Google Analytics IQ Lessons

Follow these lessons to prepare for the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (IQ) test or to simply become a more knowledgeable Google Analytics user. The presentations move quickly; use the Pause and Back buttons to make sure that you don't miss anything. You can click the Notes tab in the presentation to read what is being said. Access to a Google Analytics account is strongly recommended so that you can experiment and apply what you learn.

First Steps

Introduction to Google Analytics: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- what Google Analytics can do for your business or website
- how Google Analytics works
- how often your data is updated and how Google stores it
- about data confidentiality
Watch presentation (5:19 minutes)
Installing the Google Analytics Tracking Code: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- where to place the Google Analytics Tracking Code
- about website setups that require customization
- how to verify installation
Watch presentation (5:21 minutes)
Working with Report Data: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- how to set date ranges and comparison date ranges
- how to graph data and access report views
- how to quickly filter and sort data in reports
- when to use annotations
- how to identify metrics and dimensions
- how to segment data using Advanced Segments
Watch presentation (7:43 minutes)

Interpreting Reports

Pageviews, Visits, and Visitors: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- the differences between Pageviews, Visits, and Visitors
- how Pageviews, Visits, and Visitors are calculated
- the difference between Pageviews and Unique Pageviews
Watch presentation (4 minutes)
Time Metrics: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- how Time on Page and Time on Site are calculated
- how Avg. Time on Page and Avg. Time on Site are calculated
Watch presentation (2:30 minutes)
Traffic Sources: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- about the different kinds of traffic sources
- how to identify quality traffic
- how to identify revenue and conversion drivers
- what kinds of information to look for in keyword reports
- how campaign attribution works in Google Analytics
Watch presentation (6:09 minutes)
Content Reports: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- how to use the Pages and Content Drilldown reports
- how to use the Landing Pages report
- how to use and interpret the Navigation Summary report
- how to use and interpret the Entrance Paths report
Watch presentation (2:43 minutes)

Fundamentals

Account Administration: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- how to create, manage, and delete accounts
- best practices for managing accounts
- the differences between Administrators and Users
- when to create profiles
- how to create, manage, and delete profiles
Watch presentation (6:50 minutes)
Campaign Tracking and AdWords Integration: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- how to track campaigns using tagged links
- how to track AdWords campaigns
- when to use autotagging and how it works
- how to enable autotagging
- where to find AdWords data in your reports
- the expected kinds of data discrepancies between AdWords and Analytics data
- when and how to manually tag URLs
- how to use the URL Builder
- best practices for tagging links
Watch presentation (12 minutes)
Analysis Focus - AdWords: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- how to use the Clicks tab metrics in AdWords reports
- how to analyze the effect of search result position on performance
- how to track audio and TV campaigns in AdWords
- how to track ad performance
Watch presentation (6:57 minutes)
Goals in Google Analytics: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- the purpose of using goals, goal values, and goal funnels
- the different kinds of goals
- when to use each Goal URL Match Type
- how to assign meaningful values to goals
- how goal conversions differ from transactions
Watch presentation (10 minutes)
Filters in Google Analytics: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- when to apply filters in Google Analytics
- how filters act on data
- how to create custom filters
- the differences between the different kinds of filters (i.e. exclude, include, etc)
- how to filter Google AdWords traffic
- how to use filters and profiles together to track certain kinds of traffic
- best practices for using filters
Watch presentation (11 minutes)
Regex and Google Analytics: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- when to use regular expressions in Google Analytics
- how to use the most common metacharacters: dot, backslash, etc.
- how often your data is updated and how Google stores it
- some examples of common regular expressions in Google Analytics
Watch presentation (9:25 minutes)
Cookies and Google Analytics: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- how Google Analytics uses cookies
- the differences between persistent and temporary cookies
- the differences between first party and third party cookies
- the names of the Google Analytics cookies and the information they track
Watch presentation (11:37 minutes)
E-commerce Tracking: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- where to find ecommerce metrics in reports
- how to enable and track ecommerce
Watch presentation (4:30 minutes)
Domains and Subdomains: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- when to track across domains using the _link() method
- when to track across domains using the _linkByPost() method
- how to track across subdomains
- how to track across multiple domains with subdomains
Watch presentation (7:14 minutes)

In-Depth Analysis

Advanced Segmentation: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- how Advanced Segments differ from filtered profiles
- how to create and modify an Advanced Segment
Watch presentation (3 minutes)
Analytics Intelligence: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- how to interpret alerts
- the difference between automatic and custom alerts
- how to create a custom alert
Watch presentation (3:13 minutes)
Internal Site Search: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- why internal site search is important
- how to find site search information in your reports
- how to set up Site Search
- how Site Search metrics differ from the metrics in other reports
Watch presentation (7:30 minutes)
Event Tracking and Virtual Pageviews: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- when to use virtual pageviews versus event tracking
- how to generate a virtual pageview
- how to track an event using _trackEvent()
- the relationship between Categories, Actions, Labels, and Values
- best practices for setting up Event Tracking
Watch presentation (7:21 minutes)
Additional Customizations: What you'll learn
In this lesson, you will learn:
- how to change session timeout value
- how to change campaign expiration
- how to change campaign precedence
- how to add a search engine
- how to treat specific keywords and referrals as direct
Watch presentation (2:48 minutes)