What opportunities are you missing without a Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ) certificate? Whether you are an e-commerce professional, a blogger, or online business owner you will need analytics to help you make crucial decisions.
Google offers the best analytics tool that will come in handy when interpreting user behaviour. It collects a variety of metrics to help you know what is working, what is not, and how to maximise your website’s performance.
With so much riding on website analytics, you should master Google’s analytics tool. But where should you start? Trial and error will waste your time, and the best option is to take a Google Analytics course in Singapore.
In this article, we give you a complete guide into the Google Analytics course in Singapore. We will explore what you should learn, the benefits of a attaining your certificate, the resources you need, and so much more.
How Does Google Analytics Work?
Google’s analytics tool is a website analytics service, which tracks and reports on website traffic. The service has been around since 2005 shortly after Google acquired Urchin.
It works by including a block of JavaScript code on your web pages. As soon as a user views a page on your website, the code references a JavaScript file which executes the tracking operation for Analytics.
The tools lets you measure the ROI on your ad spend, and in tracking video, Flash, and social networking sites as well as applications. It offers information about the traffic grouped by acquisition, audience, behaviour, and conversions carried out on the website.
It is the dominant tool, and offers more metrics and data than any other analytics tool available today. This chart shows how Google Analytics compares with other analytics tools.
Source: Business 2 community
It works on several elements such as:
- Number of site visits
- The duration of each visit
- Source of the traffic
- Pages visited
Moreover, Google Analytics provides useful information in sections such as your users’ preferred section on your site, the keywords they used to get to your website, and the technical details of the visitor’s device. However, its rise to fame is its compatibility with other Google tools.
This makes it possible to combine Analytics with YouTube, Ads, or Blogger. Moreover, you also get amazing Analytics resources on Google Chrome.
A real-time analogy you can relate to:
Think of Google Analytics as a member card you’re required to fill at the local grocery store in Singapore. Whether or NOT they require you to enter your name, that piece of information is irrelevant to them. All they care about instead is your spending habit.
Through the card, the store wants to find out about your spending habits. They want to find out about your preferred day of the week for shopping. They want to find why you’re so loyal to a particular brand or why you prefer your pizza frozen.
With the information they get from you and hundreds of other members that also fill a similar card, the company will be able to make a few adjustments to their marketing strategy and their mode of operation as well, just to make you happy and get to attract even more customers of your kind.
Analytics tools help give you a complete view of your customers insights helping you grow your business to higher levels. It features advanced apps for learning about potential customers, products and lead conversion. You need to know the performance of its website, the customer’s reactions, and their competitor’s context.
So, What Exactly is Google Analytics and Why is it so Important to a Singapore Web Owner?
As the name suggests, Google Analytics is a web analytics tool offered for free by Google. It’s the tool web owners use to analyse their site traffic. Web analytics may sound like something of negligible importance, but there’s so much to it than you can afford to ignore. Its implications stretch far and beyond.
As with most companies, your website is at the centre of all the digital traffic you’re driving. Whether you’re running a search ad or social media ad, every single one of the visitors you attract will be landing on your website.
That means your website is the best place to look for a holistic view of how effective your marketing campaigns are. Keep in mind that all this information is provided for free. All you have to do is familiarize yourself with the tool and you’re good to go.
Google analytics helps us to optimise art marketplace in your business. You only need to connect it to your WordPress site and get the hundreds of metrics. With this program, you can use it to track highly relevant and specific conversion goals.
Google analytics is currently used by more than fifty per cent of the top ten thousand websites globally. It gives you the power to see the location of your website visitors, what they are doing in your site and how often they visit. This makes it one of the most popular analytical tools among the customers. It is free of charge.
As it stands, more than 50 million websites from every corner of the worlds are using Google analytics to keep track of their website traffic. So, if you’re NOT using it, then there’s a whole lot you’re missing in terms of positioning yourself favourably for web traffic. You can make a point to sign up today and be among the 50 million enjoying the indisputable benefits of tracking their web traffic.
Distinctions Between Metrics and Dimension
There’s a clear distinction between metrics and dimension even though people have a tendency of using the two terms interchangeably. First, metrics are nothing more than the statistics Google collects with regards to user behavior on your website, while dimensions are the numerous ways you’ll be viewing the numbers presented depending on the kind of business question you’re attempting to answer. In other words, dimensions tend to be more specific, whereas metrics is the generic data offered in crude form.
An example to help you understand:
Through Google analytics, it’s easy to tell by a casual glance the number of people your site is attracting. This information is important, but it doesn’t leave you with an idea of what to do to increase the number.
But if the information is presented in a granular form – like the number of visitors your website is attracting based on age, location, and interest, it’s possible to look at the data and develop a rough idea of how best you can adjust your campaigns to attract a more significant number of visitors.
