Posts Tagged ‘google’

If data is the next ‘Intel Inside’ then Google Analytics is the operating manual for websites operators trying to understand how to improve the usefulness and success of their site.  Google Analytics tracks and stores data, collected via JavaScript on the host site, of every visitor. This data includes information on how the user got to the site, and how long they stayed, what browser they used, and where geographically they are located.

From the huge range of features in Google Analytics I will discuss the following two examples to demonstrate how Google Analytics leverages the data it collects to return useful information to the user:

1. Industry BenchmarkingArguably one of the biggest advantages of using Google Analytics over other web analytics tools is the opportunity to gain access to the aggregate data of other websites for comparison.  To gain access to this feature users must opt-in to “share the account data in an anonymous, aggregated format”^[1]. Once enabled, Google Analytics assesses the profiles in your account, categorises them by vertical market and number of visits and aggregates the data for inclusion in the benchmarking project^[2].  Once the inclusion process is complete the user can compare their profiles against data for their own category or choose from a list of others; each category consists of at least 100 websites^[3].  Although the ability to review the data collected about how users are interacting with the site is very useful for reviewing things like the effectiveness of improvements or advertising campaigns, benchmarking also enables you to investigate how your site is doing in comparison to its peers. This will help guide decisions on where energy should be spent to make improvements and where certain negative figures are to be expected.

   Website’s new visits benchmarked against similar industry

   

   Website’s new bounce rate benchmarked against similar industry

   

   Both these diagrams show that the website they are taken from is performing at around the same level as other sites in that industry of a similar size. Without the benefit of being able to compare the results against an aggregate this would be impossible to tell, and instead the web master would be left to guess at how well their site is actually doing.

2. Keywords Overview
   There are two types of traffic that come to a site through search engines; organic(unpaid) and paid. By reviewing the keywords users are entering into search engines, web masters are able to get an overview of the organic traffic that is coming through their site.  Not only are the number of visits received displayed, but also a wealth of other relevant information to help determine not only how much traffic is being generated by the search term but also the likeliness that the visit was of some benefit.  For example, if a keyword has a high ‘average time on site’ associated with it, the visit was probably of more value to the user than a visit resulting from a keyword with a low average time on site.  Keywords with a high average time on site are ultimately more beneficial to a website in comparison to keywords that get a large amount of very short visits, as the long visit hits indicate that the user found what they were looking for from the search and were intrigued enough to further investigate the site.

The data collected for Google Analytics is stored on Google’s own servers. This has the advantage that it is then easily accessible to be used in benchmarking and benefits from the speed and sophistication of their servers that smaller localised implementations may not be able to replicate.  Google also offers this service at no cost with regular updates and ongoing feature improvements.

Another analytics application that offers many of the features of Google Analytics and is free to use is Piwik. Its main difference with Google Analytics is that the data collected about your site is stored on, and accessed through, your own website.

Although Google Analytics clearly states that they do not use any of the data collected for their own purposes unless you expressly allow the information to be shared,^[4][5] there are some issues with not having direct control and access to your own data.  For example if you wished to change to another analytics software, you would have to start from scratch which would result in losing all your history.

Although Google Analytics lets you do a multitude of comparisons on a website’s data it does not allow you to directly compare against other sites.  If a Google Analytics user managed more than one site from the same account there could be advantages to being able to analyze the data from one site against another.  This would be most beneficial where a user has similar sites and one site is not performing as well; being able to display and compare the data together could reveal an insight into where improvement must be made.

SEO for your web pages

Pretty pictures and web pages full of flash may wow your website visitors, but you need to get them there first! It’s important to remember that if you want to search engines to send traffic to your website, content is always king. The old saying “a picture tells 1000 words” doesn’t apply the same way to search engine bots as it does to real life. A search engine would much rather 1000 words over a picture anyday.

If you want to rank well for a particular keyword combination in search engines, then the first step is to make sure your content contains these keywords. Ideally, each page of your website should  target a particular keyword combination.  Therefore it is important that  in it a certain amount of times (explained further down). This really helps search engines notice your website is targeting that word, as it wants to display the best results possible for the user.

