Web Analytics

• Most Topular Stories

• Find the Content Your Readers Love with Analytics

  Digital Alex by Alex L. Cohen

  DigitalAlex

  4 Mar 2010 | 8:18 pm

• Re: Industry Standards for ECom Site

  webanalytics at Yahoo! Groups

  CG

  12 Mar 2010 | 9:46 am

  I am an opinionated old coot on this subject I know, but before you double tag ask yourself "why" and read this:

• Kill Useless Web Metrics: Apply The "Three Layers Of So What" Test

  Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

  Avinash Kaushik

  8 Mar 2010 | 1:18 am

• Cool data visualization: Geographic Heat Maps

  WebTrends Outsider

  rocky

  7 Mar 2010 | 8:43 am

• Upcoming Webinar: Google Analytics Custom Variables

  Google Analytics Blog

  Trevor Claiborne

  11 Mar 2010 | 3:14 pm

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  SemAngel

• Launching a Social Effort on Facebook

  SEMangel

  7 Mar 2010 | 2:28 pm

  I thought the two most exciting new product demonstrations at the Omniture Summit were the first fruits of the Adobe acquisition with T&T for Flash and the extensive Facebook integrations that were announced. How much of this is sizzle and how much is steak is going to depend a lot on your business and your current marketing focus. That Facebook is important seems undeniable. A growing body of thought is emerging that Facebook may be in the process of becoming the de facto center of the internet universe – effectively replacing Google. That’s not inconceivable, but there are some…

• ObservePoint: Automated Web Analytics Tag Governance and Site Monitoring

  SEMangel

  3 Mar 2010 | 10:13 am

  Semphonic kicks off our “Semphonic Selects” Review SeriesAfter two days at the Omniture Customer Advisory Board, I was at the Web Analytics Wednesday on Tuesday (a name my seven year old would love) last night. That event just happened to be hosted by ObservePoint - a timely coincidence since we have news that happens to involve them.With the online analytics ecosystem growing by leaps and bounds, it’s getting harder and harder to keep track of all the different and useful tools that are available. I’m assuming that anyone reading my blog knows about at least one web analytics tool.

• Optimizing Social Search: Upcoming Webinar with Scott Wilder

  SEMangel

  28 Feb 2010 | 3:17 pm

  Register for the Leveraging Social Search Webinar - Tuesday, March 9th at 10AM PSTSearch Engine Optimization has become a fact of life for any organization serious about the online channel. Social Media is rapidly becoming as important. But what about search on social media? This isn’t an oxymoron. Major social engines like Facebook and Twitter have become so enormous that they form significant search communities unto themselves. Almost nobody, however, seems to have thought much about search optimization for key social engines. And they should.At least, I think so. Scott Wilder and I…

• Omniture CAB and Summit

  SEMangel

  26 Feb 2010 | 9:34 am

  Speaking of Conferences – the largest web analytics event of the year is hard upon us – the Adobe/Omniture Summit. There will a lot to hear and discuss this year – and I’m particularly looking forward to the CAB sessions. If you’re going to be in Salt Lake City, do look me up – or just drop me a line and we’ll schedule a time to chat!

• X Change Web Analytics Conference – 2010

  SEMangel

  25 Feb 2010 | 11:52 am

  We are right in the heart of the analytics conference season, so it seems right to be talking about X Change 2010. Don't panic. The conference isn't till September. But we are deep into planning for this year’s conference, and in the past month we’ve nailed down the place (Monterey, CA just south of San Francisco), the time (Sept. 20-22nd), and the main event. Let me start with the basics for those who haven’t been to a previous X Change. X Change is a conference for and by web analytics professionals. The format is unique – all small group discussions around key topics in…

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  Digital Alex by Alex L. Cohen

• Find the Content Your Readers Love with Analytics

  DigitalAlex

  4 Mar 2010 | 8:18 pm

  This post originally appeared on SEOMoz. Referenceable content is the holy grail of online communities. People talk about it, comment on it, link to it, tweet it and visit it over and over again. In a world full of chatter, it sets you apart as an authoritative voice. Creating referenceable content is an art. Measuring it, however, can be more of a science. Using the Google Analytics top content report, I’m going show you how two methods to identify content that your audience loves. What Behaviors Matter? Referenceable content is addictive and it drives audience loyalty. Metrics wise,…

• Stop Keyword Research! Start Query Mining.

  DigitalAlex

  2 Mar 2010 | 11:37 pm

  Keywords get too much attention in paid search. Search queries, the actual phrase a search types into the engine, are a much better indicator of a person’s intent. Today, I spoke at Search Marketing Expo west about what search queries are, where you can find them and how to use them to optimize your paid search account. Enjoy! Keyword Research – Beyond The Ordinary View more presentations from Alex Cohen. Related Posts:Keyword Research Beyond the Ordinary at SMX West5.5 Ways to Boost Conversion Rate!The MBA Guide to Search MarketingGlobal Entrepreneurship - My Presentation at…

• Keyword Research Beyond the Ordinary at SMX West

  DigitalAlex

  25 Jan 2010 | 5:30 am

  I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at SMX West this year. I’m on the Keyword Research: Beyond the Ordinary Panel with a distinguished group (see below). Stop by on day 1 at 3:00 to hear me speak or say hello in the expo hall where I’ll be manning the ClickEquations booth. Register for SMX today to get the discounted rate with the code smx10click Here’s a preview from a ClickEquations webinar, Master Search Queries to Save Money and Increase Conversions. You can also check out this search query article. Keyword Research: Beyond The Ordinary –…

• The State of Search Analytics

  DigitalAlex

  18 Jan 2010 | 6:52 pm

  This post originally appeared on Search Engine Watch, where I will be a (semi-regular) contributor You can’t make money in web analytics just by looking at reports.” With that, SES Advisor and New York Times bestselling author Bryan Eisenberg set the stage for the state of analysis in search marketing. As budgets flow from offline to online, they’re moving disproportionately to search. Search has always excelled at accountability, but as the spend increases the bar is being raised. We all have and know what web analytics are. Data quantity isn’t the issue, action…

• Predictive Analytics 101: An Interview with Eric Siegel, PhD

  DigitalAlex

  30 Aug 2009 | 8:19 pm

  Actionable analysis is hot topic in the web analytics community. But how much analysis looks forward instead of backward? That’s the realm of predictive analytics, a little covered topic in the measurement community. I interviewed Dr. Eric Siegel, President of Prediction Impact, to introduce the topic, explain its role in search marketing and talk about the upcoming Predictive Analytics World conference (PS: use the exclusive discount code ALEXCODC09 to get 15% off a 2 day pass) Can You Briefly Define Predictive Analytics? Predictive analytics is business intelligence technology that…

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  Webanalyticsbook - Web Analytics

• Thoughts About The Omniture – Adobe deal

  admin

  14 Feb 2010 | 5:58 am

  I know that I am late to the game, but today I stumbled across an article at Venturebeat, which might explain a little further why Adobe bought Omniture for a stunning amount of $ 1.8 billion. Here a few reasons: 1. Omniture’s incredible client roster (Walmart…) 2. Capabilities of track trends across the globe (and across the US) 3. Extended tracking capabilities for mobile, esp. mobile video and Iphone apps 4. Business intelligence for online shops, e.g. which products sell together, internal search… Even that all these are great reasons, I am still puzzled about the price.

• Userfly Demo Video

  admin

  26 Jan 2010 | 1:42 pm

  I haven’t really followed Userfly lately. However, it is still  one of the most interesting analytics companies out there.  Sometimes I wonder why G Analytics or any other vendor never looked into a great service like that.  The video analysis is very useful for usability issues or in order to get a basic understanding of user behavior. Here a good video describing their service:

• Financial Analytics

  admin

  19 Jan 2010 | 6:22 pm

  My obsession with analytics software is probably obvious (if you’ve read here a little bit). Since I always try to come up with new ways of doing things and getting new ideas,  I had a look at a wide variety of products, including more than 200+ web analytics solutions. However…sometimes it makes sense to look beyond e.g. at other industries. Recently I’ve checked out a few financial analytics software products. Most of them are high-end business intelligent software and I really liked what they are offering and I am sure some web analytics vendors can learn from them:…

• Analytics Annotations

  admin

  7 Dec 2009 | 7:22 pm

  Pretty interesting feature added to Google Analytics. Seemed like someone read my blog, when a few months back I posted about the key events graph, which basically showed what G Analytics annotations is about. Check it out:

• Music Analytics

  admin

  3 Dec 2009 | 8:16 pm

  While everybody goes crazy with Twitter Analytics it’s interesting to look at other stuff: Nextbigsound.com is a music analytics system aka actionable intelligence for the music industry. Nextbigsounds measures plays, fans on Facebook, Myspace or Last FM and even shows comments. Pretty nice idea…especially since the music industry trends are more and more happening on the web and numbers such as fans or comments can barely be faked (unlike fake CD buys ) Supported by Blog Television

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  Analytics Talk

• Big Changes for Justin

  Justin

  28 Feb 2010 | 7:57 pm

  Hi everyone, sorry for the long radio silence and sorry I have not gotten to a lot of your comments. There has been a lot going on at EpikOne and with me professionally. After five great years at EpikOne I’ve decided to move on and seek new challenges. I haven’t shared this news with a lot of people until now. Let me try to answer what I think will be the most asked questions :) Why are you leaving? Every year I take stock of where I am professionally and what I have planned for the next year or 18 months. At the end of 2009 I decided that I needed a new challenge. If I’m…

• New Google Analytics Goals

  Justin

  20 Oct 2009 | 11:47 am

  We all know that it’s critical to measure conversions, or goals, for our website. But for a long time Google Analytics limited the number of conversions, and types of conversions, you could track with Google Analytics. All that changes today (October 20, 2009). You can now create up to 20 goals per profile in Google Analytics. I can literally hear the applause at eMetrics :) In addition to expanding the number of goals Google has expanded the types of goals to include ‘threshold’ goals for pageviews per visit and time on site. I think we all know the importance of tracking…

• Segmenting Unique Visitors in Google Analytics

  Justin

  20 Oct 2009 | 11:47 am

  Google Analytics now has the ability to EASILY segment Unique Visitors. Some of you may be yawning, but I can hear many, many people saying, “That’s fuc*ing AWESOME!” Unique visitors is a critical metric especially in the advertising industry. But it’s also a really hard metric to measure because it take a lot of data processing power. Why? Because of the way unique visitors are identified and measured. Google Analytics defines a unique visitor as a cookie. For all you nerds it’s the __utma cookie. Every time a visitor visits a site GA checks for the cookie. If…

• Google Analytics Custom Variables Overview

  Justin

  20 Oct 2009 | 11:46 am

  Today Google releases Custom Variables (cv for short) in Google Analytics. This is an evolution of the custom segmentation feature. This post is meant to give you an overview of the feature. We’ll discuss how to use it in a later post. Like Custom Segmentation, custom variables are a flexible way to add more information to Google Analytics. The big difference is that you can create LOTS of custom variables. How many? In theory you can set an infinite number of custom variables. But GA has some internal limits that keep you to 50,000. What can we use custom variables for? The…

• Introducing Google Analytics v4

  Justin

  20 Oct 2009 | 11:45 am

  Google introduced a new version of Google Analytics today, filled with new features to make analysts and marketers drool. Included in this new release is: New and Improved Goals (20 goals per profile and new ‘threshold’ goals based on pageviews and time on site) New mobile tracking Table Filtering (a way to quickly filter data in a report) Unique Visitor Segmentation (Unique Visitors is now a metric and can be added to custom reports) Multiple custom variables (an evolution of Custom Segmentation, wicked awesome!) Analytics Intelligence (automatic data analysis. And yes, it is as…

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  Web Analytics, Behavioral Targeting and Optimization Consulting

• Free Tools for Web Analytics, Search, Social Media & Competitive Analysis

  9 Mar 2010 | 11:20 pm

  Last week I was on a “Measuring Success” panel at PR+MKTG camp in Seattle. Someone from the audience asked if there were any tools for a newbie to start measuring PR & Marketing efforts and learning. I uttered the names a few tools that came to my mind.Considering that there might be many others in the same situation I decided to write this blog post. In this post I am listing some of the tools that you can start using for free. Please note that this is not the most comprehensive list of the free tools. Side Note: All the panelists unanimously agreed that you need to first figure out…

• Measuring Success of URLs Posted on Twitter

  25 Feb 2010 | 10:00 am

  This post is the second part of my post on “3 KPIs for Measuring Twitter”. In the first part, I wrote that one of the KPIs for measuring Twitter is the Percent Visit Rate (%VR). %VR measures what percent of your followers click on your link to visit your site. KPI: % Visit Rate = (Visits/Followers)*100))Measuring VR the wrong wayReferring Sites/Domains ReportLate last year I did a small survey to understand how people measure the success of the links they post on Twitter. I found out that most of the people rely on “Referring Sites/Domains” report in their web analytics tool to see…

• Measuring Facebook Fan Pages & Apps

  25 Feb 2010 | 6:00 am

  The popularity of Facebook is growing. With 400 million users spending an average of almost an hour per day on the site, marketers are clamoring to invest in advertisements, Facebook Fan pages, custom applications, contests and more.However, the analytics capability of for Facebook is pretty limited. So marketers spending all this money on facebook have very little insight into how their fan pages are performing.Earlier this week I saw a tweet (message on twitter) with a link to Google Analytics hack for measuring facebook fan pages. We tried this hack but it had too many bugs and after…

• Three KPIs for Measuring Twitter

  22 Feb 2010 | 2:38 pm

  How do you measure if you are being effective on Twitter or not? In my opinion it really comes down to measuring if anybody is paying attention to what you are saying or not, everything else follows. If you can measure the true impact on the bottom line then you are way ahead of a lot of people on Twitter. Congratulations to you!!! However, not everybody is yet in a position to measure at that level. This post is about metrics that you can measure on daily basis even when you don’t know the final impact on the bottom line. Key actions as a result of your TweetsAs I said above, your success…

• Significance of Statistically Significant Results in A/B Testing

  2 Feb 2010 | 2:17 pm

  You are running an A/B test (or multivariate test) but are in a hurry to make a decision to pick the winning page. Should you pick a winner based on initial few days of the data before your tool has actually declared a clear winner? This question comes up quite often during the conversations with the clients. I always warn against such an approach and advice to be patient and get statistically significant results before pulling a plug on an underperforming variation o declaring a winner. I wanted to share few graphs with you to illustrate my point.The following example is from a test…

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  Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

• Kill Useless Web Metrics: Apply The "Three Layers Of So What" Test

  Avinash Kaushik

  8 Mar 2010 | 1:18 am

  Data, data everywhere yet nary an insight in sight.Is that your web analytics existence? Don't feel too bad, you share that plight with most citizens of the Web Analytics universe.The problem? The absolutely astonishing ease with which you can get access to data!Not to mention the near limitless potential of that data to be added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided to satiate every weird need in the world.You see just because you can do something does not mean you should do it.And yet we do.Like good little Reporting Squirrels we collect and stack metrics as if preparing for an imminent…

• The Definitive Guide To (8) Competitive Intelligence Data Sources!

  Avinash Kaushik

  22 Feb 2010 | 1:19 am

  Competitive intelligence, the "what else", is one of the core tenets of Web Analytics 2.0.The reason is simple: The ecosystem within which you function on the web contains mind blowing data you can use to become better.Your traffic grew by 6% last year, what was your competitor's growth rate? 15%. Feel better? : ) When should you start doing paid search advertising for tours to Italy for 2011? In May 2010 (!). What is your "share of search" in the netbook segment compared to your biggest competitor? 9 points higher, now you deserve a bonus! How many visitors to your…

• Analysis Ninjas: Leverage Custom Reports For Better Insights!

  Avinash Kaushik

  1 Feb 2010 | 2:01 am

  Here is a key difference between Reporting Squirrels and Analysis Ninjas: The latter almost exclusively leverage custom reports (powered by advanced segmentation) and the former flirt with one standard report and then another and then other and in the best case scenario pull only half of their hair out.There is nothing particularly wrong with the standard 19,000 reports in your web analytics tool. But they do represent the Vendor's best guess about what you should look at. Sometimes they even get it right.Most of the time though your business is absolutely unique (even as it exists…

• Dear Avinash: Search / SEO Metrics & Analytics Questions + Answers

  Avinash Kaushik

  20 Jan 2010 | 12:47 am

  How do you measure success of a online webinar?I recently did a webinar for the Search Engine Strategies conference (I am doing the opening conference keynote at SES London and SES New York) and my Market Motive co-faculty member Greg Jarboe sent me this KPI via email:"Your webcast was a big success. Your KPI questions per attendee was off the chart!"I don't know why I had not thought of this wonderful KPI. So much better than # of attendees.As always though context is king.It could be a good thing ("you were great, engaged the audience") or a not such a good thing…

• Five Sweet Web Analytics Resolutions To Kick It Up A Notch

  Avinash Kaushik

  6 Jan 2010 | 1:13 am

  The new year is such a wonderful time. Wonderful smells in the air. The world is full of hope. Unachievable things seem achievable and are being polished into shiny resolutions. World peace seems within grasp.As we spring to action full of passion I wanted to share with you all a short list of things that will expand your little world of online marketing & web analytics.We all have a tendency of getting caught in a rut, using the same tool to do the same things and spew forth the same data. Change is hard, even if we know that we should be executing a multiplicity strategy to win in the…

