I’ve completed the first part (of four) areas in the Google Analytics Academy – Advanced Google Analytics course.

I’ve come to several conclusions:

  1. the information builds nicely upon material covered in the Basic Google Analytics course.
  2. at the bottom of the page of each section there is a Read further section.  the relevant topics link to pages (mostly at Google) that go into greater detail on the subject discussed in the lesson.
  3. in reading through the relevant topics one gets a feel for the importance of accurate data.  and by accurate I mean numbers based on the true gargantuan data sets high traffic volume sites generate.  Google’s “Google Analhytics 360” (premium) product, which comes with a hefty price tag, provides the horsepower to process all the data as well as an impressive suite of tools to help make sense of it all.
  4. help make sense of it all, which I feel the Google Analytics Academy starts to achieve, but only so far.  there is no replacement for actual work experience in how to use this knowledge and these skill to better promote an online property.  they provide access to a nicely populated demo Google Merchandise Store account where you can see big numbers and goals and conversions and e-commerce and lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
  5. rabbit holes everywhere!  Google Adwords, Adsense, Google Search Console and they all mingle together.

The last part of part 1 discussed creating a measurement plan.  The measurement plan lines up the business objectives with the site analytics to monitor progress.  One cannot have an effective online strategy without a measurement plan.