Let’s say you come to find out that a great majority of the people visiting your website are women. The next logical thing to do is to start focusing on attracting more women. You can do this by switching your content to something women-centric and adjusting your social media campaign to start targeting women more.
The same applies to location and age. The information you get should help you figure out the best group of audience to start targeting, which should lead to more positive traffic results in the future. For this case, the statistical number provided in the crude form is the metric, while the granular presentation based on age or location is the dimension.
The Kind of Data You will be found on Google Analytics. The kind of data presented on Google analytics can be broadly classified into two:
• User Acquisition Data: This kind of data includes any information about your online users before they landed on your site. This includes their age, gender, location, and known interests.
• User Behavior data: User behaviour data includes any information on your users after they landed on your website. They include:
• Information on the length of time users spends on your site after landing on it.
• Information on the first and last page visitors spend on your site.• Information on their navigation pattern. Which path do they take upon landing on your page?
Importance of Google Analytics Course in Singapore
Why you should enrol for the course in Singapore? If you speak to certified professional, you will get tens f reason. However, they include:
1. Know Which Markets Are Working
The most important feature of Google Analytics is its ability to help you distinguish between the marketing activities that are working and those that are not. When you couple it with goal tracking, you will understand which digital marketing campaign is bringing in the intended ROI.
However, as much as you know the source of your traffic, you must set UTM parameters in line with your business objectives. By taking the course in Singapore, you will know how to set and use these parameters to your advantage.
2. Goal Tracking and Measurement
Setting out clear and SMART goals will determine the success of your digital marketing campaigns. The goals will give you a blueprint with which you should track key metrics such as the number of qualified leads, conversion rate, and ROI.
Taking the course will help you understand how to set up the different goals on Google Analytics. These goals are duration, destination, and pages per visit event. The resulting metrics will help you understand user behaviour as they browse through your website.
You will get a fresh perspective on the more important business activities and using goals to audit the necessity of each activity. You will know how to measure the overall success of a digital marketing campaign by knowing which goals to monetize.
3. Avoid Data Misrepresentation
How many times have you made the wrong decisions due to data misinterpretation? If you are not careful, the chances are that you could be using improper data collection methods. A Google Analytics course in Singapore will help you utilise an appropriate data collection method for your website.
For example, your e-commerce tracking software could be giving your different data from that of your shopping cart software. By taking the course, you will learn how to set up your account properly, collect useful data, and interpret it correctly.
This excerpt shows you how Google Analytics represents e-commerce tracking.
Source: Smart Now/
4. Know Your Traffic Sources
Personalisation is a big part of digital marketing in Singapore today. It allows brands to create wholesome experiences to increase brand awareness and engagement. Taking the course, will help you know the source of your traffic, which come in handy when creating personalised experiences.
You will get a variety of data right from the user’s geographical location, language, gender, interest, age, income, and more. The analytics tool will also help you know the type of device they are using to access your website. With time, you will be able to accrue enough information to create buyer personas.
These personas are instrumental in creating personalised experiences. You will learn how to interpret acquisition reports and how to track the user flow from all the traffic sources.
5. Understand User Content Preferences
Do you know which content you should be creating for your audience? Statistics show that the type and quality of your on-site as well as blog content will affect your SERP rankings and margins. It will be infuriating when you do not get the results.
For starters, you should have a consistent posting schedule, and use Google Analytics to gauge user behaviour. This way, you will know the content preferred by your target audience. By taking the course, you will be able to make data-driven decisions in your content planning and creating process.
6. Understand Targeted Marketing Campaigns
If your digital marketing strategy is to create content and wait, you are chasing the wind. Professional marketers today know that using targeted marketing campaigns is what will ensure success.
Google Analytics provides you with the necessary insights to optimise your conversions. While this does not end with targeted marketing campaigns, the information will be helpful throughout your content marketing journey.
7. Increase Conversions
If you are yet to take the course, the chances are that you are not utilising website analytics fully. For instance, if you run an e-commerce website, have you used Google Analytics e-commerce traction function?
It will provide you with useful information that will help you smooth out the buying channel on your platform. You will also be able to track the e-commerce checkout funnel and understand where the customers are dropping off during the buying journey.
This is a representation of how Google Analytics shows the conversion tracking report.
Source: SlideShare
Benefits of Google Analytics Certification
Since success in the online marketplace rides on website analytic data, here are the benefits of attaining the Google Analytics certification in Singapore:
1. Advanced Competency
With the certificate, also known as the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ) you will achieve mastery in using web analytics. Google has a set of videos that will take you through the software, from the basics to the advanced features.
Even if you have used a web analytics tool before, attaining GAIQ offers you a structured path to mastering its free analytics suite.
2. Competency Check
There is a huge difference between watching or reading online tutorials and mastering the material. While Google’s tutorial will cover everything, they are a preparation for the test. However, to pass the test, you must show that you have learned the material.
