Over the last year I presented at a an industry conference about what Google Analytics can do for independent schools and higher ed.
With a running time of just over 20 minutes, my joint presentation with some great folks at WhippleHill barely scratched the surface.
I wrote earlier about why higher ed and private schools should look more deeply into their analytics to pull out actionable insights.
An incredibly helpful option to make that a faster process the ability to cut out the clutter is looking at segments. You can can compare important segments of your website visitor population across views. For instance, by looking at Site Content (under Behavior), once you have your segments configured, you can easily compare how current parents use the site differently than, say, prospective parents, using different conditions to be as precise as your website allows.
For those just starting out, I would highly recommend looking at resources offered by Avinash Kaushik (Digital Marketing Evangelist at Google), specifically one of his collection of solutions (aptly named Occam’s Razor Awesomeness, which includes segments), his blog, and for the eager beavers like me, his book Web Analytics 2.0, a treasure trove of tips and solutions.
