coursera google data analytics capstone project

• Oct 18, 2021
• 10 min read

Google Data Analytics Capstone Project

Updated: Jul 5, 2023

I worked on the Google Data Analytics Capstone Project, Track 1, Case Study 1. I will be diving into the background, my full process of cleaning, analyzing and visualizing the data, along with my final suggestions and summary of the data.

Quick Links :

Tableau Dashboard | Github R Code for Analysis | Github R Code for Tableau Visualization | LinkedIn Post

Below is a table of contents in case you want to go to a specific section.

Table of Contents:

Microsoft excel.

Finished Project

Summary of Data

Business Suggestions

What I Learned

Cyclistic is a bike sharing program which features more than 5,800 bikes and 600 docking stations. It offers reclining bikes, hand tricycles, and cargo bikes, making it more inclusive to people with disabilities and riders who can't use a standard two-wheeled bike. It was founded in 2016 and has grown tremendously into a fleet of bicycles that are geotracked and locked into a network of 692 stations across Chicago. The bikes can be unlocked from one station and returned to any other station in the system anytime.

Previously, Cyclistic's marketing strategy tried to build the general awareness and appeal to broad consumers. It has flexible pricing plans: single-ride passes, full-day passes, and annual memberships. Those who purchase single-ride or full-day passes are referred to as casual riders while those who purchase annual memberships are Cyclistic members .

My Role : In this scenario I am a junior data analyst at Cyclistic and my team has been tasked with the overall goal (see below) of designing marketing strategies

Overall Goal : Design marketing strategies aimed at converting casual riders into annual members.

Business Question : "How do annual members and casual riders use Cyclistic bikes differently?"

Below I will describe step-by-step the process I used to for this project. If you want to skip ahead to the business suggestions move onto the section "Insights".

Overview : I first analyzed the data separately (each month) in Excel, then used R to analyze the data as a whole (one year). Finally I created a dashboard in Tableau and used Figma to support the design elements.

I initially wanted to gather and analyze my data in Excel because it was the tool I was most familiar with and I could get a general understanding of the data quicker. I did not combine all of the spreadsheets into one because that would've taken more processing power than my computer had.

I began downloading the data from divvy-tripdata , and turning the .csv files into excel spreadsheets. I downloaded the most recent year of data which was at the time of starting my project:

August 2020

September 2020

October 2020

November 2020

December 2020

January 2021

February 2021

Added two columns to all of the months:

ride_length calculated the total ride length for each trip using the start_at column which was: ending time minus starting time.

day_of_week calculated the day of the week for each trip using the start_at column date.

Went over the business task and the information I had at hand and how that could be used to figure out how members and casual riders use the bike service differently

Came up with metrics to look at such as :

total number of rides per hour, per day of the month, per season, per day of the week, and for different bike types

Average ride length between members and casual

For every month in Excel created pivot tables and charts to go with the analysis on (this took the longest):

Total Rides per Weekday - calculated the total rides for members and casual and separated it by day of the week; used a cluster column chart

Average Ride Length - calculated the average ride length for members and casual and separated it by day of the week; used a cluster column chart

Total Rides per Hour - calculated the total rides for members and casual separated by the time of the day (24hr); used a line comparison chart

Total Rides per Day - calculated the total rides for members and casual separated by the day of the month; used a line comparison chart

Total Rides per Bike Type - calculated the total rides for members and casual separated by Bike type; used stacked column chart

I also created a Google docs Notes list where I wrote down the exact steps for each month (had a checklist) and included my insights for each month

Time Spent:

535 minutes or just under 9 hours to complete.

I originally wanted to use SQL but the files were too big to upload and I couldn't figure out how to utilize Google Cloud Platform. Instead I used R to analyze the data because it could handle all of the information quicker than Excel, and I wanted to work on my R skills. Below is my general process in R, I didn't include my mistakes/missteps or errors for the sake of brevity.

View my full code on my Github for this capstone project here .

Load all of the libraries I used: tidyverse, lubridate, hms, data.table

Uploaded all of the original data from the data source divytrip into R using read_csv function to upload all individual csv files and save them in separate data frames. For august 2020 data I saved it into aug08_df, september 2020 to sep09_df and so on.

