May 7, 2010 by ian
This is an updated version of a Google Analytics Tutorial I did waaaay back in 2007 or so. You know, back in the days when the American Dollar could still buy a loaf of bread in Canada. I cover unique visitors, pageviews and engagement stats, as well as referring traffic data. This new version uses the updated interface, and should make a lot more sense: Google Analytics walkthrough that focuses on the basic stats you likely want to use as you start out. Related Google Analytics Tutorial Redux: Installation The Google Analytics Cheatsheet Attribution, part 1: Why it sucks to…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Tutorial: Basic Stats (version 2) »
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April 28, 2010 by ian
Social media leads to dispersed messaging. In as little as an hour, you can end up sending out a few Tweets, hitting Facebook with updates, writing a blog post and submitting to Behance. Plus, as folks pass those links around, they may use their own URL shorteners, removing any tracking codes you've added. The bastards. I've cast about for a solution for a long time, but the truth is, it's right in front of me: Bit.ly: What is Bit.ly? Bit.ly is a url shortener. It takes a long URL like www.mysite.com/this/that/theother/andthattoo/index.html and turns it into something like bit.ly/aceawe. You can…
Continue Reading Measuring social media response with bit.ly »
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March 25, 2010 by ian
Sooner or later, if you're a real internet marketing nerd, you're going to have to learn to read a web server log file. Sorry, but it's true. There's data in there that you simply cannot get anywhere else. Earlier this week, I wrote about using grep to survey web server log files for SEO-related data. That was a little premature, so today I'm going to explain the whys and hows of reading a basic log file. Why do I have to learn to read log files? Because log files are to internet marketing what watts are to cycling: The only…
Continue Reading How to: Read a web site log file »
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March 24, 2010 by ian
It's not just you. Google Analytics is timing out, running slowly and generally being a nightmare this morning. There are widespread reports from Europe to the US that Google Analytics' reporting interface is loading slowly. I haven't even been able to load a report. Just making sure you know you're not going crazy. It doesn't appear to be affecting load times for the ga.js script, and some folks report it's loading just fine, which makes me think it's got something to do with their content distribution network. Further bulletins as events warrant. Update: 9:25 AM - Seems to be back,…
Continue Reading Google Analytics on the fritz »
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March 10, 2010 by ian
The biggest mistake I see SEO's make: They focus on keywords first and foremost, ignoring opportunities that exist right in their own analytics data. This is my presentation from SMX West 2010, where I talk about analytics strategies for SEO. It'll help you get out of the keyword abyss. I added text so that it makes sense, instead of looking like a random set of images and babbling: Analytics for SEOView more presentations from Ian Lurie. You can download the PDF version here: How to: Get SEO analytics beyond the stone age PS: Sorry for some color oddities. Powerpoint. Sucks.…
Continue Reading How to: Get SEO analytics beyond the stone age »
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March 3, 2010 by ian
This post is somewhat advanced - I geek out quite a bit. If you don't know what a server log file is, read about that, first, then come back. Yesterday I explained why, in internet marketing, attribution is a mind-sucking pain in the ass. Not very satisfying, I know, because all I said was "This is really difficult" without providing any solutions. I was channeling Republicans. Tonight I'll channel Democrats and provide a hopelessly complex yet plausible solution upon which no one will ever agree. You can provide accurate attribution data. It's hard, but it's doable. All you need are:…
Continue Reading Attribution: Part 2 - Connecting the dots »
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March 2, 2010 by ian
The worst job in the world? President. I'd rather be a telemarketer (been there, done that). It's not the assassination threats, or the constant hounding by the press, or the fact that you can blow up the earth about 40 times over. It's about attribution. You get 'credit' for things that go wrong, and no credit for things you do right: Which, as it turns out, is also why being an internet marketer can really suck at times, too: It's just about impossible to accurately determine attribution. Attribution means giving credit where credit is due: The economy improves - why?…
Continue Reading Attribution: Part 1 - why it sucks to be President »
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February 26, 2010 by ian
Soooooo, I started this tutorial with every intention of being serious. But it's been a long week, I was up at 4:30 AM and I had Evan in the tutorial. Things went downhill fast. Regardless, it still shows you how to install Google Analytics on a regular web site and on Wordpress: A brief lesson on installing Google Analytics on your web site. Plus color commentary. It's fun, we promise. Enjoy...…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Tutorial Redux: Installation (with commentary) »
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January 17, 2010 by ian
I'm an idiot. Last week, someone commented on a post I wrote for SEOMOZ's YouMOZ service that they'd like a Google Analytics Cheatsheet. I wrote back "OK, I'll do it." Guess what? Google Analytics has a ton of features. And even more tricks and hacks that folks have developed over the years. So this 2-page cheat sheet, which took 3 days and nights to pull together, is a tiny sliver of the whole system. But it does cover the stuff that I'd want my staff to use. You can download it for free, no strings attached: Version with links: The…
Continue Reading The Google Analytics Cheatsheet »
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January 11, 2010 by ian
Seriously, this is not, and never has been, an 'adult' site. K? You're wondering why I even have to say that? Well, today I innocently took a glance at my Google Analytics referring keyword report, and look at my #1 keyword for the last 30 days: I thought maybe that was some kind of organization that helps abused teenagers. I did a quick Google search, and got this: ... I didn't click any of the non-Conversation Marketing-related SERPs, by the way. Nor will I. Now, I came by my Buy a Wife At Target ranking very honestly. So how'd…
Continue Reading This is not a porn site: My review of referring keywords »
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December 31, 2009 by ian
You may think that, with Google Analytics, you don't need your server log files any more. Or, as someone who runs a web site for your business, you may not even know what log files are. They're redundant, right? Wrong. You still need those log files! What's a log file? Whoa there, you say. Ian, you're going geeky. What the heck is a log file? It's your server's record of who's come to your site, when, and exactly what they looked at. It's incredibly detailed, showing: Where folks came from What browser they were using Exactly which files they looked…
Continue Reading Analytics: Why you still need those log files »
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October 12, 2009 by ian
This post assumes you're a Feedburner user. If you're not, here's the short version: Feedburner gives you a bunch of free tools to enhance your site's RSS feed. You can read more and get set up (for free) here. Everyone brags about their Feedburner subscriber numbers. Too bad those don't really tell you squat. The subscriber count tells you how many folks once stopped by and clicked the 'subscribe' button. I'm on a panel titled "Branding in the Social Age" at REBlogworld this week, so I've been thinking about this more than usual. Subscriber data is fun - I feel…
Continue Reading 3 Feedburner Engagement Stats You Must Follow »
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May 12, 2009 by ian
It's not that bad, I swear! 27 easy little steps that will take you from the day the boss pokes her head into your office and says "Hey, I think we need analytics" to the night you get Employee of the Year for leading a company-wide turnaround. Establish from the start that analytics is not a pretty graph. It's the extraction of useful business intelligence from the data. That takes it from being a toolset to being a business strategy, and makes everyone understand its importance. Schedule weekly analytics reviews. Put them in your calendar, so you don't forget or…
Continue Reading 27 Steps to Successful Analytics »
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May 4, 2009 by ian
My mom's a PHD physicist. My dad, a PHD engineer. By the time I was 13 they'd both given up on any dreams of me being a math genius and instead hoped I'd finally count to 20 without removing my shoes. So, when I click 'publish' for this post, I'm going to flinch a little, waiting for someone who's actually math-competent to call me out as the fraud that I am. But I'm writing this anyway, because some folks responded to last week's 11 Things Post by saying stuff like "OK, wise ass, explain some of this stuff." What's a…
Continue Reading Rolling Averages, by a Math Moron »
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March 31, 2009 by ian
Web analytics are hard. They make internet marketing complicated, introducing annoying stuff like facts and feedback. Why waste your time? While you may understand this, it's possible there are clear thinkers in your organization who insist on collecting all this needless data. Here's how you drive them utterly batty: Change everything. All the time. Rename files. Move pages around. Replace images on the home page. Soon no one will know what worked and what didn't, and you can create those 60 second Flash intros in peace. Remove the tracking code. Nothing screws up some nice, clean HTML 3.0 more than…
Continue Reading Web Analytics: 10 Ways to Poison the Well »
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March 18, 2009 by ian
My second installment of the 5-minute tutorial series is Keyword Analytics in Google Analytics. Harrison, my son, had his video podcast debut. Alas, he spent at least 1/2 the podcast making faces and trying to get me to crack up, which he's far too good at. So if I sound a bit distracted, blame him. I talk about: How to get to the keywords report in Google Analytics. A few measures of keyword quality: Time on site, pages per visit, and bounce rate. How to use paid search as a measure of organic search potential. It goes fast! Keyword Analytics…
Continue Reading Keyword Analytics In Google Analytics: 5 Minute Video »
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March 12, 2009 by ian
I just completed what I hope will be the first of many 5-minute video tutorials. This one is about Referrer Analytics using Google Analytics. It replaces an older tutorial that used the old Google Analytics interface. In it, I describe how to figure out: Who's sending traffic to your site. Specific pages on other sites that are sending that traffic. What's happening when folks get to your site. A few things you can do with this data. What do you think of the length/format/style? Is this helpful? I can do a lot more of these a month than those honking…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Tutorial: Referrer Analytics »
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December 11, 2008 by ian
The recording of my SEMPDX web analytics presentation, "From Google Analytics to Business Analytics", is now available: Click here to view it…
Continue Reading Analytics Presentation Now Available for Viewing »
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November 12, 2008 by ian
Why do internet marketers need to understand segmentation? So they don't act like airlines, of course. That was my topic last night at the SEMPDX Hotseat. I just uploaded my slides, with backup text, to SlideShare. I provide a walkthrough of Google Analytics' new Advanced Segments feature, as well as my thoughts on checked baggage fees: Segmentation = Happiness: SEMPDX PresentationView SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: segmentationanalyticsweb...) Enjoy...…
Continue Reading Segmentation = Happiness: My SEMPDX Presentation »
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November 10, 2008 by ian
I'm speaking at the SEMPDX Hotseat tomorrow night at 6:30. The topic: Web Analytics - Do you know what you're looking at? More important, my co-panelist is Eric Peterson of Web Analytics Demystified fame. I will have just driven for 4 hours. He will have just driven for 10 minutes. Come see just how looped I can get on caffeine while driving the I-5 corridor. It's worth it...…
Continue Reading Speaking at SEMPDX HotSeat Tomorrow - Come Heckle »
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October 9, 2008 by ian
Steve, Steve, Steve. Pagerank? The 'ultimate measure'? Really? I tried to resist the urge to link to his recent post, where he says that Pagerank is the ultimate measure of online influence. But that's like trying to ignore your kid's stinky diaper in the hopes your spouse will take care of it: It only stinks more and more. At some point, the poop's gotta come out. The pagerank you see doesn't matter. It's worthless. OK? Are we done? Just in case we're not, here's why it doesn't matter: The Pagerank You See Is An Illusion First, the pagerank you…
Continue Reading Steve's Wrong: Pagerank is a Horrible Measure of Online Influence »
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September 27, 2008 by ian
You can use Google Analytics to figure out how folks found one specific page on your site. That kind of data is extremely helpful if, say, your traffic abruptly spikes on a Saturday morning and you're trying to figure out why. Here's how you do it: Log into Google Analytics. If you don't have it set up, use my somewhat dated but still useful setup tutorial. Assuming the traffic surge happened on a single day, use the date range selector to limit your data to that one day: Then click 'Content' and the 'Top Content' sub-menu on the left:…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Tip: Learn How They Found That 1 Page. »
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July 8, 2008 by ian
I did WebTrends a disservice here by failing to point out that my client's creaky WebTrends installation was a very old, purely log-file-based one. Newer versions of WebTrends are every bit as versatile and accurate their competitors. If you switch from one web analytics package to another, be ready to make some adjustments in your metrics goals. Web Analytics Q & A How many people here used WebTrends or something similar up until a few years ago? How many switched to, say, Google Analytics, Omniture or Urchin 6? OK, last question: How many of you nearly got fired when your…
Continue Reading Analytics Apples And Oranges: Switching Web Analytics Tools Without Getting Fired »
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May 6, 2008 by ian
Beware bad statistics. They can kill your internet marketing campaign with bad assumptions, incorrect assessments, and by sending you far off track. By 'bad', I mean: Statistics that are collected from a small population. Alexa, for example, collects a lot of their data based on Alexa Toolbar users. It's very possible those users behave differently than the rest of the internet population. So being top 10,000 on Alexa may not mean a heck of a lot. Statistics that are just a rough model of the real data. Google's toolbar pagerank (the pagerank number you see in the Google Toolbar)…
Continue Reading 5 Kinds of Bad Statistics, and How They Can Kill Your Internet Marketing Campaign »
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May 2, 2008 by ian
If you're using Google Analytics to record sales data, you may have noticed really horrible sales over the last couple days. Don't panic. I don't think it's you. It appears that, starting April 30th, Google Analytics isn't correctly reporting e-commerce revenue. We figured this out after noticing that, of our 10+ clients using Google e-commerce reporting, all were showing the same drop in sales. Here are graphs from two completely different sites, on different servers, in different industries: Bounce rates, site traffic and visit quality have all remained totally stable on these sites - there's no evidence anything went wrong.…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Is Losing E-commerce Data: Don't Panic?!! »
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April 3, 2008 by ian
Cool new feature I just spotted in Google Analytics. The ability to graph data by week or month: You can even graph revenue by hour: Don't know about you, but I've been wanting something like this for quite a while. No more migraines from grouping data... A Book Worth Reading:…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Adds Weekly, Monthly Graphing »
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March 24, 2008 by ian
Google Analytics now has their nifty benchmarking feature all set up. If you're running Google Analytics you can see how your site traffic compares to others. First, here's how you set it up, and why you should: Open Your Kimono, Just a Little First, you have to give Google access to your analytics data. "OH MY GOD," you say, "THAT'S CRAZY. Let a giant software and internet company have access to my data?!! Forget it." Do it. Strictly speaking, Google already has all of this data. They're not going to share your specific numbers with your competitors. That'd be stupidity…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Benchmarking: Tutorial, and Things that Make You Go Hmmmmm... »
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March 16, 2008 by ian
Friday, someone told me it's hard to convince folks they need to use multivariate testing in their internet marketing campaigns. Once my mouth closed, I decided to write this post. What Multivariate Testing Is If you already know, you can skip down to why you need it, below. I can't define it without twisting my own brain in a knot, so I'm going to use an example, instead. Say I have a landing page. On this page, I want to test the headline, the body copy, and maybe how I link to the product sample: You can see the actual…
Continue Reading Multivariate Testing: What it Is, Why You Need It »
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March 12, 2008 by ian
I am so, so, so tired of 'experts' telling me that things like podcasts, social media or other, harder-to-quantify online media are "hard to measure". Bull. The most difficult-to-measure online asset is far, far easier to measure than the best offline one. More Measurable Than Any Traditional Media Corporations have blown ridiculous amounts of cash on television, print advertising and radio. Traditional agencies then tell them proudly of impressions and readers. But what do they really know? Nothing. I may have walked out of the room when the commercial played. Or flipped past the print ad. Or simply ignored the…
Continue Reading Web Analytics: The Myth of Inaccuracy »
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February 22, 2008 by ian
Google Analytics, Omniture, WebSideStory and other major analytics packages use tagging. They're all worth spit if you don't take advantage of it. This week I've had three clients nearly pop blood vessels over improper tagging by their teams. I thought a practical tutorial might be in order. Why? Without tagging, the software can't accurately track performance of paid search ads, banners and other forms of online advertising. Some of you are already warming up your keyboard to leave me a snippy comment about how clueless I am. Google Adwords, of course, now uses auto-tagging. It's one exception, I know about…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Tagging Demystified »
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January 29, 2008 by ian
There's an internet marketing metric you're not watching, but you should be. You're tracking visitors. You're tracking pageviews. Hopefully, you're even tracking keywords and conversions. But are you tracking bounce rate? Bounce Rate is the percentage of visitors leaving your site after viewing only the page on which they landed. If I visit your site, view one page and leave, without clicking any other links, then I'm a 'bounce'. A higher bounce rate is bad. A lower one is good. How to Measure Bounce Rate You need a basic web analytics package. In Google Analytics, you'll find bounce rate right…
Continue Reading Bounce Rate: The Stat You Need To Know »
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January 16, 2008 by ian
If you're using Google Analytics, Google Adwords and 'auto-tagging', you may have noticed that your numbers suddenly dropped: It's not you. We've researched this and contacted Google. Here's what we found out: Apparently, this is only occurring for folks using auto-tagging. If you're using UTM codes, you're fine. Google is aware of the problem and is working on it. The folks at Google say no data's been lost. It appears, at least for us, that clicks and sales from Adwords were recorded as 'direct' instead. So the revenue may still be in your reports, just mis-allocated. So, if you're seeing…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Is Having Problems: Auto-Tagging Issues »
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December 12, 2007 by ian
Google Analytics is getting ready to roll out some cool new stuff. Looks like they've started. I went in to check the stats for my blog, and can now compare two metrics: This kind of comparison is very valuable. With it, you can check to see if, say, pageviews/visit remain stable with visits increase. If they stay stable, then visitor quality is pretty solid. If pageviews per visit plunge as daily visitors rise, you're attracting the wrong visitors: Even snazzier: You can compare data for a single traffic source, segment or event type to data for the entire site: This…
Continue Reading New Google Analytics Features Rolling Out »
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December 9, 2007 by ian
SEO and Social Media support each other: Higher rankings mean more visitors and more bloggers writing about you. More bloggers writing about you translates to more links, which in turn improve your rankings. It's easy to say, but hard to prove. The next time your boss/client is asking you why they should spend any time on social media (or SEO), show them this: In early June we began an intensive social media campaign for a client: We sent their product to key bloggers, linked to them, and started a paid search campaign that actually focused on that audience. We started…
Continue Reading The Relationship Between Social Media and SEO »
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November 8, 2007 by ian
Zain asks: “How do you know your Internet Marketing is working, if there is no CPA?†I use several different metrics: Pageviews / Visit Time on site Non-CPA conversions, like e-mail newsletter signups Segments defined by complete reads of specific site sections, etc. 3 and 4 are the best - they're the most flexible. A conversion doesn't have to be a purchase or a form completion. It can also be any time a user reads more than 5 pages on your site, reads one entire white paper, or spends more than 4 minutes on the site. For example, on…
Continue Reading Analytics Without a CPA Goal: Stump Ian, Question 5 (or 6?) »
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November 5, 2007 by ian
Yesterday I explained how to set up Google Analytics new site search feature in five steps. For that little bit of work, the site search reports provide lots of great data. Here are some of highlights. After you've set up site search, you'll find a new item under 'Content' - 'Site Search': That displays the site search overview page, which includes this trending summary. You should pay particular attention to the summary, because it'll show you if something's going wrong (or right) that's causing folks to use your search tool less (or more): Visits with Search shows you the…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Site Search: Working with the Data »
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November 4, 2007 by ian
On Friday, Google added Site Search to Google Analytics. Site search lets you track the phrases visitors use in your onsite search tool, as opposed to the search phrases they use on search engines. This information is gold: If you know what folks are looking for on your site, you can make sure it's available from your home page, increase conversion rates, and have happier visitors. Setting it up is a cinch - far easier than the roundabout hack I created a few months ago. It takes only 5 very easy steps: Step 1: Log In To Google Analytics…
Continue Reading Install Google Analytics Site Search In 5 Steps »
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October 30, 2007 by ian
Note: I'm doing some final prep work for my SMX presentation tomorrow. Well, actually I'm sitting here in a daze after a good Swedish beer, trying to stay awake until 9 PM local time. But I'm rehearsing, too, and I often get my thoughts straight by writing about it, first. If you have a moment, please review my notes, and let me know if you've got any comments/additions. I only have 10 minutes to talk - the rest is a panel discussion. Thanks! Measuring Pay Per Click Keyword Effectiveness(without conversions) Analytics improvements in the last few years have made…
Continue Reading PPC Waste Management Without Conversions: Smart Keyword Analytics »
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October 24, 2007 by jadeI
Darwin, Cyberspace, and Oprah’s Book Club Note from Ian: Jade is senior copywriter and creative lead at my company. Like me, she often wonders if we should take people's internet connections away... If author Francis Bellamy* lived today, the Pledge of Allegiance would probably be changed to read “and flickr and facebook for all.†Indeed, every time you sigh, fifty-six thousand shiny new podcasts, blogs and social networking sites make their proud launch into our web 2.0 world. As a result, gracious, intelligent and useful online content is scarce, buried ten-fold by Zombocom and “Are You Hot?†quizzes. Such…
Continue Reading Guest Post: Online Democracy Must Die »
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October 19, 2007 by ian
A nice way to end the week. My company is officially a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant. Pretty prestigious company, and there are only 14 of us in North America. Hopefully this will mean more cool tutorials on new features right when they come out. Technorati Tags: Google Analytics…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Certified!!!! »
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October 16, 2007 by ian
Google has announced a new version of Google Analytics. They'll be rolling out the new features over the next several weeks, and they sound great: Tracking for outgoing clicks without tagging. Until now, you've had to hand-tag links away from your site if you wanted to track clicks on those links. Not any more. Rich media and AJAX analytics. I'm not 100% sure how they'll do this, so I'll withhold judgment until I see it in action. Integrated site search tracking. Remember this long tutorial I did? You won't need it any more. Sniff. There will be bumps in…
Continue Reading New Google Analytics Announced »
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September 21, 2007 by ian
In internet marketing, that which is measured, improves. But it's tough to know exactly what to measure, especially as your web site becomes just one part in a much larger campaign. And it's even tougher to know how to measure. I always say internet marketing isn't about the tech stuff. That's true. But the tech stuff can still trip you up. Here's my ideal metrics, and how to collect them, in priority order: 1. Conversions Your internet marketing campaign is supposed to do something that will ultimately impact your organization - generate leads, or sales, or votes, or something…
Continue Reading 7 Internet Marketing Metrics You Must Track (and how) »
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September 18, 2007 by ian
You have a phone number on your website, or your landing page. Or maybe in that Adwords ad. But how do you know if it's the reason you're getting those calls? More important, how do you prove it the CEO, who continually harasses you about the money you're 'wasting' on internet marketing. Every time he looks at you, accusingly, you can feel your career prospects dwindling. But I digress. You can measure your site's performance, in terms of its ability to make your phone ring (literally). Four steps, and you're all set: Get a separate 800 number for the…
Continue Reading Wiretap Your Website: Measure Phone Calls Generated By Online Ads »
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September 13, 2007 by ian
This tool should help you decide the internet marketing medium (organic search, pay per click, e-mail, banners, etc.) on which you should focus first: You can download it in PDF format here. How I Created It I've spent the last year collecting data from various client sites. I averaged sales, conversion rates and time-to-conversion across the sites. The sites included: 7 e-commerce sites, all B2C except for one B2B site. 2 sites where a conversion was a sales lead. 1 site where a conversion was a minimum time on site. I can't provide the numbers, I'm afraid, as that'd…
Continue Reading Internet Marketing Tools Ranked. Conclusion? Search Rocks. »
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August 14, 2007 by ian
There's a lot more to successful internet marketing than a sale, or a lead. Your 'key performance indicators' (KPIs, for short) measure your site's contribution to success in other channels. And they measure your site's drip-drip-drip effect as it grows your organization. Sometimes it's hard to know what 'success' is. And you can't figure out something like what a click's worth until you do. Here's how you can find your web site KPIs: What's your business? If services, skip to #4. If product, go to #2. If you offer a catalog, then a catalog request is a goal. If…
Continue Reading Measurable Goals: Key Performance Indicators For Your Web Site »
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August 9, 2007 by ian
I am a social media stalker. I admit it. Thankfully that breaks no laws, and I'm allowed to use tools like Pythia (disclosure - I built it) to snoop now and then. I've been watching what happens on Wendy's eMomsAtHome over the last few weeks. Note the big surge in Bloglines mentions: Wow. And, just a few days later, a nice surge in pages indexed by Yahoo: The cause is pretty easy to track down - Wendy was at the BlogHer conference. She's famous and stuff - so she generated some buzz, mentioned the conference, and voila, instant surge.…
Continue Reading Social Media Voyeurism - Stalking eMomsAtHome »
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July 31, 2007 by ian
I've seen conversion rates jump by as much as 20% on sites tailored to internal search phrases. To accomplish that, though, you need to know your site's internal search data. What's internal search data? If you know what your customers search for on your site, you can deliver more of what they want. Here's how you can use two free tools to measure internal search. Google's new Custom Search Business Edition is a great search engine for small to mid-size sites. But it doesn't provide much in the way of useful analytics - a little graph of search volume,…
Continue Reading Know What Your Customers Want: Analyze Internal Search Data With Google Analytics »
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July 30, 2007 by ian