By taking the course in Singapore, you will be confident in your abilities in Google Tools, especially when you apply them professionally.
3. Resume Builder
Competency in Google Analytics is mandatory for all individuals looking to excel in digital marketing. Many people fluff their resumes when applying for jobs, and anyone can claim to have mastery in web analytics.
However, with GAIQ, you are sure to stand out from the other applicants. Better yet, there is no way of faking a Google certification, since the records are available online. This will surely give you the upper hand when competing for limited vacancies as well as internal promotions.
Other than that, if you are a freelancer, showing proof that you are Google certified will make people want to use your services. This way, you will get an edge over the competition.
4. Company Benefits
With GAIQ, potential employers will come after you since you can help them become and stay certified as a Google Partner. This status gives them specialised technical support from Google, exclusive products, and conference information only available to certified partners.
Moreover, they also get an official listing on Google, which helps to drive more business. However, they should have at least one individually certified employee to achieve and maintain partner certification status.
Continued status also depends on the customer’s positive feedback to Google. If you have the Analytics certification, you are sure to attract many job offers.
By gaining insider knowledge of how web analytics work, you will be able to apply it better in your profession. The bottom line is that you will get better prospects.
Google Analytics Course Modules in Singapore
There are various ways of preparing for your Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ) exam in Singapore. The Analytics Academy will help you learn about Google’s measurement tools to help you grow your business.
The instructors will help you learn how to interpret intelligent data collection and its analysis. The tutorials are taught in several modules:
Google Analytics for Beginners
Here you will learn the basic features of Google Analytics, which includes:
- How to create a GA account
- How to implement the tracking code
- Analysing basic reports
- Setting up goals
- Campaign tracking
Advanced Google Analytics
The Advanced Google Analytics module will teach you about advanced GA features. You also learn about more complex analysis and marketing tools.
GA For Power Users
The next module teaches and encourages the practice of actionable analyses to track business performance and identify areas you can improve your business.
Google Analytics 360
This module teaches you about the powerful features of Google Analytics that are not available in the standard product. You will gain insight into the benefits you stand to gain by integrating other Google Marketing Platform products, BigQuery and Google Ad Manager.
Other than this, you will get an introduction to Data Studio, and the fundamentals of Google Tag Manager. However, not all platforms that offer a Google Analytics Course in Singapore will follow these modules.
How to Get the Google Analytics Certification
Irrespective of the reason, having the GAIQ certification in Singapore is an advantage. Here are the steps you need for certification:
1. Sign up to Google Partners
Google Partners offers the perfect channel for Google’s collaborations and interactions with digital marketing agencies and freelancers. You can only attain your GAIQ if you have an account. Besides, it is free to create it.
However, if you are taking the exam for work and your company is a Google Partner, you should use your work email.
2. Research
You need a comprehensive working knowledge of the Google Analytics and digital analytics platforms to pass the GAIQ exam. You will get good material from the Google Academy resources, whether you are a beginner or an experienced user.
To pass, you need to revise on every aspect of the following Google IQ courses:
However, you will need to go beyond the course content to thoroughly learn and understand the material. You can find many free digital marketing resources to help you master the material to pass your GAIQ.
This ranges right from taking mock tests, signing up for podcasts and watching videos online, forums for help, case studies, and the official Google Analytics channel on YouTube.
3. Take the GAIQ Exam
The GAIQ is modular, which means that you can take the exam one topic at a time. Here is the process for taking the GAIQ test:
- Go to Google Partners
- Click on ‘Certificates’
- Click on ‘See Exams’
- Hover above the exam section and click on ‘Exam Details’
- Click on ‘Take Exam’
The exam will then start in your web browser with a 90-minute timer. Here are things to consider when before sitting for your GAIQ:
- You can pause but not restart the timer. However, you need to finish the exam 120 hours after starting
- You cannot flag questions and answer them later,
- You need a score of 80% or higher to pass, which is equivalent to 56 questions correct out of 70 questions
- If you fail, you will have to wait for seven days before retaking it
In the chance that you pass, you will get a unique GAIQ certificate. Your Google Partner profile will also be updated to reflect your certification status.
However, you need to retake the exam every year since Google requires that you refresh your certification each year.
Here is a video that offers step by step guide on how to get Google Analytics Certification.
Source: Loves Data
Factors to Consider When Picking a GAIQ Tutor in Singapore
The tutorials available on Google Academy are meant to help you be prepared when taking the tests. The tests, on the other hand, require that you have the practical expertise to pass. This is where third-party tutors come into play.
Here are several factors to consider when choosing a GAIQ tutor in Singapore:
Tutor’s Competence
The first thing that you need to consider is their certification status. You need to use a person who has already passed the exams. Moreover, you need to ensure that they have experience tutoring the module you want to sit for in the exam.
