google analytics: stop wondering and start measuring
DESCRIPTION
If you use Google Analytics just to see how many people are coming to your site, you’re leaving money on the table. If your site has actionable items, you can extract hugely profitable data from GA.Experience level: BeginnerTarget audience: Affiliates/Publishers, Merchants/Advertisers, NetworksNiche/vertical: AnalyticsJoshua Ziering, Owner, Full Speed SEO (Twitter @JoshuaZiering)TRANSCRIPT
Using Google Analytics To Make Money
Joshua Ziering, Owner, FullSpeedSEO.com
Why Listen To Me?
• Joshua Ziering• Nerd, Reformed Hacker, SEO
Consultant, Over Enthusiastic Speaker
• When I can't demonstrate results for my clients, they fire me.
Why Do I Use Analytics?
• Based off Urchin. • Used to cost 50k.• Free.• Insanely Powerful.• Remotely Hosted• Keeps me employed
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• Site reviews for those brave enough.
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 directive.
Are You Ready?!
Assign a 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 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.
Not instantaneous data.
Basic Analytics• Almost every transaction in GA is
based around the 'Pageview'.• It's the currency of Google Analytics.• Almost all the data available is
encapsultated by the Pageview.• They are processed every few hours
into your data.
Some Terms...
Basic Analytics
Where Is The Juicy Stuff Though?
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
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?
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.
Our aim is better button placement.
GoalsWhat are people sharing most?
Event TrackingEvent tracking is great for things where you don't want to inflate the page views. Similar metrics Handy for “What's being used” Not as robust as goals No funnels Slightly harder to read data from
Pro TipsFinding Problem Areas Using Top
Content
Pro TipsFinding Problem Areas Using Top
Landing Pages
Pro TipsSite Search Tracking
Pro TipsSite Search Tracking
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!
@JoshuaZiering
Who's brave enough for a site review?Questions?Comments?Diatribes?
