guides you step by step, report by report, through the major parts of the Google Analytics interface. From setting up your Google Analytics account and getting the all-important code you'll need to add to your website's pages to begin tracking your visitors, you'll learn everything you need to know to get everything you can from the data that Google Analytics provides. You'll even find out about Google AdWords and other tools to enhance your traffic as well as your Google Analytics reporting.
About The Instructor

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Laurie Fuller.

Laurie Fuller has been teaching people to use computers, software, and the Internet for more than 15 years—including personally training thousands of students, writing hundreds of training manuals, and authoring and co-authoring more than 30 books on subjects including Microsoft Office, the Adobe Creative Suite, social media for business, and understanding search engine optimization. Her books include 2,000-page epics that document every button, bell, and whistle, as well as friendlier introductory and troubleshooting books for new users. Her most recent productions include a video series of software skill-building tips, and training guides on using social media for business and non-profit promotion. In addition to writing and teaching, Laurie runs her own firm, Limehat & Company, providing training, marketing, graphic design, and Web development services to clients throughout the world, with a focus on helping growing companies and non-profit organizations build their brand through effective promotions, outreach, and education.

Syllabus

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week 1

Wednesday - Lesson 01

In this lesson, you'll learn what Google Analytics is, what it does, and who benefits from its use—individuals with personal websites, businesses selling products and services, and nonprofit and informational websites working to get their message across. You'll look at the key reports that Google Analytics provides. Also, you'll find out how all those visits to your site turn into data you can use to increase traffic and to make the most impact on each visitor.

Friday - Lesson 02

Today you'll set up a Google Analytics account, plus you'll create and insert the Google Analytics code to begin tracking traffic on your Web page.

Week 2

Wednesday - Lesson 03

Did that marketing campaign or email blast cause an uptick in site visits? If you set date ranges for your Analytics data, you can track traffic within a certain month, week, day, or even hour. Today you'll also use filters and sorting tools to customize your view of your Google Analytics data, so you can see and understand all the information you need (and ignore the rest).

Friday - Lesson 04

You can use Google Analytics' reporting tools to create your own versions of existing reports—just the information you want, when you want it. Today you'll set up report categories and design custom reports from scratch.

Week 3

Wednesday - Lesson 05

Have you ever overhauled your website or your marketing campaign and then wondered if your changes would even make a difference? Today you'll further customize existing and new reports by adding filters—focusing your report's data on very specific activity by certain visitors to your site. You'll find out how to time your reporting to reflect changes in site traffic attributed to promotional activity, social media, and changes in site content.

Friday - Lesson 06

This lesson focuses on Google Analytics' Webmaster Tools—from the verification process, through which Google Analytics recognizes your account as belonging to a webmaster, to configuring and viewing webmaster reports. These reports include information on your site's search engine optimization—tracking your efforts to be more friendly to search engines and therefore searchable by more people online.

Week 4

Wednesday - Lesson 07

Now that you've improved your site, why not promote it? It's time to learn how to set up Web campaigns through Google AdWords. By the end of this lesson, you'll know how to track the impact of campaigns and AdWords advertising through specially created Google Analytics reports.

Friday - Lesson 08

You know how important it is to set goals in the rest of your life. In this lesson, you'll develop Google Analytics Goals for building traffic to your website. You'll set up Goals, establish Goal values, and monitor your progress. In addition, you'll learn to run reports that show Goal settings and outcomes. What you learn today will help you increase site traffic and make that traffic more effective—by attracting more visitors, keeping them for longer periods, and turning visits into clicks and other actions.

Week 5

Wednesday - Lesson 09

Google Analytics data is immediate . . . and in this lesson, you'll learn exactly what that means. You'll view data in real time, within seconds of when visitor activity occurs. You'll also learn about intelligence events and set up custom alerts to find out about special activity on your sites. Lesson 9 shows you how to takes quick, decisive action to improve website traffic and visitor responsiveness!

Friday - Lesson 10

It's time to build a dashboard—to create a workspace for running reports, accessing Analytics data, and making Google Analytics feel more like "home." You'll add metrics to measure your most important statistics; widgets to provide quick views; and pie charts, timelines, and tables to customize your dashboard view.

Week 6

Wednesday - Lesson 11

Today we'll delve into the Admin interface. You'll learn to view established Google Analytics accounts, add users, and control access to Analytics data. Plus you'll be able to manage your Google Analytics profile—including Webmaster Tools, which lets you control website code and improve your site's searchability. By the end of this lesson, you'll navigate the Admin section with confidence.

Friday - Lesson 12

Now that you're an Analytics expert, it's time to share some of that data you've collected and some of the configurations you've created. Today you'll learn how to email reports to colleagues and export data for use in other applications. You'll also customize the settings that control the sharing of Analytics reports and data.

Requirements

An internet connection, a website to which the student has access to change the HTML code within one or more of the website pages; Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader).