Book Review: Google Analytics

This book contains thorough and complete coverage of all the features of Google Analytics, from setting up a free account, to advanced tracking strategies.

Justin Cutroni, the author of this book, has been described by a senior manager at Google Analytics as one of the foremost analytics experts in the industry today.

The book contains thorough and complete coverage of all the features of Google Analytics, from setting up a free account, to advanced tracking strategies.

There are 13 chapters :

1. Chapter 1 Introducing Web Analytics
2. Chapter 2 Creating an Implementation Plan
3. Chapter 3 Under the Covers: How Google Analytics Works
4. Chapter 4 Tracking Visitor Clicks, Outbound Links, and Non-HTML Files
5. Chapter 5 Google Analytics Accounts and Profiles
6. Chapter 6 Filters
7. Chapter 7 Tracking Conversions with Goals and Funnels
8. Chapter 8 Must-Have Profiles
9. Chapter 9 Marketing Campaign Tracking
10. Chapter 10 Advanced Tracking Techniques
11. Chapter 11 Enterprise Implementation Considerations
12. Chapter 12 CRM Integration
13. Chapter 13 Tools and Add-Ons
1. Appendix Google Analytics Compliance with WAA Standards
2. Appendix Regular Expressions
3. Colophon

Google Analytics, which my business uses for several web sites since it first became available, offers a core set of tools that supports many of the primary tasks that web analysts perform.

One of the more interesting things I learned from reading Justin’s book is that you can host the ga.js required javascript file locally (I believe at one time we were actually told by our Google rep that you cannot do this). You can check a special url that he provides to find out if the script has been updated. This can be very advantageous in some corporate environments. The book provides numerous such tips and tricks.

Google Analytics also describes how you can track mobile apps, outbound links, and non-HTML files, and marketing campaigns.
There is plenty of information available both from Google and users on how to use Google Analytics. What this book does is to organize that information into a single volume with extensive notes and techniques for tracking user behavior.

Recommended. Sticker price, $29.99.