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  Web Analytics Demystified

• Web Analytics Wednesday: Free and Independent!

  eric

  8 Mar 2010 | 9:26 pm

  If you are one of the thousands of people who have attended one of our Web Analytics Wednesday events over the past few years, well, thank you! Thank you for showing your support of the web analytics community, your local community, and the practice of web analytics in general. I had no idea that our execution of June’s idea would progress to near the point it has … touching so many people and providing a gateway to jobs, employees, and all kinds of new ideas. That said, two challenges have emerged recently and I felt like a quick blog post that everyone could reference would be…

• Want to meet Web Analytics Demystified?

  eric

  26 Feb 2010 | 9:56 am

  Whoa I cannot believe it is nearly March already, can you? Seems like 2010 took off like a rocket and is only moving faster and faster every day, which is great if you’re like me and you prefer “hectic” to “easy going” and are happiest when you’re fully engaged. And speaking of being busy … my travel schedule in the next few months looks awesome and will let me meet even more great companies working to take a more strategic approach towards web analytics. If you’re going to be at any of the following events, email me directly and we can arrange…

• The Coming Bifurcation in Web Analytics Tools

  eric

  10 Feb 2010 | 9:45 am

  When John was with Forrester Research last year he had the opportunity to do some work for Google that published some pretty bold claims. Among these was his reporting that “a staggering 53% of enterprises surveyed currently use a free solution as their primary Web analytics tool, and 71% use free tools in some capacity (PDF from Google). At the time I commented: “When [John] first told me that over half of Enterprise businesses were using free solutions I have to admit I didn’t believe him. In a way I still don’t, but perhaps that’s only because I work with a slightly…

• Flash Cookies and Consumer Privacy

  eric

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:12 am

  Update: I should apologize to Adobe since I knew they had written to the FTC but didn’t mention it when I originally published this post. If you’re interested in this topic you should definitely download and read Adobe’s letter to the Secretary of the FTC regarding the use of Flash Local Shared Objects to re-spawn cookies. They cite my BPA white paper and do a great job outlining the company’s position on this particular use of their technology. I am writing to Adobe now to see if I can get someone on the phone to discuss in greater depth but if you know anyone there…

• Welcome to Web Analytics Demystified 2.0

  eric

  18 Jan 2010 | 11:31 pm

  By now you’ve noticed that we’ve completely re-done the Web Analytics Demystified web site, that is unless you only ever read my posts in an RSS reader in which case I would ask you to click-through and have a look. The new site is the culmination of nearly a year’s effort starting with convincing my good friend Aurelie Pols to join the Web Analytics Demystified and, more recently, convincing my other good friend John Lovett to leave his cushy job at Forrester Research to join Aurelie and I. Hopefully you find the new site more streamlined, easier to read, and a little more…

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  Omniture: Industry Insights

• Summit Topic #3: Participation

  Ben Gaines

  11 Mar 2010 | 8:46 am

  After much debate, my team of co-presenters and I elected to cover a small number of topics, but to dive as deeply as possible into those topics during the brief time allotted to us. We tried to pick tactics that were brand new, little-known, or known-but-underutilized. I discussed the first two of these topics, Visitor Scoring and getPercentPageViewed, in previous posts. The final concept, participation, is something that may be a bit more familiar to some, but we believe that more could/should be taking advantage of this feature to understand where their truly valuable content is.

• Summit Topic #2: getPercentPageViewed plug-in

  Ben Gaines

  10 Mar 2010 | 7:37 am

  A few lucky SiteCatalyst users got a sneak preview showing of our Summit session, and the nearly unanimous reaction was that one of our three advanced tactics really stood out as the most exciting: the getPercentPageViewed plug-in, which (as the name suggests) allows SiteCatalyst to capture the percentage of a page (vertically) that the user has viewed. Best of all, the plug-in is completely free and available to all Omniture users. You can download it, along with basic documentation and installation instructions, from within SiteCatalyst by going to Help > Home, and then choosing…

• Summit Topic #1: Visitor Scoring in SiteCatalyst

  Ben Gaines

  9 Mar 2010 | 7:35 am

  Whew! Omniture Summit 2010 has come and gone, but hopefully you’re still deriving real value from some of the thoughts, tactics, and strategies that were discussed, both formally and informally, at the conference. As promised, I will be blogging about each of the three advanced SiteCatalyst solutions that my team and I covered in our breakout session. (It’s also worth noting that, while we discussed SiteCatalyst specifically in my session, these ideas become even more powerful when coupled with an advanced segmentation tool, such as Discover or ASI, or when used in the context of…

• Welcome to the Idea Exchange!

  Ben Gaines

  8 Mar 2010 | 2:00 pm

  We love ideas. Always have. I spend most of my waking hours talking to Omniture users on Twitter, the Yahoo! Forum, blogs, etc., and many of these conversations center on ideas—how best to use our products, how to solve perplexing problems, and how to improve the Omniture Suite. Because we love ideas—and because we especially love to use ideas—we recently launched the Idea Exchange, where any Omniture Suite user can log in and tell us exactly what ideas they have for any of our products. Then other users can “promote” the ideas that they feel would help them do their jobs…

• Dynamic Ad Targeting & Optimization Using Omniture Test&Target

  Siddharth Chaudhary

  3 Mar 2010 | 7:40 am

  This morning, Omniture announced new solutions in Display Advertising to help advertisers increase their return on ad spend. The press release may be found here: Omniture Announces Display Advertising Solutions for Increased Return on Ad Spend Today, I’d like to add color to a particularly exciting part of the release titled “Dynamic Ad Targeting & Optimization Using Omniture Test&Target“. This capability marks significant progress towards our ability to increase ad relevancy by providing a capability that matches a visitor that belongs to an advertiser segment…

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  All Web Analytics Demystified Blogs

• Web Analytics Wednesday: Free and Independent!

  8 Mar 2010 | 9:26 pm

  If you are one of the thousands of people who have attended one of our Web Analytics Wednesday events over the past few years, well, thank you! Thank you for showing your support of the web analytics community, your local community, and the practice of web analytics in general. I had no idea that our execution of June’s idea would progress to near the point it has … touching so many people and providing a gateway to jobs, employees, and all kinds of new ideas. That said, two challenges have emerged recently and I felt like a quick blog post that everyone could reference would be…

• Social CRM = Business Transformation

  5 Mar 2010 | 10:33 am

  Hot off the presses! Ray Wang and Jeremiah Owyang of the Altimeter Group just released their newest report: Social CRM: The New Rules of Relationship Management. The opening tenor of the report adeptly characterizes the shift in control from brands to consumers and the frenetic scramble to understand this new paradigm. Yet, the experts at the Altimeter Group see a new shade of CRM technologies aiding in the quest to maintain customer relationships. They write in the report that Social CRM is not a displacement of traditional CRM solutions, but rather a value add function to deepen customer…

• Want to meet Web Analytics Demystified?

  26 Feb 2010 | 9:56 am

  Whoa I cannot believe it is nearly March already, can you? Seems like 2010 took off like a rocket and is only moving faster and faster every day, which is great if you’re like me and you prefer “hectic” to “easy going” and are happiest when you’re fully engaged. And speaking of being busy … my travel schedule in the next few months looks awesome and will let me meet even more great companies working to take a more strategic approach towards web analytics. If you’re going to be at any of the following events, email me directly and we can arrange…

• Know Where Your Visitors Have Been: beencounter

  21 Feb 2010 | 10:49 pm

  Tel Aviv (Israel) based beencounter is a service unlike any you have ever seen we suspect. By “hacking” your web visitor’s browser history files, beencounter provides interesting insights into your audience. An API makes this information actionable for personalization and targeting efforts. What does beencounter do? beencounter (the little “b” is their branding, not a typo) is, in their own words, a “Behavioral Targeting and Behavioral Tracking” service. Built around a single line Javascript tag, beencounter basically gives you access to your site…

• The Coming Bifurcation in Web Analytics Tools

  10 Feb 2010 | 9:45 am

  When John was with Forrester Research last year he had the opportunity to do some work for Google that published some pretty bold claims. Among these was his reporting that “a staggering 53% of enterprises surveyed currently use a free solution as their primary Web analytics tool, and 71% use free tools in some capacity (PDF from Google). At the time I commented: “When [John] first told me that over half of Enterprise businesses were using free solutions I have to admit I didn’t believe him. In a way I still don’t, but perhaps that’s only because I work with a slightly…

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  WebTrends Outsider

• Cool data visualization: Geographic Heat Maps

  rocky

  7 Mar 2010 | 8:43 am

  Turn long geographic lists from WebTrends reports into wow-level density contour maps with third party software.

