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Categories » ‘Analytics’

The Analytics data access & ownership dilemma

May 14th, 2010 by Pete

A dilemma that I am encountering more frequently arises when good meaning web developers create and deploy Analytics sub-accounts (Analytics calls them a ‘profile’) for their clients.

The ‘issue’ only arises after the clients engage an internet marketer, who will want to access the site’s Analytics information to better understand the website’s history and traffic characteristics.

Analytics enthusiasts like myself will refine the Analytics settings for improved reporting, specific investigations etc which requires Admin access, and this is where the problem emerges.

Granting Analytics Admin to enable these refinements, also provides access to all profiles;
ie the web dev’s others client’s in that Analytics account.

This is not desirable from either the web dev or the internet marketer’s perspective, and as a result admin rights are not typically granted. This in turn impedes the internet marketer’s ability to deliver services.

Happy birthday Analytics!

April 23rd, 2010 by Pete

Yep, Analytics is 5 years old!

Its 5 years ago that Google acquired Urchin & so Analytics was ‘born’

Read more on the Analytics blog

Speeding up page load speed | Analytics Async scripts

April 20th, 2010 by Pete

During the prehistoric internet days, when dial-up was the only way to connect, page load speed was a critical  issue. Now with high speed broadband connections and fast wireless access there’s less focus, even complacency  about page load speed (by web devs).

Never the less, page load speed is important

As an Internet marketer I’m fanatical about having  Google’s Analytics scripts in the site, but these too can impoact page load speed.

This article by Justin Cutroni of Analytics Talk provides some interesting insights into page load speed impact due to Analytics as well as  some solutions including the  new(ish)   Analytics Async scripts.

Nice work Justin!



Google WebMasters Tools | Updated Top enquiries with more info

April 15th, 2010 by Pete

Google WebMasters Tools recently updated its Top search queries
If you’re not a WebMasters Tools user, this capability enables you to see the terms and number of searches that your site ranked for in Google for up to the last 6 months.

Very useful data if you are trying to win some business online.

The new capabilities exposes more data about the terms (ie keywords), the rank and even the pages that did rank. All essential diagnostic data for this type of analysis.

What is even better about this enhancement is the data is presented in Analytics style charts with great drill down capability building into the UI

Nice work Google WebMasters Tools, and all the more reason you should be using this amazing tool to diagnose your business website’s organic search performance

Analytics upgrade gives even closer website scrutiny

October 22nd, 2009 by Pete

Google has upgraded Analytics to V4 with a host of new features to enable even closer scrutiny of your website’s performance.

This industrial strength yet surprisingly free website metrics system can help you understand more about how your site is performing and give clues on how to improve it to ultimately make it a viable contributor to your business sales activities.

The upgrade includes:

• More sophisticated goal tracking
• Better table filtering
• More flexible reporting
• A threshold based alerting system

Read more…

Where are your website visitors going & what have they downloaded?

September 20th, 2009 by Pete

My stock answer to nearly all website measurement queries is to recommend Google Analytics.
Its easy to install; gives great reports; can plot a sales funnel and so much more. Unbelievably its free!

What is even more unbelievable is the amazing array of Analytics tweaks and custom tracking ‘extensions’.

For example, Analytics doesn’t report a couple of key pieces of info ‘out of the box’ ie

• where do visitors go when they leave your site?
• what has been downloaded from my site?

To answer these questions you would normally add special Analytics scripts to every link etc Tedious!
Good Web Practices has a nifty script that dynamically captures site exits and PDF and other downloads in Analytics – well worth a look.

Analytics for business people | Referring sites

August 25th, 2009 by Pete

Referring Sites

Because of the important nature of referring traffic this module extends the Traffic Sources Overview to focus explicitly on where referrals are coming from.
referrals

Business Interpretation

Referring websites are just as important to your business as off-line sales referals;

  • They bring prospective clients to your site
  • You are being ‘recommended’ by the referee
  • YellowPages Online and other internet directory sites should also appear in this category if they are being used as part of your online promotion.

    This referral data along with metrics like Pages/Visit will you to evaluate these sources as viable contributors to your business promotion.

    If you don’t recognise the websites referring business to you, then make the effort to establish a relationship with them;you might get even more referrals!

    Analytics for business people

    This is one of a series of articles to help business people extract value from their Analytics reports.

    Got questions about interpreting your Analytics reports?
    Leave me a comment

    Cheers
    Pete

     

    Analytics for business people | Visits & Site Usage

    August 25th, 2009 by Pete

    Visits chart

    This chart shows the fundamental web metric, Visits displayed over the report period.

    visits

    Visits should be slowly increasing because you’ve been working hard to get more prospective clients to your website. It is quite normal for traffic to ease during weekends and holiday periods in a business website.

    Site Usage

    Visits

    The number of visitors to the site
    Note this is not a direction correlation with visitors because if one visitor came to the site three times this represents 3 visits.

    PageViews

    The number of times a page was viewed or displayed
    If during a visit, a visitor viewed a particular page 3 times then this represents 3 page views

    Pages/Visit

    The average number of pages viewed in a visit
    This is a key metric as it represents the level of visitor engagement with the site.

    Bounce rate

    Represents the portion of visitors who leave the site immediately after visiting it i.e. they ‘bounce’ straight out of the site

    Average time on site

    Average period of time that visitors spend on the site

    % new visits

    The portion of new visitors to the site

    Business Interpretation

    As with any advertising, the business needs to gain exposure to prospective clients.

    A healthy level of visits is paramount; particularly increasing over time.

    Weekends, public holidays even school holidays can impact website visits

    A good portion of new visitors who represent new prospective clients is also key.

    The Pages/Visit signals the level of visitor interest and is particularly useful in later report modules to make judgments about the value of traffic sources etc.

    Analytics for business people

    This is one of a series of articles to help business people extract value from their Analytics reports.

    Got questions about interpreting your Analytics reports?
    Leave me a comment

    Cheers
    Pete

     

    Listen to what your website is trying to tell you!

    May 8th, 2009 by Pete

    I encountered a great example today of really appreciating what your website is trying to tell you.

    Actually it is really what visitor activity tells you, and the only way to ‘hear’ this is through interpreting website statistics.

    In this case the client had a temporary parking web page while they underwent the arduous task of implementing a new website.

    Recently installed, Analytics (my fav web metrics tool) revealed that the site was attracting visitors from searches nicely aligned with this client’s business and in their target geography. Great news!

    The bad news was Analytics revealed these visitors were immediately abandoning the site, apparently unimpressed with the parking page.

    Until I revealed this today the business had no idea how many sales opportunities it had lost, and as you would expect, the website refurbishment is now a top priority.

    How may sales leads are you loosing because you can’t hear what your website telling you ?

    Paid search tips and traps

    October 28th, 2008 by Pete

    So you’ve been telemarketed by yet another paid search provider and it sounds like an excellent marketing investment (and it is!).

    But how do you decide which paid search services your business needs, and importantly how do you decide which service provider to use ?  Could you DIY paid search ? Not sure? Read on.