How to Learn Google Analytics: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide

Drag to rearrange sections
Rich Text Content

Google Analytics is essential for optimizing your website, improving your marketing efforts and growing your business. Reports provide insight into your audience's behavior and help you pinpoint what's working.

However, Google Analytics can be daunting to learn. I get many messages from people who are almost ready to give-up. There are many reports, and there seems to be an endless number of configuration and setup options.

What's the best way for Google Analytics to be learned?

You can learn Google Analytics in weeks, months and even years by experimenting with the reports and exploring them. Instead of wasting time and experimenting, I recommend these resources to help you get the same results faster.

Although it may take some time before you feel confident using the platform properly, focusing on the best resources can help you save time, money and most importantly frustration from not being able to use your data or report your findings.

Let's get going and learn the best places to find out about Google Analytics.

FirstCom Academy Analytics Essentials Course

My popular (and completely free) Google analytics courseAnalytics Essentials is available here. If you are just starting to learn Google Analytics, this course is the ideal place to start. You will feel comfortable with the terminology and be ready to explore your reports after completing this course. Fernando shared his thoughts about the course recently:

"Great course. Easy to understand the basics. This should be compulsory for anyone interested in data and it's free!

Even if you don't want to start from scratch, my Analytics Fundamentals course can help you refresh your knowledge if any of you have used Google Analytics before.

Here's a quick overview of the lessons you will be learning:

  • Google Analytics terminology:
  • How to measure the success of your marketing campaigns
  • To understand how visitors find your site, you can use reports
  • To track website conversions, set goals
  • Start looking for opportunities to optimize

This course contains video lessons, walkthroughs, and revision quizzes to test knowledge.

Google's Beginner Course

Google Analytics Academy also includes the Google Analytics for Beginners course. This takes you through four areas on the platform. The course covers:

  • An introduction to Google Analytics
  • Google Analytics Interface
  • Use the basic reports
  • Monitoring campaigns and conversions

To start the Google Analytics course, you will need to sign up for Google Analytics Academy.

Other free courses

There are many free courses available, including my Analytics Essentials course as well as Google's beginner course. You should also check out other courses at Google Analytics Academy. I recommend starting with the Advanced Google Analytics course.

We will be talking more about YouTube shortly, but you can also view my Google Tag Manager training video, which teaches you how to add the Google Analytics tag on your website.

FirstCom Academy blog

Google Analytics isn't just available online. There are many blogs that cover different aspects of Google Analytics.

You've found your way to my blog already, so here are my top picks for the FirstCom Academy blog:

  • Google Analytics 4 conversion tracking
  • Facebook Referrals in Google Analytics
  • Tracking social network in Google Analytics
  • Google Analytics attribution models

You will find checklists and other templates on the FirstCom Academy blog, in addition to articles. My Google Analytics Checklist is an example.

Other blogs

You can search Google for posts that relate to the topics or issues you are interested in, but I recommend also checking out my top two picks.

  • Google's Official Blog For Product Announcements
  • Bounteous' blog is for technical how to guides

Books

Another way I enjoy learning is by reading a paperback or my Kindle. Even though technical books, such as digital analytics and online advertising, are often out of date, they still prove to be very useful. These are my top choices:

  • Success Analytics Brian Clifton
  • Web Analytics 2.0 By Avinash Kaushik
  • Google Analytics Integrations Daniel Waisberg

YouTube

YouTube has many videos that cover Google Analytics and related topics. YouTube has everything you need, from how to get started to detailed walk-throughs of new features.

YouTube is a great way to learn Google Analytics. However, it's easy for people to get distracted by YouTube.

FirstCom Academy cover short courses in social media, search marketing, content marketing and our courses are SkillsFuture claimable too. Visit us today!

Google Analytics for Yourself

To fully explore all the features and reports offered by Google Analytics, I recommend creating your own account. Start by creating a blog or a demo site. After you have added the tracking code, preferably using Google Tag Manager, you can start the standard reports.

While you can learn how to use Google Analytics simply by playing around with it, I recommend that you at least one of these resources be used to speed up your learning.

FirstCom Academy Courses

My courses are the best way to learn about Google Analytics. There are currently two courses I have available. These are my Google Analytics Complete Course and my Ga4 Mini-Course, which covers Google Analytics 4.

You can view my courses at your own pace with video lessons and walkthroughs. My courses include short revision questions and the opportunity to earn your certificate. You'll also have access to our private discussion forum where you can ask any questions.

Srinivas has recently spoken out about my GA4 Mini Course:

"Very clear and concise course in GA4 with practical guidance about approaches, pros, and gaps."

To further improve your skills, you can also enroll in my Google Tag Manager course and Google Data Studio courses.

Other paid courses

Since 2007, when I presented Google Analytics training, I have been improving my courses. Although there are many low-cost options on Udemy or Skillshare, the quality of these courses varies a lot. You can also subscribe to LinkedIn Learning, which is more expensive than my courses. It all comes down to the person you'd like to learn from, and what they will cover in the course. My goal is to provide practical and comprehensive lessons that are focused on quality, not quantity.

Local Training

You will also find local training opportunities, which are usually available in major cities around the world, apart from online courses. These types of programs have the advantage of bringing a local flavour to your training experience. However, quality can differ from other courses.

Local training is usually delivered in a small classroom setting (covid restrictions permitting), or as a live stream. It is important to find a Google Analytics trainer, and not just someone who presents a training deck.

Get Google Analytics Today

We've seen that there are many places and ways you can learn Google Analytics. If you are just starting out, I recommend that you learn about the basic reports first before moving on to the more advanced options. The default reports provide many insights. You'll be able to make informed decisions about how to customize your implementation if you take the time to learn Google Analytics.

Bottom of Form

rich_text    
Drag to rearrange sections
Rich Text Content
rich_text    

Page Comments