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Posts Tagged ‘google analytics’
Saturday, February 12th, 2011
There have been several significant improvements made to Google’s Webmaster Tools over this past week. One feature that has been added is the ability to link your Google Analytics data to your Webmaster Tools account. This enables a webmaster to view analytics for their sites without having to switch between Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools.
It may only be a convenience issue, but for those business owners who manage their own sites, time is always an issue – hopefully this will make life a little easier. What may be of more interest to users of Webmaster Tools is the increased data available on search queries used to find their pages.
In the past, Webmaster Tools only displayed results for the top 100 queries. The data was also fairly restricted showing only average search positions, the number of impressions, and the number of click-throughs. You can now see all search queries related to your pages, although you are still restricted to viewing 100 queries at any one time.
What webmasters may find interesting is the statistical appearance of their search queries in mobile searches. You may be surprised to find how often your pages do appear in search results, and how those listings are clicked on. Is your web site optimized for mobile? If not, you may find click-throughs increasing and that traffic from mobile searches interact a little more often.
Analytics are an important tool for all webmasters. By regularly checking your search positions, the number of times your pages appear in search results, and the click-through rate, you can gain a fair indication as to whether or not your online marketing is having any effect on organic search results.
Tags: google analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, search results, Webmaster Tools
Posted in Tracking & Analytics | 3 Comments »
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
The folks at Google Analytics are always trying to improve, and they usually find a way to do it. This time they’ve come up with a nifty little tool called Annotations. It’s simple, really.
Annotations allows any user with access to a Google Analytics profile to leave shared or private notes right on the over-time graph.
Why? Why would you want to do that?
Well, let’s say Bob in marketing decided to build a new landing page. He did and after publishing the landing page there was a slight drop in traffic to a previous landing page that had been doing well. If he was able to Annotate the exact date he created the landing page and the time it was published then you could see if there might be a possible connection between the publication of your new landing page and the loss in traffic to your other page. If the new page was published at 11:59 a.m. on December 26, 2008 and your traffic for the previous landing page begin to drop at 11:03 a.m. on the same day then you can determine that the publication of the landing page was not the reason for your traffic drop.
Annotations gives you the ability to make notes on key events in your marketing execution. Anyone who can access your Google Analytics account can make an annotation and that helps the whole team. Not a bad idea.
Tags: annotation, google analytics, landing page, marketing
Posted in Tracking & Analytics | 2 Comments »
Sunday, December 6th, 2009
It looks like Google may start putting more emphasis on page load times. Already, Google likes sites that load faster and if your site loads faster than your competition’s you will probably rank higher. In the future, if you have huge lag times in your page load time then you may get penalized or perhaps, if it is serious enough, even de-listed.
Why do I say this? Google Analytics has recently announced a new tracking code called asynchronous tracking.
Interestingly, asynchronous tracking is based on page load times. The code itself is supposed to make your pages load faster. Which is a welcome relief for many webmasters because most of us already know that too much code, or too much of the wrong code, can slow down your page load time. If Google Analytics is building new code to make your site load faster, I think that’s a sign.
What about you? Do you think page load time is about to become more important at Google?
Tags: asynchronous tracking, google, google analytics, page load time
Posted in Tracking & Analytics | 4 Comments »
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
Google Analytics is one of the Web’s easiest and most important tools for webmasters. You can have your account set up, literally, within minutes and be tracking your website statistics within a day. Just go to the Google Analytics website at http://www.google.com/analytics/ and click the link labeled “Sign Up Now”. You’ll find it under the blue button labeled “Access Analytics”.
Once you’ve signed up for your account you should get an e-mail with an activation link in it. Click the activation link. You won’t be able to access your account at Google Analytics until you do.
Once inside Google Analytics, click the button labeled “Get Started” and follow the directions to setting up your website for tracking. You can have more than one website, but I recommend starting with just one. At the end of the set up process you’ll be given some code that includes your website’s unique tracking identification number. Add the code to each page of your website in the footer, just before the end body tag. Remember, each page of your site must have the code or you won’t be able to track statistics for that page.
That’s it. Once you have the code in place you’ll be able to track website statistics through Google Analytics. It will take about 24 hours before you see any stats as they will appear for the previous day.
Tags: google analytics, tracking, website statistics
Posted in Tracking & Analytics | No Comments »
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
Do you know what your goals are? Have you let Google know? You should.
