Free Complete Google Analytics Training

Free Complete Google Analytics Training

There are different tools and methods to optimize the content of a website, a practical and free example is the use of Google Analytics. This tool allows you to analyze data by providing a series of reports on the users of the website. Because the work of the website is not limited to launching and producing content. Therefore, it is necessary from time to time to review the performance of the website and the behavior of its users. By learning and using the free Google Analytics training, it will be possible to achieve this. In this article we present and explain this practical tool and its new generation called Google Analytics 4.

What is Google Analytics?

We always need a statistical community to review performance and analyze various concepts. Because in fact it is statistical data that allows us to verify and even predict behaviors. The Google Analytics tool was developed with the aim of allowing website administrators to access these statistics and figures. With the help of word analysis in Google Analytics, you can even see the statistical nature of the data. This tool was introduced by Google in 2005 to allow webmasters to analyze the website. Four years after its launch, Google Analytics has become the most widely used website analysis tool.

The variety of professional tools and reports provided in Google Analytics allows you to work on different parts of the website. Monitor the behavior of site users and analyze site posts. Indeed, we have access to a professional statistician provided and supported by Google. Google Analytics GA4 is the latest version of this software with new features.

Why should we use Google Analytics on the website?

As a webmaster, you must care about which pages of your website are most frequently visited. Or which of the entry channels your site users used to access your site. How much time each user spent on your website. Which page did your users last visit? What operating system and browser did your site user use to use your site's functionality? The website administrator should familiarize himself with Google Analytics to access statistics on such important issues.

Because with this information, you can determine the weak and strong points of the website and determine the website conversion rate as well as incoming user traffic. It even finds out the problems with your content and provides the ability to track advertising campaigns. Because maybe you paid a fee to promote your website on another website. But after checking the statistics provided by Google Analytics, you will notice that the number of users arriving at the site through this channel is very low. This allows you to abandon the advertising project and focus on another way to attract users.

Who are Google Analytics users?

Google Analytics is a convenient and useful tool for website administrators. Site administrators are always striving to attract users and determine their needs. What is particularly important to them is to increase traffic to the website. But besides the website administrator, the statistics and reports provided by Google Analytics can also be useful to SEO specialists, webmasters, digital marketers and user experience specialists.

For example, an SEO specialist who knows Google Analytics is one step ahead of his colleagues. Because such a person can obtain valuable information about the behavior of website users and create his content based on this. Thus, the content to be created will be targeted and adapted to the needs or interests of the website users.

Google Analytics Applications

By now, you should be familiar with the Google Analytics tool and the many features of this software. The reason why this Google tool is useful is its use of statistical data. Valuable information can be obtained by examining statistical data and calculating various factors. Below is a list of the most important uses of Google Analytics. Each of these uses can be a reason to start using Google Analytics and learn how to use it. Of course, there are several websites that offer free or paid Google Analytics training to their users. Therefore, you can use these analytics training courses depending on the statistics and experience you need.

• Determine the characteristics of the site's customers.
• Identify the geographical location of the users.
• Determine popular website pages
• Determine the conversion rate of visitors to customers.
• Increase the speed of your website
• Determine the number of visits to the website.
• Identify the best marketing techniques.
• Determine the length of stay on site.
• Identify popular content
• Determine the quality of the content based on user behavior.

The use and role of Google Analytics in SEO

One of the most important uses of Google Analytics is to use its statistical and analytical data to improve the SEO of the website. There is a significant link between the reports received and the content of the site. Of course, the link between SEO and Google Analytics is not direct and is based on a number of statistical reports. In other words, these reports help us determine the SEO goals of the website and create our content with the aim of improving the ranking of the website in Google results. These valuable reports include:

1- Examine landing pages and their titles

Google Analytics offers a number of valuable statistics on landing pages. These statistics help the SEO to determine which part of the website has received the most attention from users. Or if the source of entry is the majority of users and you focus more on these pages and their associated keywords. It is even interesting to know that Google Analytics is able to determine the ranking of your website for any keyword.

2- Pay attention to conversion rate reports

The conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors who turn into customers who purchase products on the website. Of course, for some other websites, the conversion rate means that the user fills out a form. However, the conversion rate report can serve as a beacon to show the SEO path. Because there are sites that make low sales despite high page traffic. The SEO employee must define his SEO goals keeping this report in mind.

3- Statistics on natural user searches

To complete the content of the site, many articles are written and various keywords are used. However, the impact of these keywords varies and some of them play a more important role in improving the ranking of the website. Google Analytics provides detailed statistics on natural user searches. This statistic shows which keyword generated the most traffic to the website. The SEO manager then uses this report to identify important keywords and focus more on them. The end result of this work is to optimize the content and improve the SEO of the site.

4- Information related to the internal search engine of the website

For large sites with a lot of content, the use of an internal search engine is necessary. However, industry analysis is important for Google Analytics. Because this tool determines the keywords that website users searched for on Google, but the corresponding page was not available on your website. This information helps search engine optimization to create new content according to the user's needs.

5- Website speed analysis

One of the most important factors in ranking a website is its speed. Because the patience threshold of Internet users is low and if the page takes too long to load, they will stop visiting your website. Google Analytics professionally checks and analyzes your speed and creates a report on possible problems. The SEO person can use this statistic and fix the problem.

6- Analysis of traffic received by mobile phone

The SEO employee's goals must be consistent with the optimization of the website content for users. Most of the site's visitors also use mobile phones to browse and navigate the Internet. Google Analytics can be used to determine the percentage of mobile audience of the website. These statistics help you adapt the content of your production to the practical tools of the audience.

Full familiarity with the basics of Google Analytics.

To get the most out of a tool, you must be familiar with its basic terms and concepts. Google Analytics is no exception to this rule and has a number of basic terms and concepts. Being familiar with these basic concepts will help you learn Google Analytics training faster. Below are some of the most important basic concepts of Google Analytics, each of which we will briefly explain.

Dimensions

This last term is used in Google Analytics to designate the characteristics and particularities of the website or mobile application. User exit page, user time, browser type, and user time are some examples of important dimensions in the Google Analytics tool that can take different values.

Meetings

The period is the specific period during which the user is in contact with your website or phone application. During this period, all user interactions such as events, number of pages visited, and number of user purchases are examined. If the user's inactivity time on the site exceeds 30 minutes, the period will be closed and a new period will be opened when the user returns.

New Sessions

New periods are used to estimate the number of first visits from new users. Since some users may access the site with a new IP address, word search is used.

Visitors

Anyone who visits your website is considered a visitor. Visitors are also divided into two categories: new visitors and returning visitors. Any user who has already taken a course on your website is considered a returning visitor.

Metrics

Metrics are basically the internal characteristics of a dimension that can be measured as a total or a rate. The average time a user spends on a website and the number of page views are two common examples of metrics.

Pageviews

Pageviews are the total number of times a page is viewed. Interestingly, this value also takes into account repeat visits from a returning user.

User

Anyone who visits your website or app for at least one session is considered one of your users.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is a measure of how successful your website is at retaining users. Because the bounce rate shows the percentage of people who viewed only one page of the site. This means that the user entered the website and closed the page without interacting with your website. A low bounce rate for a website or app indicates that the website is successful at retaining users.

Acquisition

The method you use to acquire users is called acquisition. For example, some users of your website were attracted via the Google search engine. But in between, there are also people who may have typed and entered the website address directly into the browser.

Pages/sessions

The average number of pages viewed during a period is called pages/periods. When calculating this key figure, repeat visits to the same page are also taken into account.

Goals

One of the most interesting features of Google Analytics is the definition of goals. This means that you can define a set of goals and measure the success of the site in achieving these goals. For example, check how many or what percentage of users on the site complete the specific desired process.

Conversions

A conversion is when a user achieves their goals and becomes a customer or a regular user of the website. Registering a user on the website or making a purchase are examples of user conversion and achieving the goals of website administrators.

Bells

Campaigns allow you to set personal parameters for a specific page of the website and get more information about it. This feature is very important and useful to check the performance of new and special pages.

Behave

This metric allows you to check user behavior and synchronize the content of the page according to your needs. This means checking user behavior, identifying their needs and optimizing the content of the website.

Introduction of Google Analytics GA4

The universal or public version of Google Analytics (Universal Analytics), despite all its possible uses, was weak in terms of data protection. This led Google to think about offering a new version of this tool called Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Even Google has set a deactivation date for the previous version of this tool and we have no choice but to use version 4 of this tool.

What is GA4 or Google Analytics 4?

In plain language, GA4 is the new generation of the Google Analytics tool that we presented at the beginning of this article. The difference is that Google has reduced its reliance on cookies in this new version. Therefore, a centralized approach is used to track users across websites and apps. To achieve this improvement, Google has used models to fill in the gaps and discussions on machine learning. This means that Google Analytics can continue to interact with the user even if the user does not accept the cookie from the website. This is of course done while preserving the privacy of your data.

Google Analytics 4 Release Time

In July 2019, Google released the beta version of GA4 to the media. Of course, not all marketers and site administrators have used this new version. However, despite the practical role of this tool and the fact that the previous version is disabled, we have no choice but to use the new Google Analytics training.

What is the reason for upgrading from Universal Analytics to GA4?

The dependence of companies on Google Analytics and the use of its statistical data is no secret. Because website managers need statistics from this tool to check their online performance. Of course, Google Analytics version 4 can also provide similar statistics; but Google has reworked the data model on which Universal Analytics is based.

As a result, it is almost impossible to transfer data from Universal Analytics to GA4, which is a big problem for website managers. Because some managers collect statistical data over several years and follow certain seasonal trends. It is therefore neither economical nor logical for these people to start from scratch. The reason for these changes was of course the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018. This law required companies to take user privacy seriously and change the way they handle their data. That is why Google has found a logical answer to these questions with the introduction of Analytics 4. In other words, compliance with GDPR regulations and the use of artificial intelligence have solved the problem of tracking users who are not satisfied with tracking and accepting cookies.

Training on how to create a user account and register a website in Google Analytics.

In most Google Analytics Zero to Hundred training courses, you will find explanations on how to create an account and register the website. Because these tutorials are among the most basic steps to use this practical tool. In this article, we will explain how to create a user account in Google Analytics. which includes the following steps:

1- To create an account in Google Analytics, you need a Google or Gmail account. So the first step is to log in to your Google account.

2- Activate your filter and go to the main page of Google Analytics.

3- Select the “Connect for analysis” option and click on the “Start measurement” option on the page that appears. (according to the image below)

4- In the new step, access a page as shown below. In this step, you will be asked to choose a name for your Google Analytics account. The name you choose must be your own name, that of a company or that of another person. It is better to know that with each account of this tool, you can monitor several different websites or applications.

On this page, you will find options that determine the extent of Google's access to your website. It is recommended that you do not enable any of these options to ensure that the information you receive from Google about your website is complete. Finally, click on the following option.

5 – In this step, you must choose the name you want for your real estate section. It is preferable that the name you choose matches the name of the company so as not to make mistakes on your next visits when analyzing data from multiple websites. It is possible to have multiple property names for a Google Analytics account.

In the next point, you must select your time zone. Once the drop-down menu is available, select the country Iran and click Next. Do not worry about possible errors because you can change these details later in the admin area.

In the image above, there is an option called "Show advanced options" that contains additional settings. For example, if you do not plan to use the new version of Google Analytics 4, you must enable the “Create a Universal Analytics property” option and enter the site domain in the specified field. Then check the second option or simply create a Universal Analytics property and click Next to proceed to the next step.

6- On the new page, you will need to enter information about your company. First, open the Industry Category drop-down menu and select the area of ​​practice of your website from the available categories. The “Company Size” section refers to the number of employees in your company. In the third part, you must specify how you use Google Analytics. Of course, the service of this tool also gives you the opportunity to select all the options. This gives you access to the most complete information possible. Finally, click on the “Create” option.

7- On the last page of the steps to create a Google Analytics account, you will be presented with the rules and regulations. Check the box for these rules and click on the Accept option.

Your Google Analytics account has been created and all you need to do is take the Analytics statistics code and place it in the header of your website.

Important tips for using Google Analytics

• Unfortunately, Google Analytics is not available in Iran and you need to change the IP address to log in and create a user account. After starting, turn on the filter switch.
• To use Google Analytics, you need to know how to use UTMs correctly. UTMs are basically parameters that help Google Analytics identify the source of a user's traffic. The effectiveness of this section will be determined if you intend to optimize your ad.
• All parts of Google Analytics are in English and the site administrator must have sufficient knowledge of English to use the different parts.
• Google Analytics has difficulty identifying the source of traffic for some online store customers. This problem is related to websites that have a payment gateway and the user must make a payment to purchase a product.

Introduction to the important parts of Google Analytics

If you have a Google Analytics account or if you give access to someone else's account, you can access the Google Analytics application environment. This page contains the menu and several sections that you need to analyze customer behavior. In this section, we introduce the most important parts of Google Analytics.

