What a Blogger Learned in Google Analytics Master Class
Filed in: Google, Web Development — March 19th, 2010
I did not discover the power of Google Analytics, until the Google Analytics Master Class.
Previously, I used Google Analytics to tell me how many visitors I have, where are visitors came from, what are the traffic sources, what search engine keywords lead to my site…
Google Analytics is much more powerful than that! From the Google Analytics Master Class, I learned some cool tips which would benefit me, as a blogger.
1. Set your GOAL
Do NOT check your site’s pageview or unique visitors! The 1st thing you wanna do is — “set a goal”!
Ask yourself about “what do you want to achieve with your site?” Is it more orders (e-commerce), more readers (blog), or anything else?
The site traffic data is meaningless if you don’t have a “GOAL”.
2. Track your visitors
Your every site visitor is unique. Use Google Analytics “segments” and “funnels” to track, compare and understand your visitors. Learn their behavior on your site against your GOAL.
3. Testing.. testing.. testing..
Use Google Optimizer to test your web designs to find out which design is the best for your GOAL. You can use a simple A/B test or the more complex Multivariate Experiment.
Here are example of Advanced Segments you can apply.
When picking a test page, pick the one has high traffic. Be bold to test different designs. Test big things that really make a different. Small changes are not worth to test at 1st stage.
4. The Google trend search tools
Find out what are the current hot topics related to your business using Google. All tools are free!
From the Google search, you can click “show options” to get the “Timeline” and “Wonder wheel” related to your searched keywords. Timeline, shows the “hotness” of the keyword. Wonder wheel, shows the related keywords.
For research, you can then use YouTube Insight (your own videos only) to find out the video statistics. (I never know that!)
Use Google Trends for Website to find out a website’s traffic and keywords. Google Insights, in the other hand, to dig further information about the keywords.
My two cents
After the Google Analytics Master Class, I learned that I could use GA and other Google tools to:
- monitor & improve ads clicks
- optimize blog design
- research for blog topicsx
Google Analytics Master Class is indeed the most meaningful event I have ever attended! 
P.S. Google Analytics Master Class slides are available here or you can direct download the all the slides here (thanks, @icednyior!)
Tags: gamc, Google, google analytics, google analytics seinars, google analytics training, web analytics
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March 20th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
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March 20th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
good day,
just joined the Google Analytics and still learning the system, nice GA's info I've had it here
March 20th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Make sure to take the test ya! (You can pause the test wan hehe)
March 20th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
what? can pause? you mean.. we can cheat?! LOL
March 20th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
ya, GA is a powerful system
March 20th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
i like this site and and most importan idea for seo!
March 21st, 2010 at 1:24 am
i've always been unsure about whether to use goals or not, your article has clarified things for me, great read thanks!
March 22nd, 2010 at 2:52 pm
well, shows you how to apply the measurement techniques and quantitative methods of web analytics to online communities. …
March 23rd, 2010 at 8:10 pm
I didnt know we can sets goals on GA. Thanks for the info. Now i can sets goals for my blog and set up some strategies to gain it. Of course with the data taken from GA as well
March 31st, 2010 at 4:56 am
Disqus has always been my favorite commenting system. The speed of it always amazes me.Disqus is under active development.it is a listen to user feedback.