• Reminder: What the SDC Tag Builder can do for you

  rocky

  28 Feb 2010 | 3:27 pm

  If you're using anything other than WebTrends' TagBuilder tag to track mailto's, downloads, offsite links, form buttons (and many other things), it's time to review what it does.

• Cool Custom Dimension: Banish unneeded prefixes from Referring Sites reports

  rocky

  10 Feb 2010 | 6:21 pm

  Clean up the Referring Sites report by stripping off unneeded domain prefixes belonging to server clusters or data center IDs.

• You need to read this post about Table Limits

  rocky

  31 Jan 2010 | 8:07 pm

  If you don't know how to check WebTrends table sizes by now, you'll still find out eventually ... the ugly way.

• Cool custom dimension: IP addresses

  rocky

  21 Jan 2010 | 5:28 pm

  First, here’s the obligatory gripe.  How is it that WebTrends doesn’t offer IP address as a dimension???  What’s up with that? Second, here’s the obligatory Outsider solution.  Make your own IP address dimension, of course!  It’s better than the Visitors report because this version will combine into one row all the visitors that have an IP address [...]

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  WAA Blog

• Web Analytics Championship Judging and Winners

  Daniel Waisberg

  25 Feb 2010 | 7:00 am

  The WAA Championship is an annual activity where members are invited to review the association’s site and traffic data and put their analyst skills to work. After some hiccups with the access to data that delayed the starting date, the...

• Web Analytics Without Borders

  Daniel Waisberg

  18 Dec 2009 | 2:11 pm

  We are very proud to announce a partnership between the Web Analytics Association and Save the Children (STC). This project stems from two independent proposals developed at roughly the same time (early 2009), "Web Analytics Without Borders" by WAA volunteers,...

• WA Championship 2009 Submissions are Due!

  Web Manager

  1 Dec 2009 | 12:54 pm

  Roughly 8 hours until all submissions are due for the WA Championship 2009! We have four esteemed judges standing by to review: Judah Philips, Jennifer Veesenmeyer, Stéphane Hamel and "Wandering" Dave Rhee!

• WAA's Annual Member Meeting

  Web Manager

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:04 am

  The WAA conducted its Annual Member Meeting on Thursday, October 29, 2009. As part of that meeting, a panel of board members representing key constituencies within the Web Analytics community shared their perspectives of where the industry is headed –...

• WAA President Responds to Adobe Acquisition of Omniture

  Web Analytics

  17 Sep 2009 | 6:58 am

  I, like probably all of you, was caught totally by surprise by the news this morning that Adobe has bought Omniture. My reactions ranged from "WOW!", to "Wow!", to "wow" and pretty soon the emails started arriving from friends in...

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  Web Analytics Demystified

• Web Analytics Wednesday: Free and Independent!

  eric

  8 Mar 2010 | 9:26 pm

  If you are one of the thousands of people who have attended one of our Web Analytics Wednesday events over the past few years, well, thank you! Thank you for showing your support of the web analytics community, your local community, and the practice of web analytics in general. I had no idea that our execution of June’s idea would progress to near the point it has … touching so many people and providing a gateway to jobs, employees, and all kinds of new ideas. That said, two challenges have emerged recently and I felt like a quick blog post that everyone could reference would be…

• Want to meet Web Analytics Demystified?

  eric

  26 Feb 2010 | 9:56 am

  Whoa I cannot believe it is nearly March already, can you? Seems like 2010 took off like a rocket and is only moving faster and faster every day, which is great if you’re like me and you prefer “hectic” to “easy going” and are happiest when you’re fully engaged. And speaking of being busy … my travel schedule in the next few months looks awesome and will let me meet even more great companies working to take a more strategic approach towards web analytics. If you’re going to be at any of the following events, email me directly and we can arrange…

• The Coming Bifurcation in Web Analytics Tools

  eric

  10 Feb 2010 | 9:45 am

  When John was with Forrester Research last year he had the opportunity to do some work for Google that published some pretty bold claims. Among these was his reporting that “a staggering 53% of enterprises surveyed currently use a free solution as their primary Web analytics tool, and 71% use free tools in some capacity (PDF from Google). At the time I commented: “When [John] first told me that over half of Enterprise businesses were using free solutions I have to admit I didn’t believe him. In a way I still don’t, but perhaps that’s only because I work with a slightly…

• Flash Cookies and Consumer Privacy

  eric

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:12 am

  Update: I should apologize to Adobe since I knew they had written to the FTC but didn’t mention it when I originally published this post. If you’re interested in this topic you should definitely download and read Adobe’s letter to the Secretary of the FTC regarding the use of Flash Local Shared Objects to re-spawn cookies. They cite my BPA white paper and do a great job outlining the company’s position on this particular use of their technology. I am writing to Adobe now to see if I can get someone on the phone to discuss in greater depth but if you know anyone there…

• Welcome to Web Analytics Demystified 2.0

  eric

  18 Jan 2010 | 11:31 pm

  By now you’ve noticed that we’ve completely re-done the Web Analytics Demystified web site, that is unless you only ever read my posts in an RSS reader in which case I would ask you to click-through and have a look. The new site is the culmination of nearly a year’s effort starting with convincing my good friend Aurelie Pols to join the Web Analytics Demystified and, more recently, convincing my other good friend John Lovett to leave his cushy job at Forrester Research to join Aurelie and I. Hopefully you find the new site more streamlined, easier to read, and a little more…

• 

  immeria

• Web Analytics Association: my take as a Director

  Stephane Hamel at immeria.net

  8 Mar 2010 | 4:58 pm

  A little more than a year ago I took the plunge and announced my desire to run for the Web Analytics Association Board of Directors and it's now time to enroll if you want to serve in a leadership capacity and help drive the strategic direction of the Web Analytics Association. I'm now halfway trough my call of duty. When I announced I was running for it, I quoted Tom Davenport and shared my views on the biggest challenge facing the digital marketing industry: "three things are at the basis for competition: efficient and effective execution, smart decision making, and the ability to…

• Web Analytics Maturity Model: feedback and workshops

  Stephane Hamel at immeria.net

  2 Mar 2010 | 11:18 am

  I have received lots of great feedback following the release of the Web Analytics Maturity Model. If you haven't read it yet, go get it now - yes, it's free! If you've read it, I would love to hear from you! Since it's initial publication, the document has been downloaded over 600 times and practitioners, consultants and students continues to engage in great conversations about the challenges of online analytics and how to succeed. WAMM in the wildTo be useful, a model most be applicable "in the wild", it must be useful, used and abused! I'm continuing to work and…

• Book review: Analytics at work by Tom Davenport

  Stephane Hamel at immeria.net

  1 Mar 2010 | 6:48 am

  I have mentioned the work of Tom Davenport numerous times on this blog. For those who don't know him, he is a Babson College professor, Accenture fellow, author, speaker and renowned consultant. I particularly liked two of his previous books: "The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business" and "Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning". His latest one, entitled "Analytics at Work: Smarter Decisions, Better Results", goes deeper in how leading businesses are gaining a competitive advantage through analytics. First impressionsIf you haven't read…

• Where in the world is S.Hamel?

  Stephane Hamel at immeria.net

  26 Feb 2010 | 2:21 pm

  Spring is the conference season and this year is going to be exceptional! Last December I had thought of two personal SMART objectives: By December 2010 I will be speaking at least once in Europe. By December 2010 I will be a keynote speaker at least once. Within days those two objectives were scheduled. Kicking off 2010I kicked off the year with a half-day workshop based on the Web Analytics Maturity Model, in partnership with PublicInsite, in Ottawa. Then I was asked to do it again for the Réseau Action-TI in Québec-city, an organization fostering the education, networking and…

• Mixing analytics tools: My take

  Stephane Hamel at immeria.net

  25 Feb 2010 | 7:40 am

  Another interesting post on the web analytics forum today: should you use multiple analytics tools? Someone is referring to the Online Marketing Summit in San Diego, where a panel of expert addressed the danger of using multiple tools. One of the panellists is even reported as stating quite strongly not to use multiple tools (assuming he meant to say not to use multiple web analytics tools). The first question to ask is if we're talking about multiple web analytics or online analytics. I want to make this subtle but important distinction: web analytics…

• 

  June Dershewitz on Web Analytics

• Flickr Stats vs Other Photo Sharing Analytics

  June Dershewitz

  3 Mar 2010 | 9:35 am

  Just after the public launch of Flickr Stats back in 2007, I posted a positive review of the tool, musing that it could serve as a good model for other social media measurement systems. Fast forward to 2010, I am no longer so content with Flickr Stats. I'm convinced we can do better. Perhaps my attitude is influenced by the recent buzz about how anyone can track stats on their Facebook Fan page using Google Analytics or Webtrends. Or perhaps I've just grown tired of the limitations of Flickr Stats. Is Photobucket any better, or Picasa, or something else? This post serves as a…