Merged the 12 months of data together using rbind to create a one year view

Created a new data frame called cyclistic_date that would contain all of my new columns

Created new columns for:

Ride Length - did this by subtracting end_at time from start_at time

Day of the Week

Time - convert the time to HH:MM:SS format

Season - Spring, Summer, Winter or Fall

Time of Day - Night, Morning, Afternoon or Evening

Cleaned the data by:

Removing duplicate rows

Remove rows with NA values (blank rows)

Remove where ride_length is 0 or negative (ride_length should be a positive number)

Remove unnecessary columns: ride_id, start_station_id, end_station_id, start_lat, start_long, end_lat, end_lng

Calculated Total Rides for:

Total number of rides which was just the row count = 4,152,139

Member type - casual riders vs. annual members

Type of Bike - classic vs docked vs electric; separated by member type and total rides for each bike type

Hour - separated by member type and total rides for each hour in a day

Time of Day - separated by member type and total rides for each time of day (morning, afternoon, evening, night)

Day of the Week - separated by member type and total rides for each day of the week

Day of the Month - separated by member type and total rides for each day of the month

Month - separated by member type and total rides for each month

Season - separated by member type and total rides for each season (spring, summer, fall, winter)

Calculated Average Ride Length for:

Total average ride length

Type of Bike - separated by member type and average ride length for each bike type

Hour - separated by member type and average ride length for each hour in a day

Time of Day - separated by member type and average ride length for each time of day (morning, afternoon, evening, night)

Day of the Week - separated by member type and average ride length for each day of the week

Day of the Month - separated by member type and average ride length for each day of the month

Month - separated by member type and average ride length for each month

Season - separated by member type and average ride lengths for each season (spring, summer, fall, winter)

Then using all of this data I created my own summary in my case notes and took note of the: total rides for each variable, average ride lengths for each variable, and the difference between members versus casual riders. I originally wanted to create a report using R Markdown as well but for the sake of time (I had already spent over 20 hours on the project so far), I decided to skip this step, and write this article instead.

1045 minutes or about 17 and a half hours to complete.

While I learned the basics of Tableau in the Google Course I wanted more practice with visualizing data and creating dashboards.

To view my completed dashboard click here .

I created a separate R code (you can view it here on Github) that made some changes for specifically the Tableau portion.

For ride length I rounded the digits by 1, meaning my numbers were 29.8 or 12.5.

Revised how I created my "month" column. I used mutate() to create a column that had the month in ___ format and not number format. So instead of 01 it would say "January"

Cleaned the data: removed rows with NA values, removed duplicate rows, removed where ride_length was 0 or negative and removed unnecessary columns like: ride_id, start_station_id, end_station_id, start_lat, start_long, end_lat, end_lng

Created a new dataframe with this information so I could test the difference between the original data frame (cyclistic_date) that I used for my analysis and the data frame I would use for Tableau (cyclistic_tableau).

In this new data frame I removed more columns to make calculations quicker in Tableau. I removed: start_station_name, end_station_name, time, started_at, ended_at

Downloaded this data frame into a .csv file which I uploaded to Tableau

Created graphs similar to those I created in Excel but added a few:

Total Rides by Bike Type

Ride Length by Weekday

Total Rides by Weekday

Total rides by hour, total rides by month.

Then I created a basic dashboard with all of that information, a prototype for me to view while I was creating the final dashboard ( Figure 1 below).

Created a prototype mockup in Figma

Created a final version of the mockup in Figma

Edited Dashboard in Tableau to reflect design in Figma

Edited graphs in Tableau

Made bar graphs round

Added annotations

Highlights to specific important notes

Got rid of labels for visual purposes

Combined Figma and Tableau (used dashboard created in Figma as the background for my Tableau Dashboard) to create a final prototype ( Figure 2 below)

Made minor edits to design elements and created final dashboard ( Figure 3 - Cyclistic Dashboard V1 )

On April 24, 2023 I decided to update my dashboard (See Finished Project , image Final Dashboard - Cyclistic Dashboard V2 ). All of the analysis is the same. The only changes have been to the dashboard. Which include:

Adding horizontal grid lines to a few of the charts

Updating the tool tips.

Making all of the top metric values (e.g. Total Rides, Average Ride Length, etc.) interactive in Tableau instead of in Figma.

765 minutes or almost 13 hours to complete.

Tableau Prototype

Below was my first draft of the dashboard only using Tableau.

Prototype using Figma Background

Combined Figma and Tableau (used dashboard created in Figma as the background for my Tableau Dashboard) to create a final prototype.

Final Dashboard V1

Made minor edits to design elements and created final dashboard. This was the original final dashboard.

I am including the other tools I used.

Figma to create my background and help develop the dashboard aesthetics.

Google Docs helped me keep track of all of my documents for this project like:

Date Log - I wrote down what I did that day related to my project

Resources - A list of resources I frequently used

Case Notes - Notes for the case study including the final insights, what I was looking for, and anything else having to do with the case

Evernote to draft this article before I uploaded it here.

FINISHED PROJECT

Here is my finished project: Google Capstone Project (V2) . You can view the links to my R code on Github used for analysis here and the code for Tableau here .

Note: This is V2 with a few minor changes to the dashboard. Including:

SUMMARY OF DATA

Those who purchase single-ride or full-day passes are referred to as casual riders while those who purchase annual memberships are Cyclistic members .

Total Rides by User Type

Average Ride Length per User Type

Average Ride per Weekday

Members had more rides with 2,328,763 total rides or 56% and casual riders had 1,823,376 total rides or 43%.

Total Rides per Bike Type

Both casual riders and members used the classic bike the most with 1,777,593 rides or 43% of total rides, followed by docked bikes with 1,545,936 rides or 37% of total rides, and lastly with electric bikes at 828,610 rides or 20% of total rides.

Average Ride Length by User Type

The total average ride length was 24 minutes. For casual riders it was longer at 27 minutes while members was 14 minutes.

Average Ride Length per Weekday

For the average ride length per weekday both casual riders and members had an increase in the average ride length on the weekends. For both Sunday was the longest at 31 minutes.

Saturday was the most popular weekday combining casual riders and member rides with 784,239 rides or 19% of total rides. But for member rides only Wednesday was the most popular day with 356,060 rides, 5,407 rides more than Saturday.

5PM or 17:00 was the busiest hour for both members and casual riders with 426,685 rides or 10% of the total rides. Typically rides began increasing in the morning at 6AM and rose until 5PM then dropped afterwards. The afternoon was the busiest for both rider types with 1,905,797 rides or 45% of total rides. 4AM was the least popular hour.

July was the busiest month combining casual riders and member rides at 691,476 rides or 16% of total rides. While summer was the most popular season for both at 1,903,446 rides or 46% of total rides. Looking at just members August is actually the busiest month with 323,140 rides, 816 rides more than July. Winter is the least popular season and February is the least popular month.

Final Summary

The most popular bike among with riders was the classic.

Busiest time was afternoon and the peak time was at 5PM for both casual riders and members.

Busiest weekday was Saturday, casual riders used the service the most on the weekends.

Busiest season was Summer for both types of riders.

Most rides by User Type was members but casual riders weren't far behind.

The average ride length was 24 minutes but casual riders on average rode 23 minutes longer than members.

BUSINESS SUGGESTIONS

This was the hardest part for me for the whole project. I have never provided suggestions for a business nor worked in marketing. Any feedback here would be appreciated.

These are my suggestions for the marketing team to convert casual riders to annual members:

Personalize discounts and show perks in the membership program based on their preferences and riding habits.

Emphasize the benefits of memberships, including discounts during busy times of the year like during Summer, or on the weekends.

Have existing members to share their stories about how using Cyclistic's system has changed their life, to create a sense of community, offer a discount if they do so this will help encourage new riders to join the program.

WHAT I LEARNED

Below is what I learned/practiced from over 40 hours spent on this project:

Pivot Tables in Microsoft Excel

Practice using R for data analysis and cleaning specifically using the tidyverse package for data analysis

Graphs in Tableau, edited visual elements along with creating different charts and filters.

Design elements of an effective dashboard

Combining the design feature of Figma with the functionality of Tableau

R portion of my project I found Itamar's case study on Kaggle using R as well, a helpful resource.

Tableau portion I used Navneet Singh's Tableau Dashboard as inspiration.

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Course 8 – Google Data Analytics Capstone: Complete a Case Study Quiz Answers

Week 1: learn about capstone basics, google data analytics professional certificate, coursera answers study guide, talbe of content, learn about capstone basics introduction.

The Coursera Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate program includes a capstone project as part of its curriculum. This project serves as the crowning achievement and provides an opportunity to demonstrate your expertise in data analytics.

It is designed to test your understanding of concepts taught throughout the course, such as gathering and cleaning data, using SQL, visualizing data with Tableau, applying machine learning algorithms and more. You will have the chance to develop real-world projects that are based on authentic industry scenarios, allowing employers to gain insight into your skills and capabilities. Additionally, you can use these case studies in portfolio presentations or job interviews within the data analytics field.

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Correct: To successfully complete a case study, your answer to the question the case study asks does not have to be perfect. It’s more important to show off your thought process so that the interviewers can understand how you approach the problem.

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Capstone project to end the Google data analytics course

Hey everyone, after taking a break for a couple months i finally finished the google data analytics course and am now getting ready to complete a couple projects that i hope to include on my portfolio. I don't feel like i have all the skills that were taught in the course, so i want to do projects that will help me develop and showcase my Excel, SQL and Tableau skills (R is probably the skill i practiced the least but i plan to learn it better, or Python, in the future). With that said, i'm now looking at the capstone project and i'm given two options for a case study: "Bike sharing service memberships" and "Streaming service subscriptions". My question is, are these options interesting/complex enough for me to explore and do a case study on, or should i come up with a more exciting option that will allow me to put more skills to the test and have a project worthy of being included on my portfolio right away? To be honest i'm not sure what i should do right now, i just know that i need to have projects that showcase my skills. Any tips or guidance from more experience people are greatly appreciated!

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Read our Google Skillshop Review to learn more about the learning platform, courses, and exams. Enroll Now For Free

3. AI-Powered Shopping Ads Certification (Free)

If you want to start a career in eCommerce or acquire the skills needed to promote your own products on Google, you should definitely consider the AI-Shopping Ads Certification .

The shopping ads certification will teach you how to design, set up, and optimize Google Shopping campaigns.

You’ll learn how to add your product catalog to the Google merchant center to get your products to appear in Google search and use them in different types of campaigns, including shopping and retargeting campaigns.

The course has been updated to include lessons on the new AI-powered Shopping campaigns (Performace Max). Jobs you can do with the Google Shopping Ads Certification:

• eCommerce Specialist

The average salary of an eCommerce specialist is $58K per year.

Read our guide on the best eCommerce Certification Courses for more learning options (Free and Paid). Enroll Now For Free

4. Google Analytics Certification (Free)

One of the hands-on skills all digital marketing professionals should have is using Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is the most popular website analytics platform, and getting the official Google Analytics Certification shows your competency in using the tool.

By enrolling in this free Google certification, you’ll learn both basic and advanced Google Analytics 4 concepts. By the end of the course, you’ll be able to use different reports to analyze and interpret how users find and interact with a website.

The total time investment needed for this course is 4.6 hours. To get certified, you must pass the Google Analytics exams (70 multiple-choice questions) with an 80% or higher score.

Jobs you can do with the Google Analytics Certification:

• Google Analytics Professional
• Google Analytics Specialist
• Junior Data Analyst

Read our guide on the best Google Analytics Courses for more GA training options. Enroll Now For Free

5. Google Ads Display Certification (Free)

Another Google certification worth considering is the Google Ads Display Certification . It’s a free certification offered by Google Skillshop.

Google display ads are great for brand awareness and retargeting, and this course will teach you how to maximize the ROI from your paid campaigns.

The total time investment is about 2.6 hours. To get certified, you must pass the Google Ads Display assessment with a score of 80% and above.

Jobs you can do with the Google Ads Display Certification:

• Google Display Specialist

Read our guide on the top Facebook Ads Courses for alternative training options to Google Display Ads. Enroll Now For Free

6. Introduction to Generative AI (Free)

The Introduction to Generative AI course is offered by Google Cloud. It’s a free course that will teach you the basics of Generative AI.

By taking this short course (30 minutes), you’ll learn what Generative AI is and how it works. You’ll get a glimpse into Generative AI model types and how they can be used in real-life scenarios. You’ll also be introduced to tools to create your own Gen AI apps.

Upon completing the course and passing a quiz, you can get a certificate of completion.

Jobs you can do with the Google Generative AI Certification:

• Generative AI Junior Specialist

Read our guide on the best AI (Artificial Intelligence) Courses to learn more about AI training options and certifications. Enroll Now For Free

7. Machine Learning Crash Course (Free)

The Machine Learning Crash Course with TensorFlow APIs is a free course offered by Learn With Google AI. The course includes 25 lessons, and the time investment is around 15 hours.

If you want to learn what machine learning is and how it differs from traditional programming, this course is excellent for you.

Throughout the course, you’ll be introduced to the various Machine Learning (ML) concepts and have to complete more than 30 exercises to practice with ML programming.

The course, although for beginners, does have some prerequisites. If you’re new to machine learning, you should first take the Introduction to Machine Learning course (20 minutes) and tutorials on NumPy and Pandas. You can read more here . Jobs you can do with the Google Machine Learning Certification:

• Machine Learning Junior Specialist

If you want to explore more training options, read our guide on the top Machine Learning Courses and Certifications. Enroll Now For Free

8. Intro to TensorFlow For Deep Learning (Free)

Intro to TensorFlow for Deep Learning is a free course Udacity offers in cooperation with Google. The course includes 11 lessons covering topics related to:

• Machine Learning
• Neural Networks
• Convolutional Neural Networks
• Forecasting using Deep Learning and TensorFlow
• Natural Language Processing with TensorFlow

TensorFlow is a free and open-source library created by Google and used for machine learning and artificial intelligence. This course will teach you how to build, train, and optimize your own networks using TensorFlow.

During the lessons, you’ll go through many hands-on exercises and build real-world applications.

The material is delivered by Google experts, and you’ll get a certificate of completion upon completing all the lessons and graded assignments.

Jobs you can do with the Google TensorFlow Course:

• TensorFlow Junior Specialist

Enroll Now For Free

9. AI-Powered Performance Ads Certification (Free)

AI-Powered Performance Ads Certification is a new free Google certification that Google Skillshop offers. The program includes 18 lessons, which take an average of 4 hours to complete.

Performance Ads is a Google Ads campaign type that uses Google AI to optimize the campaigns. Instead of setting up different campaigns to reach users on the various Google channels (Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, Discovery, Display Network), you create a Performance Max campaign.

Through the Perf Max, you give Google some basic information about your campaign goals and upload your assets (ads, images, videos), and Google AI does the job of finding new prospects based on your budget.

To get Google certified, you must pass the graded assessment, which consists of 50 questions and have 75 minutes to complete.

Jobs you can do with the AI-Powered Performance Ads Certification:

The paid Google certification courses include Cyber Security, Data Analytics, Digital Marketing, UX Design, IT Support, BI, and Cloud courses. All courses are free to access for 7 days, and upon completion, you get a professional certificate from Google.

• Google IT Support Professional Certificate (Paid)
• Google Data Analytics Certificate (Paid)
• Google Project Management Certificate (Paid)
• Google UX Design Certificate (Paid)
• Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate (Paid)
• Google Digital Marketing and eCommerce Certificate (Paid)
• Google Advanced Data Analytics Certificate (Paid)
• Google Business Intelligence Certificate (Paid)
• Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate (Paid)
• Google Cloud Engineer Professional Certification (Paid)

10. Google IT Support Professional Certificate (Paid)

If you want to get a job in the IT support industry, pursuing the Google IT Support Professional Certificate is your best bet.

According to Google, there are more than 340K job openings in the field of IT, and this online certificate will help you build the necessary skills to work as an IT support professional.

• The Google IT Support certificate is the most popular Google career certificate on Coursera.
• It opens up new career opportunities.
• It’s perfect for beginners with no prior experience in IT support.
• It’s one of the professions you can do from home.
• The need for IT support specialists is high in demand and constantly increasing.
• It’s the first step toward obtaining a more specialized certification and earning a higher salary.
• You can get college credits and exceptions from other courses.

The cost for getting this Google career certificate is $49 per month, and the estimated duration is 6 months (allocating 10 hours per week).

To get certified, you need to complete 5 courses:

• Technical Support Fundamentals
• The Bits and Bytes of Computer Networking
• Operating Systems and You: Becoming a Power User
• System Administration and IT Infrastructure Services
• IT Security: Defense against the digital dark arts

Jobs you can do with a Google IT support certificate:

Once you become Google IT support certified, you can apply for several jobs, including help desk technician, systems analyst, support specialist, database administrator, IT technician, and computer user specialist.

The average annual salary for entry-level IT support professionals is around $50K.