Update: Starting to see some data now. According to the Google Analytics Blog, they're making progress. Update: From the Google Analytics Blog - “Temporary Reporting Delay Since Saturday Nightâ€. Google reports they are updating accounts right now. All data was stored. The reports just weren't updated. That's the best case, I guess, given the circumstances. They will post a further update when reports are fully restored. I'll update here, too. Google Analytics has been dead, recording zero results, since late Saturday. No note or message from Google or from Avinash. It's hard to tell what's going on, exactly -…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Down For the Count »
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July 26, 2007 by ian
My company just started offering Google Analytics consulting. There, I said it, after 5 days of pondering whether I should or not. I'll go back to our regularly scheduled programming now. Technorati Tags: analytics, Google Analytics, web analytics…
Continue Reading Because A Shameless Plug Is OK Now and Then »
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July 9, 2007 by ian
Hey Steve: Page views still have value. I'll bet you lunch on it. Steve Rubel just posted 'The Page View Is Officially Dead', based on the news that Nielsen NetRatings will no longer use page views as a metric. Total time on site is a far better measure of attention. Or is it? A lousy navigation system may lead to more time spent on a site. So might slow site performance. Or someone heading to lunch and leaving their browser window open. Keep pageviews around. You're going to need them. So Steve, here's my challenge: Pick a campaign. Let…
Continue Reading Page Views Live! I'll Bet You Lunch. »
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July 2, 2007 by ian
We've just launched a free social media analytics tool. It's called Pythia. The free version of Pythia measures your marketing campaigns based on several metrics: Links pointing to your site, according to Yahoo!. Pages from your site in the Yahoo! index. Links pointing to your site, according to Technorati. Posts mentioning your site, according to Del.icio.us. And mentions of your site on Bloglines. Changes in all of these metrics, over time. The paid version also adds: Site ranking for specific keywords. Changes in rankings over time. Pythia doesn't re-invent anything, nor is it revolutionary in the data it collects.…
Continue Reading Introducing Pythia: Social Analytics »
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June 29, 2007 by ian
Analytics is great. Now stop using it for a week. The beauty of internet marketing is that you can measure everything. But that's also its curse. I see more and more companies who won't move an inch without hard data. That's shortsighted, and ignores the fact that marketing is for human beings, by human beings. Sometimes you have to take a chance on something new and creative. How will you build a brand around something if you wait for a 4:1 ROI? At some point, you have to use the best computer you've got: Your own brain. Next week,…
Continue Reading Tear Up Your Web Stats: One Analytics-Free Week »
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June 15, 2007 by ian
Google Analytics 2.0 has some great upgrades. The best ones, though, center around easier data exploration and discovery. Avinash has some great pointers, and I've finally done an video tutorial about it: Online Videos by Veoh.com You might want to keep count. I believe I said 'notice' at least 100 times...…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Tutorial: Version 2 »
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May 29, 2007 by ian
Joy asked how you can use Google Analytics to track exactly what users do when they get to your site. There are a few tools in Google Analytics that let you research how folks move through your site: Navigation Summary Click Content > Overview > Navigation Summary: You'll see a screen that looks like this: In the Content drop-down menu (near the top of the image above), select any page. You'll see how site visitors got to that page, and where they went after. This feature works 'out of the box', even if you don't have any goals defined.…
Continue Reading Navigation Analysis with Google Analytics »
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May 8, 2007 by ian
Google is rolling out a new version of Google Analytics. If you have an Analytics account, you should be upgraded in the next couple of weeks. The new look and feel is much friendlier: But the coolest changes, in my opinion, are: Customizable dashboards. Automatically e-mailed reports. Easier date range selection. Google is billing this as an easier-to-use toolset. But I have to say that features 1 and 2 make this a better toolset for the geeks, too: Now I can have reports e-mailed to my office and automatically imported into our analytics tools. Go Google!!!! Technorati Tags: Google…
Continue Reading Google Analytics 2.0 »
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May 8, 2007 by ian
I've just started contributing a bit to the Wikipedia article on Web Analytics. My main focus right now: The difference between web analytics and web traffic reporting. To me: Analytics is the practice of analysis, where a person looks at data and attempts to draw useful conclusions. Traffic reporting is usually done by software, like Google Analytics (a confusing name) or Omniture. I've talked about this before, but I think it's becoming my latest internet crusade. Free the analyzers! Give them credit where credit is due! Technorati Tags: analytics…
Continue Reading Analytics Versus Reporting »
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May 7, 2007 by ian
Jeremiah interviewed Avinash Kaushik, who reports that adding a person to manage web analytics can increase ROI as much as 5000%. Duh. Drive down the road with your eyes closed. How far do you get? (please don't - it's just a metaphor) Now drive down the road with your eyes open. You get farther, right? Adding a dedicated web analytics resource, whether it's an outside firm or a person in your organization, has limitless potential. Suddenly, you know what's working and what's not. You can dump investments that don't bring results, and test new ones. This works whether you're…
Continue Reading 5000% ROI Increase With Analytics »
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May 1, 2007 by ian
ClickTale has just launched the beta version of their analytics tool, and I got a peek. In short, it's a winner. Imagine watching how someone actually scrolls through a page on your site. Then imagine seeing exactly what gets the most attention, and where your users give up or convert. That's ClickTale. ClickTale records user sessions, then lets you play them back, thereby showing you exactly how someone moved through your site: Even better, they provide advanced heat maps that show you how much attention individual page areas received: Recording clicks is important. Recording attention is better: Warmer colors…