• 3 Great URL Shorteners with Analytics

  June Dershewitz

  17 Feb 2010 | 4:32 pm

  URL shorteners trim down regular links so they can be shared more easily on Twitter and other social media platforms. My favorite side benefit of URL shorteners is that every link click can be tracked as it's redirected to its final destination.Not all URL shorteners actually offer analytics, though, so if you need tracking you must choose wisely. To help you along, I recommend these 3 URL shorteners with analytics: 1) bit.ly It's the Twitter default, and therefore very popular. Full-featured analytics are available to whoever creates a short URL and any other person who cares to…

• Review of All Android Analytics Apps

  June Dershewitz

  26 Jan 2010 | 2:37 pm

  Out of curiosity as much as necessity, I recently evaluated all of the mobile web analytics applications that run on my Motorola Droid phone. As of January 2010, a search for "analytics" in the Android Market turns up the following apps: Analytics Widget (free) mAnalytics (free/paid) DroidAnalytics (free 24-hour trial/paid) Mobile GA for Android (free) I have installed and reviewed each of these apps:Analytics Widget This very simple 1x1 widget sits on your mobile desktop and displays either page views or visits for the Google Analytics profile of your choice. The default (and only)…

• Greg Dowling joins Semphonic as Mobile Analytics Expert

  June Dershewitz

  12 Jan 2010 | 7:11 am

  I am thrilled to welcome Greg Dowling to the Semphonic executive team. I couldn't invent a new colleague with a more impressive background: head of analytics at Nokia, industry analyst at Jupiter, VP at Digitas, the list goes on. To round things out, he also spent time as a geologist.Here's the press release we have just issued. You can also read Gary Angel's take on the new hire, plus a welcome message from Greg himself.If you follow my blog because I write occasionally about mobile analytics, you'll be glad to hear that Semphonic's thought leadership in this space…

• Functionalism Basics

  June Dershewitz

  30 Nov 2009 | 10:45 am

  In this post I'll describe the basic building blocks of functionalism. As you follow along, think about how you can apply these techniques to your own web site measurement and optimization projects.Functionalism DefinedFunctionalism is a methodology for web measurement. It includes: A way to understand what each part of a web site is supposed to accomplish. A specific set of measurements to determine how well the function is being performed. Here's the cool part - functionalism is appropriate for any type of site: commerce, lead gen, media, branding, support, etc. Back when I was…

• 

  Google Analytics Blog

• Upcoming Webinar: Google Analytics Custom Variables

  Trevor Claiborne

  11 Mar 2010 | 3:14 pm

  Custom variables are one of the most powerful features in Google Analytics. With them you can segment traffic by almost any attribute. For example, you could compare traffic from first-time customers versus repeat buyers. Or, if you run a content-oriented site, you could see which authors produce the most traffic..While powerful, setting up custom variables can be a bit tricky, so we’re holding a webinar so you can learn how to make the most of them.We'll start with Phil Mui, Senior Product Manager for Google Analytics, who'll share with you the features and capabilities of custom…

• Google Analytics API Case Study: Dolby Laboratories automates analytics reporting with Shufflepoint

  Alden DeSoto

  5 Mar 2010 | 10:41 am

  We're really excited to see how companies can grow their businesses around the Google Analytics API. Today, we're publishing a case study that illustrates how Shufflepoint, Inc. has used the Google Analytics API to build an innovative product offering which has helped Dolby Laboratories become more productive.ShufflePoint uses the the API to provide enterprise integration tools, and they've developed a SQL-like query language for Google Analytics. Dolby Laboratories uses GAQL and other ShufflePoint tools to simplify their web analytics workflow, one that incorporates spreadsheets with complex…

• No-tags Google Analytics Integration: Pion Lite from Atomic Labs

  Alden DeSoto

  2 Mar 2010 | 10:35 am

  We occasionally see a particularly inspiring integration with Google Analytics. Our latest source of inspiration comes from a product called Pion Lite by Atomic Labs. Pion Lite collects your traffic data and populates your Google Analytics reports -- without using Google Analytics page tags. Atomic Labs offers Pion Lite free to Google Analytics users.Pion Lite passively "listens" to all of the network traffic between web servers and visitors. This approach reduces the overhead traditionally required to capture visitor data with page tags, and also provides complete data about site visitors…

• Sharing Our Favorite Custom Segments

  Alden DeSoto

  26 Feb 2010 | 9:29 am

  Analysts often consider an aggregated view of their visitors when assessing reports in Google Analytics. Every visitor is assumed to be of the same type. But, looking at the information in an aggregated form is not nearly as useful as assessing the data for individual audience segments. Different types of visitors - whether new, returning, organic, paid, and so on - behave very differently and have vastly different expectations. The ability to understand what each of them wants, and how to cater to them, is important towards building a successful online presence.Google Analytics makes it easy…

• Master Class In Singapore And Kuala Lumpur

  Jeff Gillis

  25 Feb 2010 | 9:39 am

  Are you ready for a Google Analytics Master class, happening Tuesday, 9 March in Singapore and again on Thursday March 11 in Kuala Lumpur? We bet you are, and we bet, as seekers of data and truth, you ask, what makes it a Master class? And why so far away from Mountain View, CA? Well, you know how proud we are of how global Google Analytics has become. But this is a special class because it's run by the Google Analytics and Website Optimizer team in Southeast Asia, spearheaded by the excellent Vinoaj Vijeyakumaar, Customer Solutions Engineer, Google Southeast Asia, who manages the Southeast…

• 

  Web Analytics World: Internet Marketing & Analytics

• Converting Websites with Bryan Eisenberg - SES NY Preview

  11 Mar 2010 | 8:22 pm

  Search Engine Strategies New York is right around the corner and is filled with a great lineup of speakers. Earlier this week, I had a chance to speak with SES veteren Bryan Eisenberg about his sessions at the upcoming conference. Bryan Eisenberg is a UX master and a NYTimes Bestselling Author, check out our conversation below.[Manoj]: Your sessions at SES New York are heavily focused on 'Conversions', please give us some background on what you will be discussing.[Bryan Eisenberg]:I'll be sharing my 21 Secrets of Top Converting Websites. I spent over a decade helping websites improve their…

• Real Time Web: 70% of Organizations ban Social Network Access

  10 Mar 2010 | 10:03 pm

  Loved the presentation below by David J Carr on the real time web. Some highlights from the presentation below:40 Millions Facebook Status Updates a Day 23 Million Tweets a Day 37% of Tweets are Conversational iPhone + iTouch Users have 8X more users than AOL in the first 8 quarters of launch 62% of UK Shoppers consult online communities before buying 70% of Organizations ban Social Network access at work David J Carr - Realtime Web

• FourWhere by Sysomos: FourSquare + Google Maps

  10 Mar 2010 | 9:26 pm

  Many of you have probably heard of the new service released by Sysomos called FourWhere. We were intrigued ourselves so we asked one of Syomos' Sr. Strategists to give us the low down:As location-based services such as Foursquare and Gowalla become increasingly popular, there's a huge amount of value data and content being contributed by users. The challenge is discovering this content in a user-friendly way - not only for users of location-based services but non-users as well.To tackle this problem, Sysomos developed FourWhere, a service that mashes up data and content from Foursquare with…

• Google Apps MarketPlace for Businesses

  9 Mar 2010 | 10:11 pm

  Today, the Google Analytics blog announced the release of the Google Apps Marketplace, a place dedicated to enhancing Google domains by allowing businesses owners to install apps for their users.Once installed to a company's domain, these third-party applications work like native Google applications. With administrator approval, they may interact with calendar, email, document and/or contact data to increase productivity. Administrators can manage the applications from the familiar Google Apps control panel, and employees can open them from within Google Apps. With OpenID integration, Google…

• 135 Million Viewers Watched 32 billion Videos in January

  9 Mar 2010 | 6:57 am

  comScore today released January 2010 data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing that nearly 173 million U.S. Internet users watched online video during the month. Highlights from the report below:The top video ad networks in terms of their actual reach delivered were: BrightRoll Video Network with 27.2 percent penetration of online video viewers, SpotXchange Video Ad Network with 19.8 percent, and Tremor Media Video Network with 16.6 percent. 135.4 million viewers watched 12.7 billion videos on YouTube.com (93.4 videos per viewer). The average Hulu viewer watched 23.5 videos,…

• 

  Piwik

• Piwik IRC meetup #2

  Robert

  12 Mar 2010 | 7:09 am

  After our first successful IRC meetup, here is the schedule for Piwik IRC meetup #2 - Date: Thurs March 18th, 1pm UTC - Duration: 30min - IRC #piwik-dev channel Agenda: Piwik 0.5.5 follow up(which should be out by then) Discuss Piwik user documentation plan, and how to find documentation writers? General Q&A To join the chat, you can use the website: http://webchat.freenode.net/ - See also what will be the time in your country at 1pm UTC. Anyone can join, and if you are interested in participating in the project, this is your chance to introduce yourself and get to know others. Hope to…

• Softaculous now supports Piwik

  Robert

  10 Mar 2010 | 4:41 am

  We are thrilled to announce that Piwik is now officially supported by Softaculous. Softaculous is an auto installer for cPanel and DirectAdmin. Softaculous is fast, easy to use and it installs all scripts in just ONE STEP. Please see detailed Comparison of Softaculous and other auto installers. The decision to have Piwik added to the Softaculous repository of scripts is very much in line with our vision to make Piwik the best Open Source alternative to Google Analytics. The Support team at Softaculous was very responsive and is committed to including updates to Piwik as they become available.