1- Section (All Accounts (All Website Data)

This section applies to all the accounts that you have in Google Analytics or that someone else has given you access to. Because your main specialty may be to work with this tool and check the behavior of customers or users of different websites. Therefore, the first step is to select the account associated with this website and select the option "All Website Data". This will take you to the Google Analytics page specific to the desired website.

2 – Search fields

There are two ways to start analyzing the data and access the different parts of the Google Analytics tool. Use the menus on the left side of the page or enter the desired page using the search box at the top of the panel.

3 – Insights section

When you select the Insights section, Google Analytics processes our data using artificial intelligence and shows us information. These views contain information about the performance of the Web.

4 – User Choice

This option allows you to understand the statistics about the number of users who have accessed your website during a specific and selected period. This means that it is clear how many people have entered the site and used its facilities during that particular period. Even if a user visits your website several times a day, only one number is taken into account; unless you enter the site with a different IP address.

5 – Session Option

Once you enter and open the Google Analytics environment, you will see a number called Sessions. This number basically indicates the number of user sessions. But what is the difference between the session number and the user? In the previous section, we said that the user represents the number of people who have entered the website during a certain period of time. However, the session determines each time the user enters the site.

This means that if a user enters the website and does nothing for thirty minutes, his previous session will end. However, once the same user logs in and reactivates, a new session is created for them. So it makes sense that the number of sessions is always higher than the number of users.

6 – Bounce Rate Section.

One of the most important topics in articles about how to use Google Analytics is the term bounce rate. Bounce rate is the percentage of users who leave the page for various reasons once they enter the website. The lower the bounce rate of a website, the more successful the website will be in attracting and retaining its users. Google Analytics creates a bounce rate for a user when they have only one interaction. The expected interactions of this tool include the following three types of activities:

Page views: Non-repeat visits by users to the pages of the website.

Event: Execute the behavior defined by the site administrator, performed by the user

Transaction: Type of visit to a website on product purchase pages that results in an electronic payment. (This will reduce the bounce rate).

7 – Session Duration Option

In the previous parts, we explained the session. However, this option calculates the average duration of the periods and divides it by the total number of periods.

8 – Currently Active Users Option

This option displays the number of users who are online and currently on our website and visiting various pages.

9 – Most Active Pages Option.

This section shows the pages of the website that are currently being used by most users.

10 – Real Time Option

The term “RealTime” is a common term in Google Analytics training and refers to real-time reports. This means that by consulting this section, you can check the status of your website in real time. From this Google Analytics menu, you can get various reports, some of which are mentioned below:

• Overview of the current status of the page.
• Geographic location of active users on the site.
• Report related to the source or channel of user input (direct address or Google search) and...

11 – Audience option

You may want to see how long the user has been on your site. Or do you check how many users have visited the page again after the first visit? Which users of the site are interested in and how many of them are active? You can find answers to these questions and a number of other valuable reports in the “Audience” section. This information helps you better understand the behavior of your users.

12 – Purchase option

The purpose of this option is to attract users. This means that the way in which users accessed the website is specifically checked. Detailed statistics about visitors via the landing page can be extracted in this section. Or how many users were attracted to the site through advertising campaigns and became customers.

13 – Behavioral option

Google’s entire effort in presenting websites is to create an appropriate user experience. After getting to know the target audience in the previous section, it’s time to check user behavior. This is exactly what the “Behavior” option does, that is, information about the pages visited by the user determines the bounce rate and the level of interaction with the site pages.

The reports in this section contain graphs that show the history of user behavior. From this menu, you can also check the identification of the most visited pages, the time spent by users on this page and even the loading speed of the pages.

14 – Conversion possibility

The most important feature of Google Analytics for online stores is the analysis of conversions. The Conversions option in the menu of this tool provides reports on visitor-user or user-customer conversion. This report plays an effective role in analyzing the performance of commercial websites.

15 – Attribution option

The “Attribution” entry is one of the new menus in Google Analytics. This option is designed to better distribute advertising and obtain the right view of customers and the right performance of digital marketing campaigns. Visit the Google Analytics training sales pages for complete information on the reports and the use of this menu.

16 – “Discover” section.

It is easier for people with sufficient knowledge of English to learn Google Analytics tutorials. Because the Discover menu of this tool contains a complete guide to learn Google Analytics in English.