Continue Reading ClickTale: Attention Analytics, Finally! »
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April 18, 2007 by ian
Where people are coming from (what web site). What keywords they use to find you. Which pages on your site are most popular. Which pages on your site drive people away. How much time visitors spend on your site. How many people come to your site. Which days of the week are the busiest. There are certainly others. But if your web traffic reporting doesn't give you at least this much, look around. There are plenty of free or really low-cost options that will. For example: www.google.com/analytics www.haveamint.com www.clicktracks.com/products/appetizer/…
Continue Reading 7 Things Most Web Analytics Packages Can Tell You »
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April 6, 2007 by ian
Google has taken their Website Optimizer out of beta. Or at least, they've made it available to everyone. At its simplest, Website Optimizer helps you test and measure different web page headlines, graphics, copy, etc. against each other. Here's a quick overview: Say you're wondering whether one headline will generate more leads than another. You're also wondering whether a small change to on-page copy will make a difference. Normally, you'd have to build four pages, one for each combination of headline and copy. With Website Optimizer, though, you can put a small script in your page. Then Google will…
Continue Reading Google Website Optimizer Now Available »
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March 29, 2007 by ian
I haven't forgotten about the video tutorials, I promise. Here's the latest, in which I go over Google Analytics' cool visitor segmentation feature. Before you watch, note that my brain shut down for part of the tutorial, and I made at least four mistakes when typing in the javascript code - don't use the example I type in during the tutorial. Instead, use this: <script type=“text/javascriptâ€> __utmSetVar('readhomepage'); </script> Note the single quotes, and the correct script name. Do as I type in my blog, not as I type in my videos. Online Videos by Veoh.com Click here to play…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Tutorial 6: Visitor Segmentation »
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March 27, 2007 by ian
Seems like a no-brainer: A faster-loading site will increase conversions. But do you know how much more you can earn if your site loads in 4 seconds instead of, say, 10? We made a change to a client's site yesterday that reduced page loads by 6 seconds. Sales doubled. They doubled. Folks often tell me it'll “take too long†to fix speed issues on their sites. I think maybe it should be a higher priority... Technorati Tags: analytics, internet marketing, web analytics…
Continue Reading Better Sales From Faster Download Speeds »
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March 13, 2007 by ian
Justin pointed out an error I'd made in Google Analytics Tutorial 3: I wanted to bring up one point re: Tutorial #3. In the video you show how to cross segment referral traffic based on Content. I think this part of the video may be a bit off. When I cross segment my Referring Source based on Content I do not see the content from my site, I see the content from the referral site. Google Analytics is showing me the page on the referral site where the link to my site appeared. In general, 'Content' referrs to the…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Video Tutorial 3: A Correction »
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March 12, 2007 by ian
While we wait for my goal tracking data to percolate a bit, I've reviewed some of the practical ways you can use Google Analytics to measure search engine optimization & paid search efforts. This lesson includes: Interpreting keyword data. Judging the value of keywords against each other. Placing keyword and search traffic in the context of individual pages. Plus, I learned something new: My blog ranks #1 on Google for 'internet marketing QA', and that generates traffic. Who knew... Watch the video in Flash: Online Videos by Veoh.com Or in Quicktime format, full-sized (960 pixels wide). Previous Sessions: Google…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Video Tutorial 5: Search Analytics »
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March 10, 2007 by ian
The amount of time folks spend on a page may tell you something's wrong. So, why does this video have an average view time of 1:30, when the others all average 4 minutes or more? I'm guessing three possible reasons: I don't have a large-size, downloadable video available for download. So, I'm going to replace the smaller video with a larger quicktime version. The concept of goal tracking is far more complex, and I may have done a lousy job of explaining it. I'm going to do an additional, supplemental video on the subject shortly. People may just not…
Continue Reading Use Analytics To Adjust Your Site: An Example »
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March 2, 2007 by ian
Never let it be said that I don't observe & adjust! Almost 100% of those who've contacted me since I started doing these has asked for a presentation on using goals. This is my first crack at it. In this video, I review: What a goal really is. Different kinds of goals. How to set up basic goal tracking. How to read goal tracking data. Update: Here's the video in Flash format: Online Videos by Veoh.com Or, watch it at full size (956 pixels wide), in Quicktime format: If this is too elementary, or too complex, or you have…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Tutorial 4: Working With Goals »
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February 27, 2007 by ian
At long last, here's installment 3 of my Google Analytics tutorials. Please excuse some very choppy editing - I had to get rid of various coughs, sneezes and other viral sounds you just didn't need to hear. In it, I talk about the analysis menu and using it to: Learn where people who view a specific page come from. Learn where those people go afterwards. Figure out what changes you might want to make. This is a very preliminary look at these kinds of challenges. Future tutorials will go into more depth. Important: A reader found an error in…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Tutorial 3: Digging Deeper »
