How many times does a user visit your site before they finally make a purchase? What page on your site has the highest exit rate? How many people visit your site and leave after viewing only the first page? If you run a blog, an ecommerce store, or any kind of web property and aren’t asking these questions — you should be! Don’t worry. You’re not alone in thinking the world of digital analytics is an intimidating beast to tackle, however, rest assured, there are some amazing resources to get you up and running in no time.

Although there are hundreds of analytic tools out there, without a doubt the most well known and widely used is Google Analytics. This isn’t a mistake by any means, Google has structured a truly innovative and usable tool that millions of people utilize to answer the aforementioned questions. Although this piece of software is inherently intuitive, the learning curve to can be rigorous. Luckily, Google provides many resources to empower users to understand and implement tangible analytics concepts and applications. Of all the blog posts, FAQ’s, videos, and resources out there, the Google Analytics Individual Qualification (GAIQ) is the clearest track to a successful understanding of analytic theory and practices.

Pack your bags! During the 2nd half of this week, several of us (Jared and myself) will be headed to San Diego to attend Social Media Marketing World, the “world’s largest social media marketing conference” (can we expect to see you there?!).

We’ve identified our two objectives for attending the conference: learning & networking. In preparation, we’ve jotted down a few of our thoughts and notes as to how we’re preparing for our attendance to make the most of the three days.

Continue Reading…