In the past people used to put literally thousands of hidden words in the content for search engines to find. Nowadays your site can actually be black-listed for this, so the best way to try and have a nice website is to ensure you have good, relevant content. This is obviously a win-win for the search engine as well as the user.

The general consensus at the moment for good “Keyword Density” on each webpage is as follows:

• Minimum: 250 - 300 words
• 2 - 5% density of the targeted keyword (mention the keyword/s roughly 10 times)
• Is mentioned in the last words of the content

It must appear in quite a few other places like the webpage’s URL, H1 tag, Title Tag, etc.

If not, you are missing out on some great SEO

Most Business owners market their products to a specific geographic market / location. This can be done in a number of ways; direct marketing, snail-mail, coupons, word of mouth etc. Depending on the business you may even create TV ads, buy radio time, hand out flyers, or pay for billboard space. If you are doing 1 or a number of these things, that’s great, you’re probably doing more than most do to market their business. More and more people are using the internet as their main source of advertising, and consumers are using the internet to search for and evaluate local businesses.

Studies show that most people under the age of 40 (and of course many over 40 years old), never use the yellow or white pages anymore (or any kind of book based directory). Google has stated that 73% of all online activity is related to local content. Also, according to a study done by TMP Directional Marketing, 61% of the local searches are resulting in purchases.

So what does this mean for your business?

Basically, it means you need to develop a quality web presence. This means a nice, functional, straight forward website. You have to remember that people who do use the internet to browse businesses will judge your business from their first impression: Your Website!

Another great thing to have is customer testimonials. Consumers want to know how reliable your business is, so testimonials that speak about the quality, services, and the products you have to offer are great. Obviously if you have such testimonials you should be showing them off everywhere you can!

Great photos are a must. Think of it this way; when you walk into a food court, there are always a few dodgy looking places with iffy pictures of food, so you are usually drawn to the nice classy, professional looking photos. Well the same goes for websites. People browsing will remember a nice professional shot of your products, as apposed to a digital camera shot in poor light. The “Before and After” shots are always a great touch!

Another thing to remember is when you have a website, you want to get inbound* links to your website. Local search is a good way to do this. Also, when you search a search engine for your business, even if your actual website doesn’t show up on the first page, the local business listing might, and that counts for a lot!

If you need help setting up your Google local business listing, contact us for a quote!

* = Inbound links are websites that link to your website. The opposite to an Inbound is an Outbound link; which is when your website link’s to a page outside of your website

Google Analytics - An Overview

Back in April, 2005, Google acquired “Urchin Software Corp” a company renowned for it’s web analytics software. Since then, Google has continued developing and expanding upon the software, which comes to you today in the form of  “Google Analytics”.  Google analytics is powerful software, it’s free of charge, and it produces comprehensive statistics about the visitors to your website, making it an important marketing tool.

Google Analytics can track how someone has found your site, whether they’ve come from a link on another website, whether they’ve come from an online add, what search engine they have used, the keyword phrase they typed into the search engine to find your site and much more. It’s a fantastic marketing tool because you can use it to really measure results on your website. You can find out what pages are most popular, what keywords are bringing in the traffic, what pages visitors are leaving your site from, how long they are spending on each page and so much more.

Another great thing about Google Analytics is that although there are many features, and some very in-depth day by day reports, the main points are displayed in a user friendly “Dashboard”. The Dashboard is great for beginners to the program, as seen below it displays the main points someone would want to know about the traffic to a website. From there, you can view detailed reports, see which links are being used the most, and more useful tips like that. Note that all these sections have a “View Report” section, which is far more information.

How can you get Google Analytics for your website? All you need is a google account, and some tracking code placed on your website pages. Contact us if you would like help setting this up.

Note: Most actual stats and percentages have blanked out.

What will they think of next?

Just when you think Google have done it all, Google release “Google Earth 5.0″, the newest edition to the Google Earth Series. It’s the first program in the series that is a full program, not a beta. Below are some screen-shots of some of the new, and most well known Google Earth features. Obviously I have not shown every feature Google Earth 5.0 has to offer, but you get the idea!

Download Google Earth 5.0 Here