• Piwik IRC meetup #1

  Matthieu

  2 Mar 2010 | 1:47 am

  We are trying to improve communication across the Piwik community of developers and users. Robert, the new Marketing & Community coordinator, suggested that we all meet in a synchronous way on regular basis, to catch up and discuss the progress of Piwik. We have decided on using IRC, like Wordpress and many others do for their meetings. Join us in the first Piwik IRC meetup! Piwik meetup #1 - Date: Thurs March 4th, 2pm UTC - Duration: 30min - IRC #piwik-dev channel Topics are: 0.5.5 release new Marketing coordinator role translations of the piwik.org website Piwik 1.0 planning To join the…

• Plugin: Piwik inside your Joomla panel

  Matthieu

  22 Jan 2010 | 1:53 pm

  We recently heard the buzz about the new Joomla plugin to integrate Piwik smoothly inside the Joomla admin panel. The new extension is available for download from the Piwik in Joomla extensions repository. You can also find a bit more documentation and screenshots on the author's blog at: A piwik integration to Joomla 1.5.

• Marketing and Community Coordinator Wanted for Piwik!

  Anthon

  16 Jan 2010 | 6:27 pm

  The Piwik team invites interested individuals to apply for the volunteer position of Marketing and Community Coordinator. If you have a flair for communications, marketing, and/or business development, send us an email: hello@piwik.org The Marketing and Community Coordinator's responsibilities would be to: perform periodic SWOT analysis to identify feature gaps against the "competition" liase with prospective sponsors on how they can contribute identify partnership opportunities with other open source projects (e.g. self-hosted web applications) liase with partners and…

• 

  web analytics - Google Blog Search

• CASE STUDY: Competitive intelligence tools

  admin

  13 Mar 2010 | 9:38 am

  Analytics Blog | Web Analytics Blog Canada. Herman Tumurcuoglu's Web Analytics Blog | Montreal Canada. Comments. Archives. March 2010 (20); February 2010 (19); January 2010 (1). Web Analytics. Share |. Web Analytics Association Member ...

• The joy of web analytics « Sylva Wilson

  sylwilson

  13 Mar 2010 | 9:04 am

  You can define your concepts, develop goals and ask the important questions about your products to lead to superior products against your competition from web analytics. Really, the “Hits” to your page mean NOTHING without the other ...

• Free Web Analytics Tools | The Online Doc – Call Now: 877-321-1112

  Bloglines Search: "Search engine optimization"

  13 Mar 2010 | 8:13 am

  Free Web Analytics Tools. Forum: Search Engine Optimization Posted By: uptownnerd Post Time: March 13th, 2010 at 11:09:32 am. Read the rest of the story... 2010: 03/13; CATEGORY: Uncategorized; Write comment. Write comment; Comments RSS ...

• Web Analytics – Hyderabad | Jobs Club Andhra

  unknown

  13 Mar 2010 | 2:57 am

  We are a leading software development company specialized in the areas of Web Development ,E-learning & Web Marketing . We provide services which.

• Web Analytics Wizard Site Traffic Reporting Tracking Visitors Seo …

  James

  12 Mar 2010 | 7:42 pm

  You have to identify a trend inside the targeted traffic flow. Following points would help you do just the same. Does your traffic flow increase in a.

• 

  Webmetricsguru - Web Metrics - Social Media Metrics - PR Metrics

• Some musings on a rainy Friday night in New York

  Marshall Sponder

  13 Mar 2010 | 7:09 am

  I wrote about it  here. Sometimes, a rainy night is the best time to go view art.

• Using Social Radar to Visualize Influencers

  Marshall Sponder

  12 Mar 2010 | 11:18 pm

  I spoke with Dave Reed of Social Radar today and we had an interesting conversation about using Social Radar to visualize influencers.  I decided to replicate what we discussed using food bloggers in New York City. First, I used Sysomos Map to find blogs in NY, NJ and CT that related to a certain type of food. After eliminating duplicates and any blogs that weren’t pretty close to NYC   – I had about 150 urls to work with.   While Social Radar excels in a certain type of visualization – most have strengths the others don’t and it’s often neccessary to have…

• Location, Location, Location -Social Metrics – big play at SXSW

  Marshall Sponder

  12 Mar 2010 | 6:31 am

  I’m not going to SXSW, never been in fact, and did not want to go this year, but I might go next year.   However,  a lot of people I know are there over the next week and new location capabilities of several mobile applications are being announced – not entirely unexpected. Following on my last post – the pace of social media monitoring maturation is accelerating and I’ll even go so far as saying that many people who don’t use Social Media now, will have incentives to – because of the geo-location, real time nature of the platforms – plays that are…

• Social Media becoming easier to track – by years end, be mostly trackable

  Marshall Sponder

  10 Mar 2010 | 9:04 pm

  I think  Social Media will become easy to track by years end.   This is also the year of Social CRM -  tracking and enablement is coming to us. It’s only mid-March and it’s already clear. First – Foursquare is planning to Offer Up User Data with Check-in Analytics – is already testing it -  any business that wants to will be able to offer coupons to those who check in.   I’m doing an  analytics project for a restaurant chain and this offering of Foursquare is big news for this kind of business.  Here’s more information from Fast Company: …. A…

• FourWhere – FourSquare+Sysomos+Google Maps Mashup

  Marshall Sponder

  9 Mar 2010 | 3:00 am

  FourWhere is launching this morning and it’s a mashup of FourSquare, Sysomos Heartbeat and Google Maps API – FourWhere is being released just as SXSW gets underway. Here’s an example of what FourWhere does when you give it a location. FourWhere is both more and less than I expected it to be.  Here’s the text of the press release – I found out about FourWhere earlier Monday. FourWhere: A New Location-based Social Search Service from Sysomos Start Discovering the World Around You Toronto, ON, March 9, 2010 – A growing number of people are using  location-based…

• 

  Increasing Your Website's Conversion Rate

• GoalCopy updated with Find/Replace

  John

  11 Mar 2010 | 10:38 am

  If you’re not familiar with the Goal Copy Firefox extension, you can read the original post here. The GoalCopy Firefox plugin has been updated (download here): 1. Updated to work with the most current version of Firefox 2. Fixed  some pasting bugs when pasting goals.  I hope 3. Added a Find/Replace filter Find/Replace So, I added this when working with a client that wanted me to create a very large number of very similar filters.  Each filter was for a different directory/hostname.  I wanted a simple way to just replace the directory and hostname with the next values in the list…

• Google Analytics Training in NYC: June 8, 9 and 10, 2010

  Robbin

  9 Mar 2010 | 9:14 am

  Just a quick note about our upcoming Google Analytics Training in New York City — we are going to have three days of training so that we can reach all the right levels. We’ll be having: Google Analytics 101, on June 8. This is for the true beginner (I get so many emails that read, “Robbin, no one knows less than me. Just teach me what I don’t even know how to ask.”)  We’ll teach you how to log in, how to find your own profile, how to look at the various reports, find the data you need, and other basics for those of you who are either new to analytics or…

• The First Step: Non-Actionable Analytics

  Robbin

  5 Mar 2010 | 11:07 am

  “If you aren’t going to do anything about those numbers, don’t bother measuring.”   How many times have I heard that? Forget that, how many times have I said that? Now, there is a great (great great) deal of truth to that saying. I always compare analytics to a bathroom scale. “Why would you weigh yourself every day if you have no plans to change your eating patterns based on the weight?”  In other words, If you aren’t going to do anything about those numbers …. But I think we are foolish when we say that so loudly, so often and so…

• The secret life of the website visitor

  Robbin

  3 Mar 2010 | 7:43 am

  It is amazing what our visitors know and don’t tell us. That’s why we have to keep asking them, and surveying, and looking at our analytics A couple days ago, I was working with a customer on his website, and saw that as soon as the visitor chose to put something into the shopping cart, she would be confronted with a sign-in requirement. There wasn’t even an option to proceed as a guest. “Well, that must be a real turn-off,” I said — too quickly, it turns out.  Because, the very next thing we did was go look at his Google Analytics. We saw that less than…

• Online Competitors Vs. Industry Competitors

  Christina

  23 Feb 2010 | 10:35 am

  If you own a nail factory, your competitors are other people who make nails right?  They make nails to build buildings with and supply contractors who build houses. And they also sell five different shades of green metallic polish and have more sizes of acrylic applications than you. Oh, and how could I forget hoof nippers? How many hoof nippers for farriers do you have, Nail Factory Owner Guy(or Girl)?  Did that stop making sense to you? To clarify the issue, here’s the Google search result page for the key phrase “Nail Supplier” Clearly, the owners of that nail factory…

• 

  webanalytics at Yahoo! Groups

• Re: Industry Standards for ECom Site

  Kush Soni

  13 Mar 2010 | 6:33 am

  Ayan: If you are using GA you can use their own benchmarking facility. This will provide you how your site is performing in front of the Industry standard.

