joshua ziering - the metrics system

The Metrics System@JoshuaZiering

Owner, FullSpeedSEO.com

Why Listen To Me?

• Nerd, SEO Consultant, Over Enthusiastic Speaker

• Had to compete in SEO to learn.• When I can't demonstrate results for

my clients, they fire me.

Who Shouldn't Use GA?

• Cloakers (Cutts says Google will focus harder on cloaking in 2011)

• Black Hats• Flash Sites

• Are You Even Ready For Analytics?• Cutting Up Your Site For Value• Basic Analytics Concepts Oft Misunderstood• Advanced Concepts To Bank On

What I Will Cover Today

"If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it."

-Edward Bernays

Are You Ready?!

Your page needs to have

a clear purpose. Installing Analytics

without a clear and

defined objective is ludicrous. 'Building traffic' is not a goal

Are You Ready?!

Your home page, and every page you can expect someone to land on needs to have a call to action. Deliver content and with that content deliver a clear directive.

Are You Ready?!

Assign a dollar value to every possible call to action.

Even if you don't think you can...

YOU CAN.

Let's see the math...

Are You Ready?!

Consider if your email list, on average, converts at 3% and your average order is $200.

If you have a 100 person list:

3% = 3 Orders = $600

$6.00/Email Address

Pitfalls of GA

GA uses javascript and a set of cookies to do it's magic.

Pitfalls of GA

Google is attempting to self regulate analytics to head off government regulation.

Regulation is still highly likely once the rest of the world figures this stuff out – Illegal in Germany.

Not instantaneous data.

Traffic Sources>Keywords

Gives you specific data on each keyword. If a key phrase isn't performing like you thought, time to evaluate the page or ranking.

Traffic SourcesPro Tip

Segment keywords to find weird problems. If Safari bounces 2x FF, time to look at the site in Safari.

Traffic SourcesPro Tip

You can segment by location, OS, and almost any other conceivable metric. Consider location for local business, and landing page for most others. Compare Pgs/visit and bounce rate.

Goals Triggered by a Pageview Can have up to 20 goals. (Kind of) Pageview gives all kinds of abilities to sort by metric. Great for thank you pages, contact forms, email forms, et al Versatile because they integrate using javascript.

GoalsProper Usage Use goals to get people somewhere, not for generic information. With goals come funnels. Usually, no funnel, not worthy of a goal.

GoalsWith goals come further segmentation. You can see performance, rather than metrics.

GoalsAnd even more segmentation...

GoalsThe money is in segmentation. By segmenting, you know what is performing and what isn't. You can compare investment vs. return on investment. You can use this data to invest in your marketing more wisely. Whether it's PPC, SEO, et al. The previous screen shots were a custom report filtering by Goals and Source, then Keyword.

GoalsDon't go crazy with goals. Sometimes they aren't good everywhere.

Let's see an example...

GoalsWhat are people sharing most?

GoalsWhat are people sharing most?Our aim is better button placement.

Doesn't meet our litmus test of people going somewhere.

While we could setup goals to fire on /share/twitter or /share/aim it would increase the pageviews of the site.

GoalsWhat are people sharing most?

Pro TipsFinding Problem Areas Using Top

Content

Pro TipsFinding Problem Areas Using Top Landing and Top Exit Pages, and

Monetize

Pro TipsSite Search Tracking

As Easy As One Keystroke

Pro TipsFinal Thoughts

Use Annotations to mark time Make a new profile when screwing around Using analytics is a profitable endeavor if used actively, not passively. Understanding how people use your site and what they use it for is always lucrative.

Thank You!

FullSpeedSEO.comJoshuaZiering@gmail.com

@JoshuaZiering

Questions?Comments?Diatribes?