I am in the middle of a teaching bonanza. Since last week I have been working with 90 students on 3 unique programs, with 13 days teaching out of 14 available weekdays. Somehow I thought that in between I would be able to write a coherent blog post with my spare time in between. That doesn't seem to be working very well.
Instead, I am simply going to share resources that I have shared with my Google Analytics beginner and intermediate classes. These are additional resources that are based on the discussions we had during our 8 classroom hours learning the ins and outs of Google Analytics.
At some point in the future, I would like to clean up this list and make it more comprehensive. But that will need to be another day.
Google Analytics Resources
If you have a resource that you think should also be included here, please do share in the comments. I will also share with my students and give you credit of course!
Basic Google Analytics Term Glossary
If you would like to get a better understanding of some of the terms we use in Google Analytics, the following resources are helpful:
- Google Analytics term glossary – http://www.koozai.com/blog/analytics/understanding-basic-google-analytics-terminology-9001/
- Periodic Table of Google Analytics – https://www.datadrivenu.com/google-analytics-guide/
Filtering Your Data
- To filter yourself, start with what is my IP: http://www.whatismyip.com/ to get your external IP address
- How to exclude IP addresses from analytics results – http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=55572
- Opt out of the SEMalt Crawler – http://semalt.com/project_crawler.php
- Here is a brand new tool for filtering SPAM bots – http://www.simoahava.com/spamfilter/
Demographics Reports
To enable demographics on your website, here are some places to get started.
- How demographics are gathered: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2954071?hl=en
- Code to put on your site for demographics: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2444872?hl=en&utm_id=ad#app
Event Tracking Guide
- Universal Analytics Event Guide – http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/eventTrackerGuide.html
- Classic Analytics Event Guide – https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/eventTrackerGuide
- Automatic Event Tracking without Google Tag Manager – http://www.analyticsengine.net/
- Auto event tracking with tag manager – http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2013/10/03/google-tag-manager-auto-event-tracking/
Social Interaction Tracking
- Social Interactions tracking in GA – https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/gaTrackingSocial
E-Commerce Tracking Code
- Google Analytics E-Commerce for classic and universal analytics – https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/gaTrackingEcommerce
- Google Analytics E-Commerce for Tag Manager – https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/3002596?hl=en
Channel definitions
- Understanding the default channel definitions provided by Google: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3297892?hl=en
Campaign URL Tracking
- Shorten Your Links: http://bitly.com/
- Google AdWords URL Builder – https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en
- Definitive guide to campaign tracking – http://www.annielytics.com/guides/definitive-guide-campaign-tagging-google-analytics/
Internal Site Search
- How to set up Google Site Search – http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1012264
Competitive intelligence tools
In addition to Google’s benchmarking tool, here are some other tools to consider for gathering competitive intelligence. The Google tool is anonymous, and these tools allow you to see named competitors. We highly recommend that you triangulate this data with your own numbers for more complete understanding.
- SEM Rush – http://www.semrush.com/
- SpyFu – http://www.spyfu.com/land
- Compete – https://www.compete.com/
Tools for Creating Landing Pages and A/B Split Testing
In addition to Google’s content experiments, there are tools with more robust
- Unbounce – http://unbounce.com/
- LeadPages – http://www.leadpages.net/
- A/B Test Calculator – http://abtestguide.com/calc/
Tools for Checking the speed of your website
Google Analytics has a page speed tool that measures page load time for a random sample of visitors. While you might find this report useful, we also recommend looking at these tools as well:
- GT Metrix – http://gtmetrix.com/
- Google Pagespeed Insights – https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
Guides for upgrading to Universal Analytics
- Analytics Ninja Guide – http://www.analytics-ninja.com/blog/2015/04/smooth-google-analytics-migrations-using-google-tag-manager.html
- Upgrading to Universal Analytics – http://www.v9seo.com/blog/2014/07/15/upgrading-google-universal-analytics/
Google Tag Manager Resources
- Google Tag Manager – https://www.google.com/tagmanager/
- To get started with Google Tag Manager, check out the Google Developer guide – https://developers.google.com/tag-manager/quickstart.
- For more explanation and advanced procedures, you can’t beat the Simo Ahava Blog – http://www.simoahava.com/
WordPress Plugin for Google Analytics
This plugin is excellent for those who use WordPress, but don’t have the desire to implement Google Tag Manager.
- Google Analytics by Yoast – https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/google-analytics/
Google Analytics Cookies
- Visual representation of the Google Analytics Cookie – http://visual.ly/google-analytics-cookie
Understanding Google Analytics Account Access Levels
- Google’s explanation of access levels – http://analytics.blogspot.com/2013/03/enhancing-google-analytics-access.html
Google Analytics Gallery
- Hand picked resources from Google Analytics power users – https://www.google.com/analytics/gallery/
Jeff’s Writing and Presentations
- Jeff’s website – https://www.datadrivenu.com/
Internal Storytelling (analytics vs. reporting)
Forming a digital measurement strategy
Google Analytics 101
Google Analytics for Bloggers
There are obviously hundreds more resources to share. This list is a little rushed, so please do let me know what else you think should be added!