• Re: The case for double tagging

  eefsafe

  12 Mar 2010 | 3:38 pm

  I am an opinionated old coot on this subject I know, but before you double tag ask yourself "why" and read this:

• Re: Industry Standards for ECom Site

  CG

  12 Mar 2010 | 9:46 am

  Hi Ayan, Try Marketing Sherpa, they have really good benchmarks. Chris

• The case for double tagging

  dmonteverdi

  12 Mar 2010 | 9:45 am

  I'm trying to determine if it will be worthwhile to add GA tags to my company's site (we use Omniture). What are the advantages of double tagging? I recall

• Re: Omniture Metrics and Tracking query

  CG

  12 Mar 2010 | 9:45 am

  Craig, Instance ... visit ... view ... let's just get back to "be counted as" to understand this. If the visit was A>B>C>A>B>C and your SiteCatalyst fallout

• 

  Blackbeaks Blog....All things Analytics

• Don’t Get Sentimental About Tools When Measuring Attitude

  Captain Blackbeak

  4 Mar 2010 | 12:58 am

  Recently at the SES London Jim Sterne discussed the hot topic of his new book Social Media Metrics. One of the things that stood out from his keynote was Sentiment measurement, or rather the inaccuracy of it. Jim basically said it sucks, which I’m delighted about because someone needed to say it. Sentiment or attitude analysis is about understanding the mood of the person making a comment or post about a topic. It’s been my opinion for some time that you can’t measure sentiment with any real confidence in the results, at least when you’re relying on the results of tools. Jim…

• Olympic Bronze For Kwantics’ Little Crab Catcher!

  Captain Blackbeak

  25 Feb 2010 | 11:49 pm

  A short break from Analytics today to proudly crow about my colleague Terhi Mertanen (Mertanen means crab catcher in English by the way), who won an Olympic bronze for Finland yesterday by beating Sweden 3-2. We’re all of course delighted for her and the Finnish ladies team. Congratulations Terhi! Onnea! Personally I find standing up in front of hundreds of people a nerve wracking experience every time I do speaking engagements so I can only imagine what it is like to put yourself in front of 19,000 people including the Finnish president Tarja Halonen. If she was nervous when she went…

• An open message to the WAA

  Captain Blackbeak

  4 Feb 2010 | 12:21 am

  We’ve all worked or work for global organizations. The way they are run is that usually there is a central set of rules, standards, global controls and global belief and culture passed down to locals who then execute the vision.  I believe that the WAA is attempting to do the same thing (essentially) whilst maintaining a unified brand and a unified approach on a local level. Let me first say I have no problem with that approach, especially in immature markets. It has served us well for the first 5 years of the WAA but I just feel in certain cases it is outgrowing this method. I…

• Digital Marketing Parasites

  Captain Blackbeak

  13 Jan 2010 | 4:14 am

  Recently in my sales work with clients and prospects I have heard some very disturbing trends which has prompted this blog post. The most recent shocking meeting I had was this Monday but prior to that I also heard of some disturbing tactics being touted by some of Finlands’ “best of breed” digital agencies. Rather than name names and turn this whole post into a rant I figured I best just demonstrate why you should run a mile if you hear any of these tactics mentioned. Traffic generation via link farms, 1000s of domains, or “our network of websites”. When I heard…

• 5 Analytics tips for 2010

  Captain Blackbeak

  29 Dec 2009 | 3:25 am

  I don’t do predictions so I thought I’d give you some tips, whether you’re in e-commerce, the lead generation business or the media advertising business. If I could only do 5 things using Analytics for my business in 2010 these would be the first things I’d do. Measure segmented outcomes. In e-commerce it’s easy, measure conversion rates to sale across your different traffic sources. With lead generation measure conversion rates of how many people sign up to hear more about your services. With the media business the outcome might be the amount of heavily engaged…

• 

  Conversion Rate Optimization & Marketing Blog | FutureNow, Inc

• A Women’s Clothing Website that Actually Speaks to Women

  Ladies! It's time to speak out about our frustrating online shopping experiences. How many times do you arrive at a clothing web site looking for a fabulous pair of jeans or a pair of yoga pants that really fit, go through the actions of shopping, but don't enjoy your ...

• B2B Buyers Still Want Basics from Your Email Marketing

  I recently read some interesting survey research done by the venerable MarketingSherpa around what types of things B2B prospects would find "most useful" in emails sent about product and service offerings. If you have the required membership, you can read the article here. They surveyed people considered to be B2B ...

• Credibility: Yours to Loose

  Show of hands: How many people noticed the typo in the title?  My guess is that those who did were ready to jump all over my mistake.  It was done intentionally to help prove my point: Visitors notice typos. (For those who are still confused: loose = free or released ...

• Getting Started With Conversion Rate Optimization: Our Way

  Many Grok readers have been curious about our online marketing optimization services and what kind of process to expect when working with us.  I'll use some work we’ve done with a client to show you some basic things you should be looking at when optimizing and testing your site. ...

• Good Cart Design vs. Costly Credibility Indicators

  I love to analyze shopping carts because of the immense variety of designs and design elements that different companies and clients employ to try to "get the cash."  Some elements work better than others, and proper testing can lead the way to optimization. But, I believe that conversion is cumulative, and ...

• 

  Official Webtrends Company Blog

• Tap into Flash with Webtrends’ Facebook Analytics

  Michelle Anderson

  11 Mar 2010 | 5:00 am

  Marketers today want data out of their marketing efforts. Getting data out of Facebook has been particularly challenging. Because of the limited tracking options and the need for data, brands have been pushing users to apps, even if their content doesn’t need to be an app. But now there’s a better choice: Webtrends’ Facebook Analytics. Our Facebook Analytics solution makes having to choose between zero data and high drop off rates a non-issue. It works as a stand-alone tool or as an add-on to Webtrends’ Analytics 9 and uses an innovative method to capture detailed metrics…

• Killer Mobile App Measurement

  Eric Butler

  10 Mar 2010 | 5:00 am

  We had a great time building our new Webtrends iPhone app.  We started by paper prototyping the functionality to help us test and refine the app prior to writing any code. We also engineered brand new, robust REST-based web services methods to give us quick access to Webtrends data – including realtime data – to make the app even more powerful for Webtrends customers. The entire development effort is a terrific story, with a ton of great lessons learned along the way, but I’ll let our engineer Rob tell that story another time. We were rather meticulous about getting all of…

• Insight about your mobile audience from your web site

  Eric Rickson

  9 Mar 2010 | 11:31 am

  Finding the right entry point for your brand in the mobile app marketplace can be a daunting effort. If you have already decided to launch your own app, it is probably a foregone conclusion that you’ll build an iPhone app because Apple is currently the market leader in mobile web consumption. By the same account, Android has captured market share against Apple with steady growth in the last quarter of 2009. According to mocoNews, Google CEO Eric Schmidt claimed in his keynote address at the Mobile World Congress that over 60,000 phones that run Android ship every day. So, do you cross…

• Get $50 OFF this Friday’s Red Chair Studio Session

  Michelle Anderson

  8 Mar 2010 | 1:03 pm

  Webtrends is happy to announce we’re hosting a half-day Red Chair Studio session this Friday, March 12th in Suite 1600 of our downtown Portland headquarters. This advanced, fast-paced, hands-on event gives department managers and account-level agency professionals the opportunity to learn how to manage, measure, and expand their social media marketing campaigns. Sign up today and receive $50 off the regular registration cost by using discount code: Webtrends50. The Red Chair Studio session will cover: Strategic Planning: How to properly develop, plan and set measurable goals for your…

• Think Outside the App

  Michelle Anderson

  4 Mar 2010 | 5:00 am

  One of Facebook’s most valuable interface components is its tabbed structure. Every private profile and public fan page comes pre-configured with tabs like Wall, Info and Photos, and gives people a way to instantly interact with other people. Tabs also provide digital marketers an opportunity to engage directly with customers. Facebook allows for the customization of tabs using to create personalized fan pages. And, now that Facebook has surpassed Google as the most visited web site on the Internet, custom tab development in Facebook is where the big brands are spending their dollars.