For example, if you are seating for the Power Users exam, the tutor needs to have passed the module and accrued experience in tutoring students as well as experience putting it to practice.
Quality of Resources
Preparing for the GAIQ exam is not a walk in the park. The chances are that if you are not GAIQ Analytics resources, ensure that you are getting your money’s worth. You can do this by researching the available resources and taking mock tests.
Course Content
The appropriate Google Analytics course content should cover all the topics in the Google Academy. Some of the essential topics the course needs to addresses include:
- Campaign tracking and Google Ads integration
- Internet site search
- Event tracking and virtual page views
- Motion charts
- Domains and sub-domains
- Custom reports
- Cookies, tracking code
- Regular expressions
- E-commerce tracking
- Regular expressions
- Filters, goals, funnels
- Traffic sources
- Interface navigation
- Accounts and profiles
With these topics covered, you will be set to get the right resources to sit for your GAIQ.
Google Analytics Courses in Singapore
For digital marketers, the data from Google Analytics is the proverbial “writing on the wall.” It would be too bad for you if you cannot comprehend the data to improve your brand. For this reason, enrol for a GAIQ course in Singapore.
Here are the top places you can enrol for a Google Analytics course in Singapore.
1. MediaOne Marketing
MediaOne Marketing is one of the best GAIQ tutors in Singapore. We have worked with some of the top brands in the Asia-Pacific region and tutored hundred of professionals. The course will help you prepare for the GAIQ in the most effective, interactive, and result-oriented fashion.
The GAIQ course includes:
- Lifetime access to the latest content
- Live instructor-led sessions
- Hands-on assignment and projects
- Research-based internship
- Placement assistance for fresher’s and digital marketing experts
- Round the clock trainer’s support on the discussion forum
Website: https://mediaonemarketing.com.sg/
Telephone: +65 6789 9852
Email: enquiry@mm.com.sg
Address: 4B Craig Road Singapore 089664
2. Impossible Marketing
Impossible Marketing provides valuable insights into their GAIQ course in Singapore. Theirs is a one-day classroom-based training assessment.
Students learn the foundations of Google Analytics, how it works, how to use the data in the reports and to conduct an analysis to improve their websites. The trainers conduct a live analysis to demonstrate how various factors that affect online traffic performance.
Impossible Marketing offers several modules:
- Module 1 – Introduction to Google Analytics
- Module 2 – Setup
- Module 3 – Different ways to install tracking code to your website
- Module 4 – A Dashboard walkthrough
- Module 5 – Reports analysis
- Module 6 – Campaign tagging
- Module 7 – Setting up alerts and account linking
- Module 8 – Live analysis
As a bonus, you will get insight into how to reduce the bounce rate. This includes website optimisation, marketing promotion analysis, campaign optimisation, and the different types of software to use. You will also get email support for six months and the ability to re-attend the class at a discounted rate.
Impossible marketing asks for $500 for the class, which you can pay 100% using SkillsFuture credit.
Website: https://www.impossible.sg/our-courses/google-analytics/
Telephone: +65 9374 0111
Email: enquiry@impossible.sg
Address: 14A Yan Kit Road, Singapore 088266
3. Equinet Academy
SkillsFuture Singapore has approved the Equinet Academy to offer a variety of digital marketing courses. Their GAIQ course is a two-day training workshop that is classroom-based, instructor-led, and hands-on. Its modules outline the benefits, features, and advantages of using web analytics.
As a student, the course will be beneficial in that you will discover why customers do the things they do online. By the end of the course, you will be able to present intelligent marketing insights to your team.
The course fees range from $500 to $900. However, you can apply for an SSG subsidiary, and you will not pay a penny.
Website: https://www.equinetacademy.com/digital-web-analytics-google-analytics-training-course/
Telephone: +65 6816 7831 / +65 6816 3016
Email: enquiry@equinetacademy.com
Address: International Plaza, 10 Anson Road, #25-08, Singapore 079903
4. General Assembly
General Assembly is another of the institutions that offer a comprehensive GAIQ course in Singapore. It teaches everything from the introduction to Google Analytics to how evaluating business performance.
The course starts with key metrics and basic terms, and slowly builds up a foundation of knowledge before you move on to the complex analytics techniques.
Website: https://generalassemb.ly/education/introduction-to-google-analytics/singapore
Telephone: +65 3158 9593
Email: singapore@generalassembly
Address: 79 Anson, Level 20, Singapore 079906
5. FutureMarketer
FutureMarketer offers the GAIQ course in Singapore, and it will help you improve your organisation’s digital marketing strategy. In the class, you will be exposed to the best practices and technical aspects of Google Analytics.
The best thing is that FutureMarketer uses real-life case studies. This puts you in a good place to pass your exams. FutureMarketer asks for SGD 895 plus GST.