17 – Administrator Option

As a website administrator, you may be very busy and need to delegate tasks related to the management of the Google Analytics account to someone else. In the administrator area, it is possible to perform tasks related to the management of Google Analytics accounts. These tasks include creating a new Analytics account and granting access to other people.

18 – Customization Section

You can make customizations in this section of the Google Analytics tool. This option usually includes the following four sections:

• Dashboards section – Create a custom desktop
• Custom Reports section – Create custom reports with specific metrics and criteria
• Saved Reports section – Access previously saved reports
• Custom Notifications section – Set up personal notifications and configure email delivery for them

In the previous sections, we learned about Google Analytics 4 and its role in analyzing website user behavior. We realized that this tool can provide site administrators with a number of useful reports and information. With the help of these reports, administrators or SEOs can determine the next goals of the website by studying the behavior of its users. For example, which part of the website is most interesting to users, or what time zone and what tool these users use to view the website content. Of course, to understand Google Analytics 4 reports, you need to be familiar with a number of terms and concepts. Therefore, in this section, we provide a brief explanation on how to read the report in GA4 and its different sections.

Learn how to analyze Google Analytics 4 reports

Soon after connecting your website to Google Analytics 4, this software will provide you with a number of useful reports. Enter Google Analytics 4 and select the desired website. Then click on the “Reports” option from the menu on the left side of the program. This displays an overview of several reports related to different parts of the website. Each of these sections contains detailed and comprehensive information about user behavior. Let’s take a look at some of the information contained in these sections.

1- Storage area

The Retention section displays a series of reports on the total number of users who entered, exited, and returned to the site. For example, in the first graph, we can see the statistics on the total number of users on the site and the number of people who return. The cohort reports can be viewed in the Pages graph. In other words, if you click on each part of the graph and its data, you will see complete information about the date and time the user entered the site, as well as the time they re-entered the site.

Displaying the percentage of users who re-entered the site, as well as the time they entered and exited, is one of the other reports in this section. By simply scrolling down the page, you can see the level of engagement of returning users and analyze it in detail by clicking on the time and part of the graph.

2. Demographics sections

Another important report in the Reports section is the demographic or personal information of users, including their country, gender, age, etc. These reports are more important when organizing a landing page or advertising campaign as well as the performance and behavior of users of different age groups. and I want to know their characteristics. Because the development of future applications of the site is based on these strategic reports.

To access more comprehensive reports on the graph, you need to click on the "Demographic Details" option. For example, the graph of users from different countries is marked with different colors. By clicking on each of these colors, you will view the information about that country in more detail. Of course, there are additional categories in the Demographic Details section that can be viewed by scrolling down the page. These categories include the following:

Country

City

Gender

Region (religion)

Old

Income

Language

To access this information about the users of the website, you need to click on it. You can even consider a specific period and request relevant information for the same period. This information and reporting can be used, for example, if you are planning to conduct a targeted advertising campaign. Or, for example, designate a group of users who will have more income for the site, focus on it and invest in it. Or, it has used marketing ploys to encourage nearby users to buy and use the site's facilities.

3- Technological component

The "Tech" or "technology" option consists of providing reports on the type of browser and device with which the user accessed the website. For example, it determines how many users accessed the site using a personal system, a tablet, a mobile phone or a laptop. For more detailed reports on this information, see the Details section. This information is essentially a type of dimension presented graphically to facilitate analysis. Of course, the same graphical information can also be displayed in separate tables and in the form of specific categories. The reports in this section can capture all the information about the following in full or as a percentage:

Browser

Attendance Rate

New Users

Total Revenue

Users (total number of users)

Session Engagement (number of interactions per session)

Event Count

However, these are not all the features of Google Analytics 4 and you can get more information at the date and time you want. For example, if you click on the Browser option and select the Device Category option, you can determine the type of device the user is using to access the site. This information indicates the user experience of the website for mobile or desktop users. Of course, if you change the report categories, the user information will change again.

Final Word

All websites and applications available in the virtual space are created with the aim of interacting with the user and satisfying their needs. Even an online store owner needs to interact with the user to sell his product. Because first, you have to attract the user and then make him a regular customer. In between, it is important to check and identify the user behavior. This is possible with the use of Google Analytics and the use of its tools. Because different parts of this tool help you access a range of statistics about your users’ performance. You can use these statistics to understand the user behavior and try to improve the website ranking.