There is a whole bunch of great things going on in my world right now leading me to be pretty busy, but I came across something that was too good to pass up so a new post was warranted. Web analytics are probably one of the most useful tools for folks that make their living on the web, regardless of whether you are directly working for an association or simply providing services to them. Sure, you could use the high-power pay for services like WebTrends, Omniture, or CoreMetrics, and in some cases they may provide additional features, functions and ease of use that warrant the price. However, for many of us Google Analytics is the tool of choice – and for good reason it’s free, it’s feature-rich, and it’s pretty easy to integrate and use.

Regardless of how good it is and how easy it is to use, it’s still a pretty complicated tool to use effectively. To use a metaphor, in the hands of a regular person a hammer is a hammer and a saw is a saw. In the hands of a craftsman those two tools can build houses and furniture. Unfortunately in order to become a true craftsman you have to put in time to gain the experience necessary to earn that respected designation. Using analytics packages aren’t too much different. It’s easy enough to sign-up for an account an copy-and-paste some code to paste into a template. It’s even easier to check-in on the results periodically. But those two attributes don’t make you an analytics expert and also don’t make your website, marketing campaigns or product sales any more effective. What’s needed is more knowledge.

Enter Google Conversion University, and more specifically an online course in web analytics techniques and Google Analytics implementation, administration, and analysis tools that was very recently introduced. Now you can not only implement Google Analytics but also gain a much better understanding on how to use both it and the results to make some lasting and impactful changes to your web initiatives. In addition, if you are a really passionate user and want to prove your “Googleness” you can even use the learning to prepare you for the Google Analytics IQ (individual qualification) test.

The online presentations are a pretty good example of solid online learning. Granted they lack any sort of job aids or formative assessments – to assess per lesson knowledge transfer, but they include reasonable learning objectives and a modicum of interactivity. Overall, they are well executed, pretty effective and definitely worth a look especially if you user or responsible for or interested in web analytics.