Read our Google IT Support Professional Certificate Review to learn more about this Google course. Enroll Now For Free

11. Google Data Analytics Certificate (Paid)

Data analytics is one of the hottest topics in the marketing industry. With the growth of data coming from various resources, you need professionals to gather, interpret, and analyze the data to make informed business decisions.

The Google Data Analytics Professional career certificate from Google will help you build the necessary skills to get an entry-level marketing job as a Data Analyst.

• According to Google, there are more than 300K job openings in the US looking for data analysts
• Build job-ready skills
• Understand how to use data to solve problems
• It’s an online course (no need to attend a class in person)

To get certified, you need to complete 8 courses:

• Foundations: Data, Data, Everywhere
• Ask Questions to Make Data-Driven Decisions
• Prepare Data for Exploration
• Process Data from Dirty to Clean
• Analyze Data to Answer Questions
• Share Data Through the Art of Visualization
• Data Analysis with R Programming
• Google Data Analytics Capstone: Complete a Case Study

Jobs you can do with a Google Data Analytics certificate:

• Data Analyst
• Junior Database Administrator
• Junior data scientist
• Finance Analyst
• Operations Analyst
• Business performance analyst
• Marketing analyst

The average annual salary for Data Analytics certified professionals is $68K. Read our Google Data Analytics Certification Review to learn more about this Google certification. Enroll Now For Free

12. Google Project Management Certificate (Paid)

Project management skills are required if you want to pursue a management position in a company, become a digital marketing consultant , or start your own business.

Any online task, whether a development project, executing an SEO campaign, running a digital marketing project, or a social media marketing strategy, is like a small project.

Knowing how to plan, organize, and monitor the project on time and within budget is critical to running profitable projects.

The Google Project Management Professional certificate will help you become a Google certified project manager.

• Become a certified Google Project Management and get one of the 475K available jobs.
• Learn how to run successful IT and digital marketing projects
• Learn how to use project management tools
• Get credits (100 hours) toward becoming a PMI-certified project management

To become certified, you need to complete 6 courses:

• Foundations of Project Management
• Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project
• Project Planning: Putting It All Together
• Project Execution: Running the Project
• Agile Project Management
• Applying Project Management in the Real World

Jobs you can do with a Google Project Management certificate:

• Project manager
• Junior Project manager
• Project Coordinator
• Project Assistant
• Program Manager
• Scrum master
• Project Administrator
• Technical project manager

The average annual salary for entry-level project management professionals is $59K annually.

Read our Google Project Management Certificate Review to learn more about this Google certification. Enroll Now For Free

13. Google UX Design Certificate (Paid)

User experience is a key factor for the success of any physical or digital product, including websites and mobile apps. The Google UX Design certificate will help you build the skills needed to design interfaces that offer a great experience to users.

To become a certified UX designer, you need to complete 7 courses.

• Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design
• Start the UX Design Process: Empathize, Define, and Ideate
• Build Wireframes and Low-Fidelity Prototypes
• Conduct UX Research and Test Early Concepts
• Create High-Fidelity Designs and Prototypes in Figma
• Responsive Web Design in Adobe XD
• Design a User Experience for Social Good & Prepare for Jobs

No prior experience is needed to follow this course, but it’s not for everyone. If you feel you don’t have the creativity and vision to design web or mobile interfaces, you better choose a different career path.

This is an excellent course for people who like and have the talent to work with design tools and concepts.

Jobs you can do with a Google UX Design certificate:

• UX designer
• UI designer
• Web designer
• Product designer

The average annual salary for UX designers is $59K.

Read our Google UX Design Certificate Review to learn more about this Google certification. Enroll Now For Free

14. Google IT Automation with Python Professional Certificate (Paid)

Python is the most in-demand programming language for the web. Python courses are popular on all online learning platforms , and the need for Python programmers is constantly increasing.

The Google IT Automation With Python career course teaches you how to use Python to create programs/scripts for automating common administrative tasks.

The cost of getting this Google career certificate is $49 per month, and the estimated duration is 4 months (allocating 10 hours per week).

This is a specialized professional certification, and although no prior coding experience is required, it’s for people who want to learn to program. If you find programming too confusing, choosing a different career path is better.

If, on the other hand, you want to start exploring the exciting world of computer programming and become a Python expert, this course is a great starting point.

