Fundamentals, key concepts and reporting basics

Google Analytics 101 is an in-depth, hands-on training day that starts with the fundamentals of Google Analytics, moves-on to defining and understanding key concepts and explores almost all the standard reports and their meaning. The feedback we receive suggests that both those new to Google Analytics and, those much more experienced with Google Analytics find the day equally valuable and enlightening.

How will you benefit?

You will end the day feeling confident about navigating the user interface, understand Google Analytics vocabulary and be very able to use and interpret key reports in relation to your own website’s performance.

What is the Syllabus?

The day is split into four sessions, separated by a fifteen-minute break in the morning and afternoon, with a one-hour break for lunch. Registration opens at 9:00am and training starts promptly at 9:30am with the day finishing around 5:00pm.

Session 1 – Mastering the Google Analytics interface

• Introductions, your objectives and building your 101 action plan
• Defining paid search (cpc, ppc & pfp), organic search, structured search and SEO
• Accessing Google Analytics with your Google account
• Google Analytics accounts, web properties and views
• The Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC)
• Exploring and understanding real-time reporting
• Exploring and understanding standard reporting – the ABC model
• Creating, using and sharing annotations
• Defining and understanding pageviews and unique pageviews
• Defining and understanding users and sessions
• Exploring and understanding audience reporting
• Defining and understanding dimensions and metrics
• Introducing regular expressions – or (|)
• Understanding cross segmentation and pivot views
• Creating, using and sharing shortcuts
• Introducing, applying and understanding system segments
• Creating, using and sharing custom segments
• Understanding and defining bounce and bounce rate
• Identifying high-bouncing landing pages with the landing pages report
• Powerful analysis with weighted sort
• Defining and understanding exit and exit rate

Session 2 – Measuring your success with goals, funnels, transactions and KPIs

• What is possible with web analytics?
• What is possible with Google Analytics?
• Defining and understanding goals
• Goals as a way of prioritising your work
• Google Analytics and your website’s goals
• Setting engagement goals
• Setting a simple destination goal *
• Introducing E-commerce
• Measuring how your traffic sources convert to goals and transactions
• Understanding and defining key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Your KPIs and Google Analytics
• The three organizational objectives
• Introducing intelligence events
• Creating, using and sharing powerful dashboards
• Exporting, emailing and scheduling reports and dashboards

Session 3 – Reporting and measuring devices, users, sessions and traffic sources

• How Google Analytics measures users, sessions, browsers and devices
• Understanding why Google Analytics uses cookies
• Complying with the Google Analytics terms of service and the cookie law/DNT initiatives
• Exploring and understanding your acquisition sources and mediums
• Understanding and defining direct, referral and search traffic
• Identifying high-bouncing traffic sources
• Identifying high-bouncing traffic to landing pages with cross segmentation
• Using the URL builder and defining source, medium, campaign, content and term
• Measuring e-mail marketing campaigns with campaign tracking
• Measuring banners and display advertising campaigns with campaign tracking
• Measuring in-bound social media campaigns with campaign tracking
• Measuring off-line campaigns using vanity URLs and QR codes with campaign tracking
• Creating, editing and sharing a custom report for organic keywords
• Creating, editing and sharing a custom report for campaign tracking (URL builder)

Session 4 – Understanding user engagement and content interaction

• Exploring and understanding behaviour reports
• Exploring and understanding site content and content drill down
• Exploring and understanding user and behaviour flows
• Exploring and understanding goal flows and funnel visualisation
• Exploring and understanding navigation summary and entrance paths
• Exploring and understanding in-page analytics
• Improving in-page analytics
• Exploring and understanding page title and its significance for SEO
• Creating, editing and sharing a custom report for landing page efficiency
• Adding custom reports to dashboards
• Wrap up, conclusions, your action plan and feedback

* Google Analytics edit access required

What are the prerequisites for attending?

For Google Analytics training, attendees will require on-line administration access to an active (recording some data) Google Analytics account and, if you are using Google AdWords, administrative access to a Google AdWords account for the duration of the training. If you do not have access to an active Google Analytics account, we can provide you with user access to a test account for the duration of the course. However, this is not as good as working with your own data!

A prerequisite of attending the 201 course is having completed the 101 course or possessing equivalent knowledge. A prerequisite of attending the 202 course is having completed the 201 course or possessing equivalent knowledge. Please examine the detailed syllabus of the day you intend to miss to make sure you are fully familiar with all concepts. A prerequisite of attending the 301 course is having completed the 101, 201 and 202 courses or possessing equivalent knowledge.

What did past attendees think?

All our attendees are asked to complete our continuous feedback survey and submit an honest, considered and fair review which we publish on our site and via eKomi. You can read these reviews on our site and on eKomi.