Google Analytics is an excellent tool for companies looking to gain insights on their website performance and who is visiting. That’s because, with the data you collect, you can identify areas of opportunity and develop new marketing strategies based on visitor interactions.
But, when you’re new to the platform, it can be a little overwhelming. Without any real direction, it can be hard to know exactly where to start -- or know exactly what you’re looking at.
Luckily, you don’t have to navigate it all on your own. There are plenty of companies out there that can provide you with their expertise in Google Analytics. Whether you’re looking for someone to handle everything for you or simply provide you with the training to get started -- we’ve got you covered.
In this article, we’ll look at a few companies in the Pittsburgh area that offer Google Analytics training courses. We’ll then provide you with a quick 101 course on what Google Analytics is and why you should be using it to help get you started.
Here’s a quick look at what we’ll cover in this article:
If you’re local to the Pittsburgh area and looking for some Google Analytics training, you’ve come to the right place. In this section, we’ll look at a few different companies with locations in Pittsburgh.
Each of these companies can provide you with the education you need to get your feet off the ground with Google Analytics. They’re also great options if you’re looking to leverage their expertise in a more hands-off scenario.
UXAX is a user experience and analytics provider that can help you learn all of the ins and outs of Google Analytics. With a customized plan based on your business needs, you may walk into the training as a beginner, but when you walk out, you’ll be a pro.
About the Company
UXAX is located in Pittsburgh and provides its customers with a wide range of services. Beyond Google Analytics training, they offer services such as auditing, data quality, customer experience, and predictive technology.
The team at UXAX provides you with a new way to solve problems. Putting together their analysts and developers’ experience helps develop fresh and out of the box solutions -- you won’t get this service with other agencies.
Bounteous provides online and in-person training to help professionals learn everything they know about Google Analytics. Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or looking for something a little more advanced -- there’s a course available for you.
About the Company
Bounteous provides its clients with services that include strategy, design, engineering, analytics, and marketing. By looking at long term business goals, they strive to create customer experiences that deliver the results you’re looking for.
Bounteous has multiple locations across the globe, including one in the Pittsburgh area. Beyond training, you can also partner with Bounteous for services such as experience research, product information management, SEO & SEM, and much more.
Merkle has a partnership with Google that allows them to provide great insights and training opportunities. As a Google Analytics Certified Partner, Merkle has taught companies how to implement and utilize various products in the Google Analytics realm.
About the Company
Merkle is a customer experience management company that has been helping companies grow for over 30 years. They have locations across the globe, including an office, settled right here in Pittsburgh.
Their people-based marketing strategy will help any company improve personalization and see higher engagement and campaign results. Their services range from customer relationship management and user experience to data solution and analytics.
First and foremost, let’s start with the foundation: what is Google Analytics?
Simply put, Google Analytics is a web analytics tool designed to help you analyze and track your website traffic. It’s a free tool that can help you expand your marketing efforts through better understanding your site performance and traffic.
In addition to tracking your website performance and traffic, you can also gain insights into who is visiting your website. This can include information like geography, the device used, and browsing behaviors.
Once you have access to this data, you can begin to improve and build marketing campaigns around your customers’ actual actions.
To track website data, Google Analytics will place tracking code into your current website code. When a visitor comes to your website, this code can then follow what they are doing on your website and provide you with additional data on the user, including demographics.
There are a number of different ways that Google Analytics collects and processes data from your website, but these are the four primary ways:
Once you’ve added the Google Analytics code to your website, you’ll begin to gather customer data, and your dashboards will populate. These dashboards provide you with all of the critical data on your website and the people visiting to help you better understand site performance.
Once this data is collected, it is sent to your Google Analytics account and served to you in a digestible format. This allows you to quickly understand who is visiting your site, what they are doing, and how you can improve their future visits.
To get a little more in-depth about what data you can expect to collect with Google Analytics, let’s take a little closer. When talking about data collection, we’ll look at it in two separate views: default data tracked and more customized data.
There are plenty of different data points you can collect and track with Google Analytics. From the basic details such as age and gender to visitor behaviors and interactions, you can gain plenty of insights.
The following items are data points that you can collect with Google Analytics without much extra effort:
Google Analytics can provide you with powerful insights into how your customers are engaging with your site. Starting from where they came from, tracking each and every page they visited, to knowing exactly where they lost interest -- it can all be identified.
While this information is very valuable, especially for companies who have never had data reporting, there’s even more, you can learn from Google Analytics. By creating customized reports, you can take your learning to even higher heights.
Here are a few examples of how you can customize your Google Analytics reporting:
Always keep in mind when it comes to data, there are many restrictions and regulations out there. You’ll want to comply with everything that may apply to your site and have to understand that some data may not always be collected based on user preferences or locations.
Companies of all sizes are already using Google Analytics to help increase their online presence and improve their customer experience. So why aren’t you?
More than half of the top 10,000 websites are already utilizing Google Analytics in their marketing efforts. These are high performing sites that are likely improving their website experience on a regular basis with the information they’re learning from their monthly analytics -- just like you could be.
Let’s get down to it and start talking more about why you should make the move to utilize Google Analytics in your day-to-day business.
One of the most significant factors is to understand your website performance and who is visiting your site if we haven’t already hit this home on this one.
Once you start to understand who your customers are and how they are engaging with your current content, you can better market to them. A holistic view of who is visiting your site and how they are finding the products will also provide you with insight into what your customers’ journey looks like.
Understanding the customer journey is vital to moving visitors through the sales funnel, from acquisition to conversion.
Google Analytics is a perfect platform for gaining insights into your customers’ journey and targeting them based on their needs. It will also allow you to understand what efforts are working, what isn’t, and what areas need a little extra love.
Looking for Google Analytics benefits beyond merely the customer journey? Here are a few more to help persuade you:
The possibilities are nearly endless when it comes to Google Analytics. Once you have an understanding of how the platform works and how you can use those insights to grow your business -- you’ll be unstoppable.
Getting started with Google Analytics is relatively simple. The first thing you need to do is create a Google Analytics account. This can be done with your existing Google Account if you have one.
Once you’ve created your Google Analytics account, these are the next steps you’ll need to take:
Once you’ve set up the basics, you can start to create reports and dashboards to ensure you receive the data you’re looking for. These reports can provide you with quick stats on data such as acquisitions, behaviors, conversions, and more.
If you’re not sure exactly how to do all of this or need a little extra technical support, there are plenty of Google Analytics training courses that can help you get up and running.
Thank you for joining us for our Google Analytics 101 course -- so what do you think? Are you ready to become a Google Analytics pro?
While this article is a great starting point to learn the basics of Google Analytics, you may need a little more experience and training to become a pro. Luckily, the companies we’ve shared in this article are an excellent place for you to get started.
Once you start to dive in, you’ll learn there’s always something new to learn when it comes to Google Analytics. But with the right training and gaining a deeper understanding of the platform, you’ll be on your way to becoming a pro in no time.
So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start learning everything about Google Analytics today!
