You can easily track all the data from your website using Google Analytics. The benefits of using Google Analytics to improve your website’s SEO are plentiful. It provides countless insights that you can utilize to help your business. One of the best ways to learn Google Analytics is to receive a Google Analytics Certification. By preparing for the exam needed for this certification, you will learn all there is to know about Google Analytics. This article will answer the questions of how long does it take to get Google Analytics Certified and how to get certified in Google Analytics.
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What is Google Analytics?
Before you can learn about how to get Google Analytics certification, let’s go over what Google Analytics is. Google Analytics is a free service that provides a surplus of useful information. It is a great tool to use to understand how your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts are performing. SEO is the marketing practice of increasing website traffic. There are many different aspects of SEO. This includes content creation, keyword optimization, off-site SEO, local SEO, user experience, and more.
But working on your SEO only makes sense if you know that it is actually helping you. That’s where Google Analytics comes in. It simplifies the process for users to track and understand the data of their website and allows you to check the performance of your marketing, content, products, and more. It also provides information regarding the demographic usage and location of your website’s visitors. Finally, it tells you how long a user spends on your site, bounce rate, and where your website traffic originated from. In other words, Google Analytics provides insights that only Google can provide.
Google Analytics Reports
The reports provided by Google Analytics can be broken down into five categories. These are real time, audience, acquisition, behavior, and conversions.
The real time report will show you actions that occurred on your site in the last 5 minutes. Audience reports group users together based on parameters that you set. You can use this information to better target different sections of your audience in the future. The acquisition reports are very important because they provide detailed information on how people found your site. Then it also tracks the specific actions they take once they are there. Behavior reports tell you what actions people take on your website. They also tell you how fast pages load and what content they are viewing. This can be important in helping you find areas of your site that are not performing properly. Finally, the conversion reports are all about what actions have been completed. For example, how many people have registered for your email list or made a purchase?
How to Get a Google Analytics Certification
In order to get a Google Analytics certification, you need to pass the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ) exam. This is a free exam that is available on Skillshop. This exam covers basic and advanced Google Analytics concepts and demonstrates your proficiency in Google Analytics.
To receive a Google Analytics certification, you must receive a passing score of 80% on the exam. The exam consists of 70 questions, which means you must correctly answer 56 questions. You have 90 minutes to complete the exam and it cannot be paused once you begin. Additionally, you cannot go back to change an answer once you have moved past the question.
Questions are in multiple-choice and true and false question format. Google has transitioned from factual straightforward questions to logical reasoning-based questions. This means you need to develop a practical understanding of Google Analytics. You can retake the exam as many times as needed to get a passing score. The only stipulation is that you have to wait one day before retaking the exam.
A Google Analytics Certification lasts for 12 months from the date you pass the exam. After that, the certification is no longer valid and you will need to retake the exam. This ensures you are staying up to date with the newest features in Google Analytics. In an effort to help users prepare for the exam, Google created Google Analytics Academy.
What is Google Analytics Academy?
Google Analytics Academy helps users get Google Analytics certified by preparing them for the GAIQ exam. They offer courses to help you learn about Google’s measurement tools and how to use them to assist in your business’s growth. Google Analytics Academy offers six different free courses. They are Google Analytics for Beginners, Advanced Google Analytics, Google Analytics for Power Users, Getting Started with Google Analytics 350, Introduction to Data Studio, and Google Tag Manager Fundamentals.
All six of these courses consist of at least four learning units with a number of units. When you are preparing to take the GAIQ exam, Google Analytics Academy highly recommends completing both the Google Analytics for Beginners course and the Advanced Google Analytics course. They are the two best resources to help you prepare for the GAIQ exam.
Google Analytics Academy Courses
Google Analytics Academy does provide the expected time of completion, depending on users’ level of familiarity with the course content. They expect the Google Analytics for Beginners course, Advanced Google Analytics course, and Google Tag Manager Fundamental course to take 4 to 6 hours to complete. The Google Analytics for Power Users is expected to take 4 to 5 hours to complete. The Getting Started with Google Analytics 360 course takes about 5 to 7 hours to complete. Lastly, the Introduction to Data Studio course can be completed in the shortest time period. It should only take 2 to 5 hours.
These six courses all offer a certificate of completion. Your User Profile tracks your progress throughout the course, which you can return to and complete at any time. In order to earn a certification of completion for any of these courses, you must receive at least an 80% on each assessment.
In addition to these courses, Analytics Academy offers four mini-courses on YouTube. These are Getting Started with Google Analytics for Firebase, Getting Started with Google Tag Manager, Getting Started with Google Optimize, and More Google Analytics Playlists. When you are just getting started using Google Analytics, the course called Getting Started with Google Analytics for Firebase is very helpful. The course will teach you how to create your account and how to get started using Google Analytics with this course. All of these four mini-courses are compiled of short tutorial videos on YouTube.
An important factor in how long a Google Analytics certification takes is how long you prepare for the exam. You can use all of these available resources to help you prepare until you feel ready to take the exam.
Benefits of Google Analytics Certification
Now that you know how to get certified in Google Analytics, you may be wondering why you should. Passing the GAIQ exam means you are proficient in both basic and advanced Google Analytics concepts. The Google Analytics Certification is tangible proof of your proficiency. You can add this certification to your resume, website, and LinkedIn profile.
Along with the tangible proof of your proficiency, you will learn a lot about Google Analytics by receiving a certification. Through your process of preparing for the exam, you will gain an abundance of knowledge about Google Analytics.
Google Analytics will help your efforts with SEO be even more effective because you are more knowledgeable about your website, its users, and so much more. By understanding how to use Google Analytics, you can set up Google Analytics on your website. This helps your site to grow quickly and you can analyze data more efficiently.
How Long Does Google Analytics Certification Take?
How long it takes to get Google Analytics certified depends on the individual. There is no definite answer to the question. It depends on how long an individual takes to prepare for the GAIQ exam. It also depends on your previous knowledge of the service.
You can prepare for the exam at your own pace and choose which courses if any, you want to complete to get ready for the exam. You can only complete the two recommended courses, which are the Google Analytics for Beginners and Advanced Google Analytics courses. Or you can choose to complete all six courses along with the mini-courses. The decision is yours.
Get Google Analytics Certified Today!
Now that you know how to get Google Analytics certified, it is time to put that knowledge to use. Take advantage of the numerous free courses offered by Google Analytics Academy and other free information you can find online. When you feel you are ready, take the exam!
If you need any help learning how to effectively use the many parts of Google Analytics, SEO Design Chicago is happy to help. We offer Google Analytics training by our trained practitioners who are well-versed in Google Analytics.
FAQs about How Long Will it Take to Learn Google Analytics?:
- How much does it cost to get a Google Analytics Certification?
- What tools or courses are available to help me prepare for the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ) exam?
- How long does Google Analytics Certification take?
- Why should I get certified in Google Analytics?
- Do I need to take an exam to become Google Analytics certified?
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