Google Analytics allows you to establish goals for your website and will even measure your goals for you so you can determine how successful you are. If you need actionable data, you can get it by measuring your goals and using the information to make necessary changes regarding how you track and measure data and how you act on the data you track and measure.
Your sales funnel is an integral part of that process. By knowing how your traffic flow should result in a sale, you can place the proper metrics where they need to be in order to tell you where in the process you are not meeting your goals. Then you can take that information and make the necessary tweaks and changes to improve the sales process. But it all begins with tracking. Google Analytics is a great tool. You can learn more about setting goals through Google Analytics here.
Tags: goals, google analytics, sales funnel
Posted in Tracking & Analytics | 1 Comment »
Saturday, April 18th, 2009
There are a ton of analytics packages out there. Many of them are premium paid packages and they are very good. I wouldn’t down talk them at all. But there are just as many free ones. The one I’d recommend (if you’re going to go free) is Google Analytics. Even if you are considering one of the paid analytics packages, Google Analytics can stand on its own against most of them.
While there are some specific data that Google Analytics doesn’t track. For instance, it won’t tell you which specific link people are clicking on to go from page A to page B. But it will allow you to see which pages people navigate from and to within your website. For most small business, that’s enough.
But Google Analytics has other cool features too, including:
- Site Overlay – a cool feature so you can see what percentage of visitors click all of your links
- Benchmarking – You can see how you stack up against the general competition in your field
- Browser Percentages – You can see what percentage of your visitors use Firefox, IE, or any other browser
- Traffic Sources – You can view where your traffic is coming from
- Custom Reports – Create your own reports based on data that is important to you
- Set Goals – Meaure your success against your own goals
- Top Content – See which content is getting viewed the most
Google Analytics has plenty more great features as well. If you are a small business owner you can do well with Google Analytics. You don’t need fancy software that costs a lot of money. If you do then you know you do. If you’re not sure, Google Analytics is probably enough.
Tags: google analytics, metrics, small business
Posted in Tracking & Analytics | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
So many small businesses pay a service to create their website, and they think they can place a big check list beside that to-do item and never think about it again. So wrong. Everything online is a process, and thank goodness it is. You can always update your site, add content, tweak your profile and improve your Google rank.
The good news is that there are some great online tracking tools that can help you improve your site, draw viewers, and know which of your webpages draws them in–and which ones are tanking. Knowing your bounce rate can make all the difference.
What’s a bounce rate?
It’s not how fast you can jump on a trampoline–it’s when someone visits your site and literally bounces in–and bounces out. They don’t go any further. They’re a one page wonder. Usually that means they either thought your site was about something else, or you didn’t hold their interest.
When measuring your bounce rate on Google Analytics, be sure to check several things:
Your Page Visits
Time on Site
New Visitors
Each tells you something different. For example, if a new visitor comes to your site, stays less than 30 seconds to a minute and leaves, you’ve got a bit of a problem. It may be in your title, your keywords, or with the graphics of your site, lack of content…in other words, you failed to hook your viewer. Consider making some changes.
If a new visitor comes to your site and stays more than a minute, you can consider this somewhat of a success. Even if they didn’t click to other pages, you held their interest. Perhaps they’ll revisit later. I call this “circling the camp.” Oftentimes, a visitor is itchy–they’re not ready to commit, they want to know what else is out there, but they did circle the perimiter–they know who you are and where you are. Success.
How to improve your bounce rate?
Make sure you page is navigable. Can they find where to click through easily? Are you links underlined and a contrasting color? Is your site too jumbled? Has it been a while since you added new content?
Try improving just one of these areas and watch your bounce rate for improvement.
Be sure to check out your content report and analyze every page of your website. Chances are, you’ve got a wink link. Find out where you’re losing your viewers, and you just figured out where to start implementing a few changes.
Tags: bounce rates, google analytics, tracking and analytics, website development
Posted in Business Writing, Small Business Internet Marketing, Tools for Small Business, Tracking & Analytics, Uncategorized, website development | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
Attracting quality visitors to your small business website isn’t easy, and you won’t always know what exactly worked–but your efforts will garner results if you’re tenacious. I bet you thought I was going to say patient, but patience isn’t enough. Dogged determination and hard work are just the beginning and the key to your success is in setting goals, making plans to get there, and then tracking your results so you know when you’re doing something right.