There are more than 530K job postings related to Python (in the US alone), and you’ll have no difficulty finding a job.

Jobs you can do with a Google Python Professional certificate:

• Python programmer
• Web developer
• IT Support Specialist
• IT Automation specialist
• Junior System administrator

The average annual salary for good Python programmers is around $115K annually in the United States.

Read our Google IT Automation With Python Certificate Review to learn more about this Google certification. Enroll Now For Free

15. Google Digital Marketing and eCommerce Certificate (Paid)

Besides the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing , Google has recently released a new professional certificate combining Digital Marketing and eCommerce together, the Google Digital Marketing & eCommerce Professional Certificate .

This certificate includes seven courses designed by Google Marketing experts and delivered via Coursera. Unlike the Fundamentals certificate, which is free, this is a paid certification. Registering for the course and getting certified is $49 per month, and the estimated duration is 6 months (the expected total cost is $234).

The lessons teach you how to use digital marketing to reach your target audience. The certificate covers concepts related to search engine optimization, social media marketing, email marketing, and display advertising.

Most of the courses (2/7) are allocated exclusively to eCommerce marketing. In particular, you’ll learn how to design an online store (using Shopify), add product information, and optimize it for online sales.

You should take this certification if you want to start a career as a digital marketing professional with a focus on eCommerce marketing. Compared to the Fundamentals Certification, which includes 40 hours of content, this certificate includes 152 hours of content, and the lessons are more comprehensive and practical.

In addition, as part of the practical assignments, you’ll get a chance to work with popular digital marketing tools like MailChimp, Canva, Shopify, and Hubspot. Jobs you can do with a Google Digital Marketing & eCommerce Certificate:

• Digital Marketing Coordinator
• Marketing Specialist
• SEO Specialist
• Search Engine Analyst
• Freelance Digital Marketing
• E-commerce Associate
• Email Marketing Expert

The average salary of a junior e-commerce specialist in the US is around $51K per year.

Read our Google Digital Marketing & eCommerce Certificate Review to learn more about this Google certification. Enroll Now For Free

16. Google Advanced Data Analytics Certificate (Paid)

The Google Advanced Data Analytics Certificate is the next step for Google Data Analytics Certificate graduates. Unlike the Data Analytics certificate aimed at beginners, the Advanced certificate is for people with experience in the data analytics industry.

The certificate includes seven courses covering topics related to statistical analysis, regression models, and machine learning and takes an average of 6 months to complete.

You should take this certification if you want to pursue senior data analytics positions.

It’s not a certification for inexperienced professionals but builds on your data analytics skills and experience to take your career to the next level.

The certificate can be taken entirely online, and it’s self-faced, making learning more convenient for most professionals with a job.

Upon completion of the certificate, you’ll have a number of projects to enrich your portfolio and skills related to advanced data analytics concepts like:

• How to teach computer systems to discover patterns in data with machine learning.
• How to perform data analytic tasks in Python
• How to use popular data analytics tools like Tableau to visualize data.

Jobs you can do with a Google Advanced Data Analytics Certificate:

• Senior data analyst
• Data science analyst
• Data scientist

The average annual salary for Senior Data Analytics certified professionals is $118K in the US.

Read our Google Advanced Data Analytics Certificate Review to learn more about this Google certification. Enroll Now For Free

17. Google Business Intelligence Certificate (Paid)

The Google Business Intelligence Certificate is the first career certificate exclusively on Business Intelligence. It’s an advanced certificate for professionals already working in the industry.

The certification includes three courses and takes less than 2 months to complete. The courses cover topics related to data models and pipelines, interactive dashboards, and reporting.

You should take this certification if you’re already working in a related data analytics position and want to expand your skills with practical, hands-on projects featuring BigQuery, SQL, and Tableau.

Although Google recommends having a data analytics certificate before taking this certification, this is not a strict requirement. As long as you have working experience with data manipulation and tools, we can follow the lessons without problems.

As part of the end-of-course project of course 3, you’ll complete an interactive Business Intelligence dashboard, which is a great addition to your portfolio when applying for senior-level positions.

Jobs you can do with a Google Business Intelligence Certificate:

• Business Intelligence Analyst
• Business Intelligence Engineer
• Business Intelligence Developer

The average annual salary for BI-certified professionals is $96K in the US.