Website: http://www.futuremarketer.co/public-workshops/google-analytics-training/
Telephone: +65 6653 8060
Email: training@futuremarketer.co
Address: 281 River Valley Road, #01-02, Singapore 238322
Salary of a GAIQ Professional
After attaining the GAIQ certificate, you will have the competency to use empirical data from Google Analytics to make informed business decisions. Moreover, the ability to understand digital marketing reports is becoming very marketable today.
So, what are the qualities of having a GAIQ certificate?
- Ability to measure the impact of mobile users and performance on mobile apps in the business’s ROI
- Ability to identify traffic source,
However, with such qualities, how much can you expect to be paid? The average salary for a Google Analytics certified professional is SGD 51,000.
Understanding the Google Analytics Technical Terms
Before you sign up for a Google Analytics course in Singapore, you need to understand the technical terms used in the class. Sometimes, the tutor will not have time to go through all of them, especially if you pick the 1-day course.
Some terms are simple and straightforward, such as visits, page views, unique visitors, and page views, new and returning visitors. Here are some terms that could be more technical that you should know:
Segments
Segments allow you to view the data in more detail by filtering the results to show the data for specific traffic. Segments can also be used to compare results between groups of visitors, organic vs. Paid search traffic. For an in-depth analysis, you can create your segments on Google Analytics.
Bounce Rate
A bounce rate represents the number of visits when users view only one page and then leave your site. This is regardless of how they arrived on your site and how long they stayed. The bounce rate is presented as a percentage.
Landing Page
Unfortunately, most people think a landing page is similar to the homepage. However, a landing page is the page a user starts their visit.
Visitor’s Flow
This is a report that shows how users moved through your site right from the landing page until they leave. The visitor’s flow can be used to show additional information such as the traffic source or their geographical location.
You will also see how many people terminated their engagement at each stage of interaction.
Traffic Sources: Referral vs. Direct
Traffic source is a report that shows how users got to your site. Google Analytics splits into referral and direct traffic.
Direct traffic includes the visitors who typed a URL directly into the address bar, selected an auto-complete option when typing your URL, or clicked a bookmark to get to your website. Referral traffic is when a user landed on your website by clicking a link from another site, social media, or on a search engine.
However, if Google Analytics cannot determine the source of the traffic, it will classify it under direct traffic.
Organic and Paid Search Traffic
Google Analytics will also show you the percentage of traffic that came from search engines. It further categorises the traffic into organic and paid.
Organic search traffic represents the people who landed on your site by clicking on organic links on the SERP. These results appear below the ads and are determined by the effectiveness of your SEO.
Paid search, on the other hand, shows users that clicked on your ads. The ads typically appear before the results and to the side of the SERP.
Here is how Google Analytics will represent your audience overview:
Source: Neil Patrick
Events
Events in Google Analytics help you to measure activity not recorded by the tracking code. An event is when users download factsheets, plays a video, and uses an embedded tool, among other on-site interactions.
Tracking Code
This is a code installed on every page of your website. Google Analytics will then use it to track where a user goes, and this way, it can track all of its data.
The Best Books on Google Analytics
Third-party resources will come in handy to help you in preparing for the GAIQ exam. Fortunately, some of the best Google Analytics professionals have penned books that will help you gain a deeper understanding of the material and ace your GAIQ exam.
Here are some books you should consider:
- Google Analytics: A Complete Guide 2020 Edition by Gerardus Blopkdyk
- The Ridiculously Simple Guide to Google Analytics (The Absolute Beginners Guide to Google Analytics) by Scott LaCounte
- Google Analytics Uncovered: How to Set Up and Maximize Ecommerce Data in Google Analytics by Eric Leuenberger
- The Book on Google Analytics: The Total Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started with Google Analytics by Kurt J Freitag
- Learning Google AdWords and Google Analytics by Benjamin Mangold
- Discovering the Google Analytics Power Pages: Increasing Website Conversions in 15 Steps by Carl Holden
- Google Analytics 360 Suite: Complete Self-Assessment Guide by Gerardus Blokdyk
You can download them as e-books or PDF, or buy the hard copies.
Google Analytics Events in Singapore
Getting your GAOQ certification is not enough; you will need to interact with peers to expand your horizon beyond your digital marketing campaigns. The best way to do this is to attend Google Analytics events in Singapore.
While the dates will not always be the same every year, or you might read this article after the events have passed. The best thing to do is to monitor the Google events happening in Singapore.
Overview of the Google Analytics Course Packages in Singapore
It is possible to work alone to attain your GAIQ certification. However, taking classes or a course in Singapore will help you interact with other students and tutors who will give you a live instructor-led session.
