A painless way to learn basics about Google Analytics

Last week Google promoted its Conversion University, an “online course” in some 25 parts for groking the basics of Google Analytics. Essentially, it is a series of topics, for each of which there are from 5 to 15 or so rapid-fire (typically 20-30 seconds) Adobe Presentations explaining how its various features and analytical tools work.

For legal services and other non-profits, many if not most of the topics covered in this commercially oriented online course are about aspects of web analytics that are not particularly relevant. (After all, it is called “Conversion University” for a reason.) But for those not familiar with Google Analytics or those who have not used it for anything more than to track site visits and page views, these online presentations do offer insights about other specific tools within Google Analytics. Among other things, these brief presentations can help you better understand the data Google Analytics generates, how to filter it, how to report it, and how to understand the significance of things like “keyword searches” that bring people to your site and the significance of “site search” that tells you what your users look for once they find the site. Stuff even non-commericial sites would find helpful to know and understand.