Read our Google Business Intelligence Certificate Review to learn more about this Google certification. Enroll Now For Free

18. Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate (Paid)

The Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate is an entry-level certification for entering the Cybersecurity industry.

If you want to build skills in an in-demand industry and secure a job as a cybersecurity analyst, this is one of the best cybersecurity certifications you can pursue.

The certification includes eight courses and takes less than 5 months to complete. The courses cover topics related to data security, network security, cyber attacks, cybersecurity tools and processes, automating cybersecurity tasks with Python, and more.

You should take this certification if you want to learn how businesses can protect their data and other online assets from hackers.

The courses cover both the theory and practical aspects of data security. You’ll learn how to identify attacks, how to communicate this to stakeholders, and what you can do to protect and prevent cyber attacks from happening.

Like other Google certifications, during the course, you’ll have a chance to work on several projects that you can use as case studies for your portfolio. There are also lessons on how to find entry-level jobs, create a resume, and best prepare for an interview.

Jobs you can do with a Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate:

• Cybersecurity Analyst
• Security Analyst
• Security Operations Center Analyst (SOC)
• Information Security Analyst
• IT Security Analyst
• Cyber Defense Analyst

The average annual salary for Cybersecurity certified professionals is $100K in the US.

Read our Google Cybersecurity Certificate Review to learn more about this Google certification. Enroll Now For Free

19. Google Cloud Engineer Professional Certification (Paid)

The Google Cloud Engineer professional certification is a premium Google course preparing students for a career in cloud engineering. The certificate includes 5 courses, and it takes 1 month to complete.

This certification program will help you build the skills to deploy and monitor applications in a Google Cloud environment. You’ll learn how Google Cloud infrastructure works and how to use Google Cloud console to manage the environment.

This course is not for beginners. Before you start, you should have background knowledge in virtual machines, web services, and IP networking.

Jobs you can do with a Google Cloud Engineer certificate:

• Google Cloud Engineer
• Associate Cloud Engineer

Cloud Engineers make approximately $131,264 per year on average in the US.

For more Cloud training options, review our Google Cloud Certifications guide. Enroll Now For Free

The table below lists the most popular Google certifications.

Google certifications are certainly worth it. All professional and career Google certifications are prepared by Google experts and are carefully designed to help students build job-ready skills.

The certifications are accredited by Universities, professional institutions, and employers, and they can help you secure a job in the IT or digital marketing industry.

Most certifications are free, and the paid certifications are reasonably priced.

There are several professional certifications that are considered alternatives to Google certifications and can help you learn new skills and secure an entry-level job in various industries. The most popular are:

• Best Meta Meta Certifications
• Best Coursera Certifications
• Best IBM Courses and Certifications

What is your learning experience with Google courses? Are they worth it? Let me know in the comments below.

Alex Chris is a digital marketing consultant, author, and instructor. He has more than 18 years of practical experience with SEO and digital marketing. Alex holds an MSc Degree in eCommerce and has consulted with Fortune 500 companies in different industries. He blogs regularly about SEO and Digital marketing, and his work has been referenced by leading marketing websites. Connect with Alex on Twitter and LinkedIn .

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October 6, 2021 at 3:36 pm

Hello friend! Thank you so much for informing me about various Google certification courses. Your post is outstanding and very informative for me. I loved your entire post and will definitely share your post with my friends. Thank you so much once again.

October 6, 2021 at 4:09 pm

Thanks for your nice comment.

All the best Alex

February 5, 2022 at 4:16 pm

Thank You Alex, Nice list of the best Google certificates. It made it clear about what to learn next.

May 5, 2022 at 1:11 pm

Thanks for commenting. Alex

September 14, 2022 at 2:02 am

Great review of the confusing Google programs!

October 24, 2022 at 7:01 pm

Hi Hamdi El-Sissi

Glad I could help you understand how Google certifications work.

January 10, 2023 at 9:31 am

Hi Alex, Thanks for the great post. Loved it. Feeling overwhelmed with all these choices for a post (Bank) retirement career. Where should I start? Digital Marketing? I’ve been in Relationship Management for 2.5 decades..

Thanks again…cheers!!

April 12, 2023 at 5:54 pm

Digital Marketing is a great choice for starting a new career. You can start with the free digital marketing certificate from Google and then pursue a more advanced certification.

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