Most people pay between SGD 500 and SGD 900 to enroll at the GAIQ classes in Singapore. However, here is a breakdown of the packages you will receive in Singapore.
| Google Analytics Course Packages | Google Analytics for beginners | Advanced Google Analysics | Google Analytics for Power Users | Google Analytics 360 |
| Google Academy | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| Third-party trainers | SGD 500 | SGD 650 | SGD 800 | SGD 900 |
The tables below highlight some of the critical services provided by social media agencies and professionals in Singapore
| Topics | Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
| Google Analytics for Beginners | How to create a GA account | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| How to implement the tracking code
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Analysing basic reports | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Setting up goals
|
Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Campaign tracking
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced Google Analytics
|
Marketing tools | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Data collection methods | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Data processing and configuration | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Data Analysis | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
| Google Analytics of Power Users | No | Yes | Yes |
| Google Analytics 360 | No | Yes | Yes |
| Standard | Professional | Enterprise | |
| Live instructor-led sessions | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GAIQ class retake discount | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Guide to Understanding and Using Google Analytics in Singapore
Already, we have discussed the benefits of using Google Analytics and why you should take a Google Analytics training course in Singapore. However, do you understand how it works? Like other SEO tools, this free tool from Google has several quirks that you can leverage to grow your business.
We will discuss them later on, but for now, here is an ultimate guide to understanding and using Google analytics in Singapore like a pro.
Start By Creating Your Google Analytics Account
Google is keen on providing webmasters with all the resources they need to get maximum profits from their websites. Google Analytics is one such tool that you can count on to give you a clear and in-depth perspective of your website.
The first thing is creating your account and if you have an existing one login using the credentials you used to sign up.
The second step is adding a new property to the account. The new property is the website or web publication you intend to monitor and optimise. The process takes seconds, and the Google system auto-generates a UA-Code unique to your website, which looks like UA – 12345679-8. It also generates a JavaScript tracking code.
The last crucial step is to connect the newly created analytics property to the CMS (content management systems). There are two ways of completing this step, namely;
- Add the tracking code or UA-Code to the content management system
- Add the tracking code to the specific pages you intend to monitor
WordPress and other standard CMSs only require the UA-Code. There are also plugins that you can use to achieve the same goal. Confirm the credibility of the plugin and that it’s regularly updated to cushion yourself from security issues. Poorly structured and unmaintained plugins are loopholes for hackers.
Set Clear Objectives
Website audit or testing is only successful if you know the kind of data you are looking for. For example, if you create a landing page, your objective is to generate sales through it. A reasonable goal when monitoring it using Google Analytics is the amount of traffic received versus the number of sales within a given period.
If the goal is to engage with the target customers, monitor the number of website pages that a visitor frequents and the time spent as you start the journey to mastering this tool, set clear, concise, attainable, and realistic objectives. Here are a few examples for inspiration.
- I want visitors to read a minimum of 6 pages
- I want 50% more organic traffic
- I want 10 new signups per day
Without clear goals, you cannot measure the site correctly and make informed decisions. Study the report and consult SEO experts if you are unsure of any details to make the right decision.
Know the Essential Google Analytics Metrics
Google analytics offers many metrics to give you a clear perspective of the website’s performance. The numbers and percentages displayed in your dashboard won’t mean a thing if you don’t know the meaning of the metrics. Let us dive in and look at these metrics.
Sessions
Simply put, a session is a visit by a user to the website. According to Google, a session is a group or set of interactions a user has with a website within a given period. For instance, a single session can have several social interactions, page views, events, and transactions. One user can have multiple sessions if they visit at different times.
Photo credit: Google Support
Website Users
Users are the people who visit the website. If Alphan visits your site two times and browses through several pages, Google Analytics will record the interaction as one user and two sessions.
Average Session Duration
Average session duration is the average amount of time that customers or general visitors spend on your website. For example, if two different potential customers visit the site and spend 4 minutes and 6 minutes each, the average session duration will be 5 minutes.
Pageviews
Pageviews is another valuable metric that you should keep in mind as you optimise the website. It refers to the total number of website pages viewed by all the visitors. Note that multiple views of a page by the same user are tallied in the metric.
Monitor this metric to know which pages receive the highest number of views and the low performing ones. Work on the latter to ensure that every section of your site functions optimally. The point is, don’t just rely on the total page views of the whole website; analyse each page independently.
Exit Rate
As the name suggests, the exit rate refers to the number of people who leave the website after visiting a particular page. It is determined by dividing the total number of sessions that ended on a page by the total pageviews of the page.
Knowing the exit rate of high-value pages such as homepage and landing pages will help pinpoint the friction points needed to be either smoothened or eliminated.
Bounce Rate
No website is immune to this metric. Bounce rate is presented as a percentage of the sessions that ended after just a one-page view. That is, the user visited the site and immediately left. Since every page is an entry point to your website, the percentages vary.