What are your initial goals for your website? Do you want to shoot for sheer volume to start off? Or would you rather judge the online presence of your success by sales? Both are valid.
The first step most website owners use is to sign up for Google Analytics. You need to watch your traffic for about three months to get a good idea of how you’re doing. Are there certain days that traffic spikes? Is it after you send out an e-newsletter or email promotions?
There are two kinds of visitors: one time visitors and repeat visitors. Both are important, and knowing how long they visit, how many pages they view, and how often they return is very helpful to understanding what you’re doing right and what you can improve. The more people who know about you, your products and your services, the more you build your reputation–and this approach will eventually lead to sales.
A couple of great features on Google Analytics you might want to check out are the Visitor Trending section and the Average Pageviews section. Get familiar with this portion of Google Analytics because this is where you learn the most about your visitors–how long they stay, how many pages they visit, and over time, you want to improve your average.
Next, visit the New vs. Returning Visitors section. Here, you’ll learn everything from bounce rate, unique visitors, and time on site. It’s like having a webcam showing you which items a customer picks up, and which ones they bring to the register to purchase. You won’t begin to understand it until you’ve let some time pass as you track your website’s visits.
As you get comfortable with Google Analytics, you can begin to make form a solid plan of action. You can brainstorm about ways to build viewer loyalty and gain those wonderful return visits, as well as reaching out to new viewers that help spread the word about your business and business website.
Something great happens as you continue to build your online presence. You become proud of what you’ve accomplished. You set goals and then get to celebrate achieving them–and every small success cheers you on.
Tags: google analytics, online marketing for small business, tracking and analytics
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing, Tools for Small Business, Tracking & Analytics, website development | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
Isn’t it great when someone suggests something you haven’t thought of that turns out to be a great idea? There are a few surprising strategies that might be perfect for your small business site. Some are so basic you might have overlooked them, and others will come as a total, “How did I miss that?â€
Five Surprising Strategies to Boost Links on Your Small Business Website:
1. Have you registered with your local Better Business Bureau and Chamber of Commerce? Please tell me you have! If not, get going because believe it or not, they’ll provide links to your site.
2. Deep link to your other webpages. If you’re not sure what that means, check out my post on deep links. Refer to different posts so everything doesn’t go back to just one anchor text. Mix it up and use your own great content.
3. Post your services and products on Craigslist and other online classifieds. Even if you don’t get a bite, you get a link. Don’t worry about it being a “no follow†link, just check out Google Analytics and note how many people came to check out your site from your Craigslist post.
4. Comment on other people’s blogs. Be helpful, and always, always sign it by listing your website—even refer to a post they might find useful.
5. Join Squidoo. It’s a user-generated website (sort of a community of webpages called lenses that are placed in subjects/areas of interests. They can hold photos from Flickr, blogs, YouTube videos, eBay auctions, Google maps and various assortment of links. The best part is that Squidoo is huge—in the top 500 most visited sites worldwide (in the top 250 sites in the U.S.). Google loves Squidoo, and you get to list your website on it. Oh, and it’s free.
Take the next few weeks and try just one of these strategies. You’ll make new connections, expand your market, boost links, and hopefully increase your traffic to your website.
Tags: google analytics, internet marketing for small businesses, website traffic
Posted in Local Internet Marketing, Networking for Small Business, PR for Small Business, SEO for Small Business, Small Business Internet Marketing, Tools for Small Business, website development | 1 Comment »
Sunday, May 4th, 2008
No matter what kind of small business website you have, there is one tool that will benefit you anywhere in the world: Google Analytics. An account with Google Analytics is free. But it is one of the most essential tools for your business.
Google Analytics will help you track and analyze your traffic, sales conversions, and other important website statistics. If you care what people are doing on your website then I highly suggest you open up a free Google Analytics account.
Once you sign up for an account, you take the Google code provided and insert it onto each page of your website. Then you’ll be able to log in to your account at any time and see how many visitors you’ve had, where the visitors came from, how long they stayed on your site, your bounce rate, and see other statistics and trends. You can also set goals and track how well you’ve done in meeting them.
This tool is important if you wish for continuous improvement in your website business. And one other aspect of Google Analytics that is helpful is you have the ability to see how well you are doing against your competitors. A truly useful tool indeed.
Tags: conversions, google analytics, traffic, website visitors
Posted in Tools for Small Business, Tracking & Analytics | No Comments »
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