Posts on State of Search about ‘Analytics’

Google Analytics presents new interface, premium package and real time data

Since the launch of the newest version of Google Analytics users are eagerly waiting for new features presented by Google Analytics. Slowly it’s developing towards the complete package we’re all hoping for. Thus far Google already added site speed measurement, multi-channel funnels, and linking multiple AdWords accounts in the new version.

Yesterday was a busy day at the office for the Google Analytics team. They introduced a few new and very interesting possibilities in a short time. We will discuss the below. (more…)

Google Analytics rolls out Multi-Channel Funnel reports for all accounts

Google has announced that as of yesterday (August 24) all Google Analytics accounts will have Multi-Channel Conversion Funnel reports available. Previously available to only a limited amount of accounts, Google has now decided to roll out this feature for all users in the new version of Google Analytics.

Below is a short video from Google explaining what these Multi-Channel Funnel reports are:

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Google Image Search traffic is ruining my SEO reports

Google-Image-Search-traffic-intro

In case you missed it, a few weeks ago Google seems to have made a quiet change to how Google Analytics records visits coming from Image Search results.

Whereas previously Image Search showed up in your Google Analytics as a referral visit – and thus allowed you to easily filter it from your reports – now it seems Image Search visits are part of the organic search traffic in your Google Analytics reports. (more…)

Jim Sterne on Social Media Metrics – London SES

This post was written by Thomas Schonenberger from Mediavision who was our guest at SES London last week.

Thursdays keynote at SES London was given by Jim Sterne, founder of the eMetrics marketing Optimisation Summit and current chairman of Web Analytics Association. Jim presented us some thoughts on what and why we should be measuring to gauge our effectiveness on Social Media. When we consider that everything we do these days involves other people and the community in some form or another, it is really important to consider the context in which we define “Social Media”. Essentially all channels are social media! Any platform that allows content to be easily distributed (not necessarily online) – this is how connected humans communicate with each other. It is going to be around for a while to come! Embrace it.

Jim opened with a bit of background on marketing, considering the good old days of trading: How many chickens for that sheep? We would negotiate till we had a deal – it was done face to face and one to one. That was till they invented a price tag! Then came factories and shipping. Now we do commerce with people we don’t know. So we need to make noise to sell product and we call that advertising. Repetition of your message builds trust and you create desire. In the hay day of advertising you needed a Logo, a slogan and a jingle and you were set! That was the only channel. Now with the interweb, it is about making noise – not just about how loud, but where to focus that and how best to tune it. (more…)

Geotargeting Based on IP Address is Broken

When websites try to determine a user’s geographic location, this is usually done via the user’s IP address. In theory an IP address can be related to a physical location. This is how Google determines a user’s location in Analytics and Adwords – and even search – and Facebook in Insights.

It seems the accepted wisdom is that while IP address geolocation is not perfect, it’s mostly accurate. Estimates reach from 60% accuracy all the way up to 95% accurate. The problem is that the actual accuracy of IP geotargeting is nowhere near that. (more…)

Measure your +1 metrics in WebmasterTools and Analytics

Google-Analytics+

Google + is here, big time. If it will become a success or not, we’ll have to wait and see. But Google doesn’t stop there. It is just the beginning actually.

One of the first things they’ve rolled out after Google+ is the ability for webmasters to track and measure their +1 buttons, both in Analytics as in Webmastertools. Social Engagement has really become the main focus for Google. (more…)

Brand SEO, Information Retrieval and Ecommerce

Digram of the purchase funnel showing stages from awareness, opinion, refinement, decision to purchase.

I am constantly surprised by how often different term sets and query types are either ignored, or their role in a user-journey, misunderstood. All too often, run-of-the-mill keyword-research advice leads with an emphasis on relevance, volume and competition; ignoring the vital supporting role of e.g. “brand” terms – or the interplay between product/transactional terms and brand/navigational terms.

Brand SEO is often overlooked, as let’s face it – it’s pretty easy to dominate a good few pages of any search engine with your company results (whether on your owned and operated properties, or whether {your content} on social network and sharing sites), which means it’s not so sexy. However when it comes to Ecommerce, it is brand visitors that drive the revenue, often at a far greater contribution to overall revenue than what we may understand to be “transactional” terms. In order to get at the “why” we need to get out of our “doing” mindset and think about brand SEO from a user perspective and to do that, we need to revisit Information Retrieval and query-type classification. (more…)

The thoughts behind the new Google Analytics

new-analytics

March 17th of this year Google announced a new version of Google Analytics. And to my surprise on State of Search we never posted one single article about this new version. A few weeks ago I attended the Google Analytics User Conference in Amsterdam where representatives from Google explained the vision behind the new Google Analytics.

There I learned a little more about the thoughts behind the new Google Analytics and the views from Google on the future developments for the analytics package. In this article I would like to create some insights in these thoughts. I will use quotes from Googlers to illustrate their thoughts on the new Google Analytics. (more…)

Credit where Credit is due: Demystifying Attribution

This is a write up of the panel session “Credit where Credit is due: Demystifying Attribution” at SMX London 2011.

Chris started this session by discussing the value of the keyword in terms of conversion rate and sales. This is a discussion that often uses the last click wins mentality when calculating ROI values. Attribution is often far more complex than this and this session aimed to clarify many approaches.

The following are the top tips from each presentation:

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London SES – Deep Dive analytics – When Bounce Rate No Longer Floats Your Boat

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Matt Bailey: Founder of Site Logic focused on missing pieces

Matt started by saying you need to establish how you are to be measured at the beginning of every project. Define how accountable you are to that. There may be things that are out of your control. Increased leads don’t necessarily mean increased profits so make sure you have an accurate picture.

Defining your lead value is vitally important and working out what it is based on is essential in the planning phase. If you are held accountable to the revenue generated you need to incorporate your analytics into a CRM and question the data that comes back from the CRM.
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Meaningful SEO Metrics: Going Beyond the Numbers – SES London 2011 (#SESUK)

Next up are Pete Young from Brilliant Media (and State of Search blogger!) and Matthew Bailey from Site Logic Marketing talking on how to look beyond the basic/obvious metrics such as PageRank, indexed pages etc. and further into metrics that can make big changes to your company and your ROI. Moderating the panel is Brian Clifton, author of Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics.

So what does meaningful metrics mean? Brian Clifton gives a little background – firstly we have to consider two different types. Firstly there’s the nicely controlled on-site metric – what visitors are doing on your site, what they buy, where they come from, how long they stay. The majority of these are all within our control. Off-site metrics are quite different. People talking about your brand, tweets, mentions – how do we compare these metrics alongside one another and gain meaningful insight from them? (more…)

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