In addition, a low bounce rate means that the content on the page matches the user’s needs and preferences. A high bounce rate means that the content needs to be tweaked to resonate with their expectations.
Important Google Analytics Reports and How to Interpret them Correctly
The above six metrics are the most essential and are used to generate reports. How you interpret the reports will determine the trajectory of your brand. A wrong interpretation will result in the implementation of wrong marketing strategies.
Avoid the guesswork when feeling overwhelmed or stuck by reaching out to the SEO team for help. We are always available and willing to lend a helping hand.
How to Read Google Analytics Audience Overview Report?
The main objective of this report is to help you understand how engaged the target audience is with your website within a given timeframe. The report can be generated for the entire site or specific pages.
Below are some of the questions that this report seeks to answer.
- How many users visited a page?
- How many pages did users view?
- How long did users spend on a page?
- Which portion of users are returning visitors or have interacted with the website before?
- What is the site or page average bounce rate?
The answers to these questions will point you in the right direction as you work on scale up your online business in the Singapore market. For example, if the site gets massive organic traffic but has a high bounce rate or low session time, it means the visitors cannot find what they want.
Resolve this by creating stellar content and improving the existing content marketing strategy. It is also likely that you are ranking for the wrong keywords, so look at the target keyword list again.
On the other hand, if the users are highly engaged but the traffic is low, consider spending more on advertising campaigns such as search engine marketing and social media ads.
How to Read Google Analytics Channels Report?
As an online business owner, it’s important to know the source of traffic. The channels report is tailored to help you understand where a majority of your website visitors come from. With this information, you can know which platforms to focus on more and which ones to avoid investing in since they don’t deliver much results.
Some of the questions this report answers are:
- Which channel generates the most organic traffic?
- What is the bounce rate of different channels?
- Which channel or platform results in the highest conversions?
Feel free to tweak the questions to match your company and objectives.
If you receive plenty of traffic from social media platforms such as Facebook, but a large percentage of the users don’t engage, consider fine-tuning the content. Maybe, it is not in line with the ad that the users clicked on to land on the page. Consistency messaging across all channels can also fix this problem.
If a particular channel records a high conversion rate, but the traffic is low, invest more time and resources in creating and distributing ads.
Ideally, high-performing channels should be given more attention than low-performing channels. The latter should be improved to match the performance of the other channels.
Carry out A/B tests on them to know which form of content resonates with the audience. CTA buttons and other elements on the said pages should also be tested to complement the other Singapore digital marketing campaigns.
Here is an article we recently published on the best A/B website testing tools in 2021.
How to Read Google Analytics All Pages Report?
The all pages report builds on the audience overview and channels report previously discussed. By generating this report, you will identify the best-performing pages or websites publications. The report is based on several metrics, namely;
- Number of website pages that get the most views
- Pages with the highest number of people landing on first
- Pages with the highest exit rate
- Individual page’s bounce rate
The high-performing pages should be central to your website. They will catapult you to the next level if you focus on continuously improving them. It is an excellent idea to position them at the front to impress existing customers and new ones that click on their URLs.
You could also link them to your paid advertising campaigns to enjoy maximum exposure and ROI.
However, if pages you consider important to your brand have a below-average performance, consider improving them. Revise the content to match the searchers intend, emphasise placing important information above the fold, add well-optimised call-to-action buttons (CTAs).
As mentioned earlier, test every new thing you add to the site to ensure that it works for your business. For example, if you decide to change the CTA button colour, monitor the results to know if you should revert to the previous colour.
When testing, remember the goal is to provide the best user experience to visitors. Tests should be done several weeks after an improvement is made so that there is enough data to analyse.
How to Read Google Analytics Mobile Overview Report?
Singapore has more than 4.7 million mobile internet users. Therefore, your website should be responsive and mobile-friendly to generate sales from this ballooning segment of customers.
A mobile overview report will help you to know how users interact with your website on mobile. It provides information such as the total number of visits via mobile, the total number of sessions, and the type of device used.
By analysing it, you can know;
- The ratio of desktop website visitors to mobile website visitors
- Differences in bounce rate across multiple devices
- Differences in conversion rate across various devices
If the bounce rate is high and the conversion rate is low, it means your website is not fully responsive. The pages need to be optimised again to enable potential customers to browse and place orders. The design of the pages and websites should match the device used by a majority of the website visitors.
Questions To Ask a Google Analytics Tutor
Picking the right institution or tutor could be the difference between you passing or failing the GAIQ exam. However, the first thing should be to view the fees charged by the various institutions and tutors in Singapore.
In spite of this, price should not be the only factor to consider when choosing a Google Analytics course in Singapore. Here are questions you should ask a GAIQ tutor:
How Long Does Your Course Take?
If you are a professional already working in digital marketing, you know that time is of the essence. Since most courses are classroom-based, you need to know how long you will be away from your core duties.