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February 16, 2007 by ian
I'm not 100% sure I agree that pageviews are dead, but folks sure are talking about it a lot. Pageviews have long been seen as the best measure of audience attention and loyalty. But the advent of AJAX and other technologies let visitors browse content without loading a new page. That, in turn, means that most web analytics software can't accurately track pageviews on sites that use these newer technologies. Don't cancel your WebTrends or Google Anlaytics subscription just yet, though. You can still track loyalty and attention, here are four other ways to do it: Time On Site:…
Continue Reading Pageviews are dead? 4 Other Must-Have Attention Metrics »
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February 15, 2007 by ian
This video is out of date. Take a look at the newer version: Google Analytics Tutorial: Basic Stats Last time, I went over how to set up your Google Analytics account. This time, I'll discuss the four essential statistics that, no matter what, you must keep an eye on in Google Analytics: Absolute Unique Visitors are the number of unique individuals who've come to your site in a given time period. So, if I come to your site 20 times in a week, I still only count as a single unique visitor. This statistic is important because it tells you…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Video Tutorial 2: Essential Stats »
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February 12, 2007 by ian
An updated version of this video tutorial is available in Google Analytics Tutorial Redux. This quick tutorial shows you how to set up Google Analytics. Analytics is critical to your internet marketing strategy. It lets you measure who comes to your web site, where they came from, and what they do when they get there. Those are the three basics of Observe And Adjust. Google Analytics does all of that. And it's free. So why isn't every single marketer on earth using it? I hear things like: "It's too complicated." "My webmaster says they don't have time." So, as an…
Continue Reading Google Analytics Tutorial 1: Setup »
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January 6, 2007 by ian
A pretty graph isn't analytics. It's a report. What you do with that report is 'analytics'. It's an important distinction. Look at this graph: It's a Google Analytics report showing me which pages get more or less traffic on the Portent Interactive web site. The subtler and most important point, though, is how important our Portfolio page is. It's 7.5% of all page views on our site. That doesn't seem like much. But drilling down a bit deeper shows that 30% of the people who visit our portfolio go to our 'Contact Us' page, and 4% sign up for…
Continue Reading Reports Aren't Analytics »
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July 12, 2006 by ian
ClickTale is an about-to-be-released tool that will let you basically create movies of visitors' use of your site. I don't know much about it (just applied for the beta program) but have a look. It's definitely got huge potential. What's better than knowing exactly how, and when, people clicked? Technorati Tags: internet marketing…
Continue Reading ClickTale: Film user interaction with your site »
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January 15, 2006 by ian
Business Week has a new article about the growing power of mathematics in our lives. In Internet Marketing math has been essential for some time. As more and more consumers move online, we can construct increasingly accurate models of behavior, and mathematics play a bigger and bigger role in our lives. The real story, though, is how math, analytics and creative can come together to model great marketing communications.…
Continue Reading Math Rocks »
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December 30, 2005 by ian
ABC news has a story up about the White House web site. Apparently, they use WebTrends to measure site traffic, and were horrified to find out that WebTrends uses cookies: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1455081 OK, people, let's set some priorities, shall we? We face terrorism, domestic spying by the NSA, natural disasters and the like, and we're writing news stories about the use of anonymous cookies? Tracking cookies are totally harmless. They're far less intrusive than, say, those grocery store membership cards we all use - those cards let the stores track our every purchase, and match it up with our identities. A…
Continue Reading Even More Cookie Hysteria »
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September 13, 2005 by ian
OK, here's your big chance. Usually I type from my high horse, critiquing other folks' mistakes. Now you get to knock me down a peg or two. My company, Portent Interactive, has launched a new service: ClickSight. ClickSight is a web analytics service that lets you actually see where folks click on a given page of your site.…
Continue Reading Turnabout Is Fair Play »
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March 29, 2005 by ian
Google bought Urchin today. Here's the link. Yes, I'm patting myself on the back - I've always loved Urchin's product. But what does this mean for Google, and for my favorite web analytics program?…
Continue Reading Prognostication: Google buys Urchin »
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September 27, 2004 by ian
At first glance, measuring the results of a search engine optimization campaign seems easy: If you get a high rank for the keywords and phrases you're targeting, then it's working. If you don't, then it's not. But good, organic search engine optimization often brings unexpected results, by getting you high rank for terms you didn't think of. Those unanticipated terms may generate even more traffic than the ones you planned on. So how do you measure SEO results? In a word, referrers.…
Continue Reading Analyzing SEO Results »
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March 20, 2004 by ian
Standard web analytics packages, such as WebTrends, Urchin and Webalizer, provide a wealth of information about your site's performance. But which information matters? Hits? Visits? Pageviews? Sessions? Maybe all of the above, but you need to understand what each statistic means if you're going to make sense of it all.…
Continue Reading Hits, Sessions and Visits: Reading A Traffic Report Accurately »
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