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  Visual Revenue

• Analytics is building the Newsroom of the Future

  Dennis R. Mortensen

  22 Feb 2010 | 10:36 am

  BusinessWeek has a truly exciting front page story today (February 21, 2010). Especially for somebody like me who repeatedly and openly declared an obsession with the state of News Media and in particular how Data and Analytics, in that regard, can help publishers increase their current performance. BusinessWeek: AOL Moves to Build Tech `Newsroom of the Future’ I’ll leave the article to you, but have a look at the following comments (some of them, perhaps a tad naïve, but so aggressively data driven, that you have to love them): The [web analytics] numbers tell the growing number of…

• News Media that use Galleries to increase Page-views don’t increase Time-spent (Attention)

  Dennis R. Mortensen

  22 Jan 2010 | 6:15 am

  It is not uncommon to see News Media Publishers drive un-segmented page views as one of their primary Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) - And one of the biggest page view drivers for online News Media today are the common use of Galleries (slideshows if you will). I would argue that those additional page views, however massive they are, don’t deliver the same value to the advertiser, as compared to the core product (the news article) - and ultimately isn’t really what the user/reader wants. I studied the usage patterns of one of the biggest News Media publishers in the US as part of an…

• Yahoo Web Analytics Training Webinars Launched

  Charlie Holbech

  19 Jan 2010 | 1:00 am

  The following is a post by Charlie Holbech We have spent the last 18 months integrating YWA (IndexTools) into the Yahoo Network and whilst our Account Management team has worked tirelessly to ensure that our client base (both YWACN members and Direct Customers) are well supported, we have also managed to find time to run some projects in the background! Our onus has been on serving our customer base more effectively, tackling this in a variety of ways: Dedicated Account Management for YWACN members, an expansive list of FAQs available to all on help.yahoo.com as well as the recently announced…

• Tracking Mobile Devices in Yahoo Web Analytics

  Dennis R. Mortensen

  13 Jan 2010 | 11:45 am

  Tracking mobile activity has become, not just a nice to have feature, but a necessity in any mature Web Analytics tool. You of course know this already. Find below a set of entertaining custom Mobile reports from Yahoo Web Analytics, using dimensions such as. Mobile Device Maker Mobile Device Model Mobile Device Screen size Carrier name The numbers themselves are rather exciting actually, even though my point is, just to show you some of the Dimensions you can use, when doing your mobile analysis with Yahoo Web Analytics. Enjoy! :-) Custom Report 1: Custom Report 2: Custom Report 3: Cheers…

• My immediate thoughts on Digital Magazines – after buying the Kindle

  Dennis R. Mortensen

  10 Jan 2010 | 9:55 am

  As I have stated repeatedly over the last year or so – I am obsessed with the state of News Media and in particular how Analytics, in that regard, can help publishers increase their current performance. This post is nothing more than exciting boyish musings, that does little to validate my conclusions. Anywho, this is my blog! :-) I was really excited to receive a Kindle the other day, as I finally got to actively try out a new reading experience in regards to my above fixation. If you think about it, kindle, or similar e-reader experiences, like what B&N or Sony peddle, provides the…

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  Key Web Metrics & Web Analytics Blog

• SEO Implications of Google Anlaytics Data

  Sameer

  10 Mar 2010 | 7:31 am

  Web Analysts are always cautious when it comes to data sharing. Especially, when giving the data to Google in exchange of their free tools including Google Analytics. If you are on the same boat and worried about losing your rankings then here is a quick video from Matt Cutt’s (head of Googles webspam team). In this video, Matt debunks the myth about Google using GA data for SEO or search ranking. Quick and informative! Click here to view the embedded video. SEO Implications of Google Anlaytics Data is a post from: Key Web Metrics & Web Analytics Blog

• Web Analytics Success Story: The Omniture Way

  Sameer

  3 Mar 2010 | 3:10 pm

  Here is a link to one the most inspirational web analytics success stories of our times. Josh James, Omniture co-founder and now the SVP & GM of Adobe’s Omniture Business unit reveals his success secrets. The Inc.com article explains how he went from being a small town web designer to selling Omniture to Adobe for dollar 1.8 Bn. Some of the most interesting things that you can learn from this story are - Josh’s first commercial when he was just 4 Life in Tokyo as a Mormon His first business venture First stab at web analytics Omniture’s failures and successes…

• Quickly Integrate Facebook with Google Analytics

  Sameer

  2 Mar 2010 | 7:48 am

  I found this really interesting post on “How to integrate Google Analytics to Facebook Fan page” and its worth sharing. The core of the integration is using image beacon version of Google Analytics. The blog author also provides a “Google Anlaytics link generator” tool that makes the code creation really easy. For those who prefer not using the third party redirection, there is also an option to run code from your own servers. The advanced version of the code is written in php. Hope you enjoyed this post. Please share your thoughts, insights and comments because it…

• Copy My Actionable Google Analytics Advanced Segments

  Sameer

  28 Feb 2010 | 4:39 pm

  In this post, I want to share some of my most frequently used Google Analytics advanced segments using Google Analytics segment sharing feature. These segments allow me to dissect data and produce actionable insights. To copy these segments simple click the links below, login to your Google Analytics account and create segments. Before we begin, here is a quick video that explains how to create advanced segments in Google Analytics. Click here to view the embedded video. #1 Visits with Zero Goal Completion (copy segment) – Conversion should be the ultimate goal for your website. Using…

• Web Analytics Scan 2.0: Instantly Check Web Analytics Tag Errors

  Sameer

  21 Feb 2010 | 10:24 pm

  Web Analytics has completely transformed on how we look at website performance measurement. Web metrics like bounce rate, page views and time on site have become the key focus of the web measurement vocabulary. Even though there has been a fairly large amount of technological updates in the web analytics industry, the basis of the technology is still the good old java tag. Missing the java tag one or more pages of your website will result in loss of tracking and potentially impact your marketing dollars and profit. Here are some of the most common reasons on why one or more pages on your…

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  Samir Balwani - Internet Marketing Strategy

• 5 Reasons Online Metrics Matter

  Samir Balwani

  9 Mar 2010 | 7:00 am

  Don’t understand online metrics? Then you don’t understand online marketing. There are too many marketing experts that just simply don’t know how to navigate or use metrics softwares. It’s a tragedy… The greatest advantage online marketers have over their traditional counterparts is the ability to track and measure almost every interaction digitally. Being able to justify cost increases, new contracts, and resource allocations is what makes online marketing attractive to brands. If you think you can get away without knowing online analytics inside and out,…

• The Slow Death of Display Advertising…

  Samir Balwani

  24 Feb 2010 | 6:15 am

  The online marketing landscape is ever evolving. Today, we use an integrated approach that includes, search marketing, SEO, display advertising, and many more. But, as consumers change so do our marketing strategies… We often see marketing tactics gain and lose power as users become more aware of them or consumer intent changes. It seems as if we’re at a marketing crossroads again. There’s been a recent trend, showing that social media marketing has been growing, while display advertising has become less effective. What is Display Advertising? Before exploring how display advertising…

• This Blog is Evolving: Are You?

  Samir Balwani

  17 Feb 2010 | 6:30 am

  Some of you may have noticed that this blog has slowly changed over time. First starting as “Left the Box”, then moving and rebranding, next a new theme, and now a new direction. I’ve been working on a blog post tentatively titled “Do you have marketing tunnel vision?”, and it made me realize that I, myself, had fallen for marketing tunnel vision. credit I and this blog have become so much about social media that I’m losing sight of the other marketing disciplines and how they could all work together. There are harmonies between display campaigns, search…

• Are You Marketing or Advertising?

  Samir Balwani

  2 Feb 2010 | 7:28 am

  Lately, I’ve been thinking about how social media has been a part of our overall marketing program. I started to realize that our definition of marketing and advertising is slowly evolving. In my mind advertising was the driving force of a marketing campaign. The idea was to create something interesting and broadcast it with advertising. credit Advertising was more important than the actual campaign. If you spent enough money and as long as it was marginally interesting, you could be successful. Nowadays, there’s seems to be a tip in the scales. Marketing is becoming more…

• This is How You Measure Social Media ROI

  Samir Balwani

  28 Jan 2010 | 6:45 am

  More talk about social media ROI and measurement? You know it. This time Mitch Joel of “Six Pixels of Separation” wrote a post about measurements and metrics. As much as I like Mitch (his articles are great and I highly recommend his blog), I really disagreed with his take on social media ROI. credit He states that… “Thinking about business objectives instead of ROI makes the whole strategy that much workable and doable. In the end, instead of looking for the ROI in Social Media, maybe the smarter thing to do is to focus on what the business objectives are, and then figure out if…