Most GAIQ classes in Singapore are one or two days long. Knowing how long it will take will help you in organising your schedule.
Do You Have Any Work Experience?
Most people have been known to start tutoring as soon as they get their Google Analytics Individual Qualification certificate. Unfortunately, this might not be the best type of tutor for you.
For the best results, you need to enrol with a tutor who has experience working with Google Analytics on a professional basis.
I Do Not Have Time to Do Digital marketing. Why Should I Enrol?
The GAIQ classes are not limited to existing and aspiring marketers. Business owners, too, should also take the course while you might be busy facilitating the running of other business activities.
The marketing team is sure to give you reports and recommendations. However, their suggestions might be discordant with the overall business strategy. Taking this course will help you provide direction to your team.
Do You Offer Laptops?
One of the requirements when taking the Google Analytics Individual Qualification class is that you should bring a laptop. However, some institutions acknowledge the fact that not everyone has access to a laptop.
For this reason, most will provide you with a laptop. Before you enrol, ensure that they can provide you with a laptop in case you cannot bring your own.
What Happens If I Fail My Google Analytics Individual Qualification Exam, Can I Retake The Course?
The chances are that you might fail your Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ). Fortunately, you can retake the Google Analytics course every seven days until you pass it.
Should you decide to retake the course, you should get a discount on the fees paid. The tutor or institution should be open to giving you a discounted rate for retaking the class.
How to Use Google Analytics to Improve Your Singapore Business
One of the significant roles of google analytics is helping to measure the entire business process. In the past, google analytics used to be a snippet sitting in a website corner. Today, the new technologies have made it an entire ecosystem f technology that can measure the performance of your website.
Google analytics measurement protocol is allowing one to analyse their websites backend elements and surface improvement directly. You can use this tool to detect backend performance errors, measuring customer call centre and inputting return data into google analytics.
Teams can be able to notify their third-party suppliers in case of any issues as the google analytics measurement protocol allows you to measure the surface API errors.
This will help your business to reduce the number of failed orders and improve your business brand ratings. These measurement improvements are crucial in giving your customers a compelling experience.
Google analytics for firebase is enabling the joining up of offline and online experiences. This Google analytics is helping businesses to surface native mobile applications data for use instore such as in digital signage, cash desks and staff devices.
An excellent example of the use of this firebase analytics is its use of large companies such as Nike. The store staff looks whether the stock is available in the stores near them helping the customers to know if the product is available and make quick sales.
For your Singapore retail business, you can utilise Google analytics for firebase to analyses how often your employees use the feature hence giving you insights on how to improve the industry such as speeding up the time it takes for the employees to do a task by enhancing their morale and happiness.
The customer is the primary target of your business, and you cannot afford to assume any effort aimed at improving the customer experience. That brings the need to automate customer reporting.
Most of Singapore businesses spend more than a month doing customer reporting. That is a lot of time that can be used effectively in understanding and visualising the data.
Why most businesses spend a lot of time is copy and pasting from a system to another a thing that will consume a lot of time. Google Analytics has several tools that make reporting easy and fast. API is a good example in which it is directly queried from google spreadsheets or Microsoft excel automating the whole process of creating reports.
More so, Google Data Studio makes it easy for you to review your regular report and also gives universal accessibility.
Many Singapore business brands are not aware of the enhanced ecommerce google analytics feature. This feature educates one about a venue collection and even supports refunds. Based on the likes of product season and colour, the feature helps you to see their return data. You can use a bit of code to automate it fully or populate the report with that information using Google’s data import functionality.
The key to making your data easy to access and interpret is through data visualisation. This is made possible by a google free tool known as Google data studio. This tool effectively transforms your data into informative and visual reports that are easy to study, customize and share.
This way, your clients self-serve their data and view the information they are interested in seamlessly. Through google data studio, your Singapore business can utilise the tool to build intuitive dashboards that give you the needed insights to make positive business changes.
Conclusion
If you want to excel in digital marketing in Singapore, you need to make proper use of analytics. While there are many website analytics tools available, none can compare to Google Analytics.
We hope that this guide on the Google Analytics course in Singapore will be of help to you. Be sure to use the resources mentioned above alongside the materials offered by the Google Academy on analytics.
Google Analytics is an invaluable free tool that you can count on to help you monitor the performance of your website. Most of the premium tools rely on the data this tool corrects to generate their reports. It may not be the most accurate, but it’s the most reliable and best option for businesses starting and on a tight budget.
MediaOne Marketing SEO team can help you learn the ropes of using Google Analytics to create the best SEO strategies for Singapore. With our team on your side, you will never make a decision based on assumptions. Get in touch with us for a free and non-obligatory consultation session.
Contact us today for professional digital marketing services in Singapore. We also offer digital marketing, search engine optimisation, search engine marketing, and social media marketing courses.
