During the past few weeks, we have been peeling back the many layers of analytical data available via Google Analytics. The layers are complex, but if you thrive on establishing these layers and defining how/what the various components will achieve, Web analytics is for you.
I’ve decided it certainly isn’t for me. I liken Google Web Analytics to the crazy directions you get when you buy something and you have no idea how to put it together. You know what I’m talking about, the product that has about a hundred parts and thousand bits, screws, and bolts needed to actually get it together. The Google directions for adding filters, custom filters, event tracking, etc. is just as complex (I’m pretty sure you need a PHD in it). So, leave those directions for the developers and engineers who understand what they’ve written, because you certainly haven’t written it for an ordinary girl like me. Note to Google and others: if you want someone who isn’t a developer to actually understand what you’re touting and spouting, get a girl like me to write them for you.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that if we want to provide our customers with extraordinary service (we know they expect it), and we want our business to be successful, analytical data is critical. But, you have to have someone on your team who can a: build the data site for you (or maybe have directions that Joe off the street can decipher) and b: help you sort through this data.
Okay, so enough about my struggles with getting my arms around the analytics mess. This week, we got deep into the layers of metrics and studied how e-commerce, customer filters, event tracking and other characteristics can provide much-needed information for businesses.
Event tracking was added to Google in June 2009 (Google, 2009). The addition of this tool is important because it helps provide data on actions that aren’t considered page views. For example, event tracking can include the downloading of a video or an Adobe file, or the interaction with a Flash presentation. As more and more companies use these types of files/programs on their sites, including YouTube, having this information is important in developing marketing strategies.
After reading the instructions on how to set up event tracking, I was once again left a little miffed. The instructions note that you should insert the appropriate tracking code, but I can’t figure out where you find that and how you know if you have the correct code in place. So, after fiddling with it and searching for articles that might help me “dumb it down” I was once again left frustrated, so I moved on to adding filters.
I decided I would go in and establish a filter to exclude visits from my own computer because I don’t want that information to be included on my analytical report. So, I followed the initial instructions which eventually got me to the filter location. However, once there, the “Greek” language once again reared its ugly head and I was lost. When it started referring to “ISP” and “IP” addresses, I was gone. I know techies will find it hard to believe, but those who don’t know the ins and outs of computers have no idea what these are. But, I trudged on, searching for it via Google Analytics and guess what? It defined it, but didn’t tell me where I might find one. So, I did a complete Google search and from an organization called tracemyip.org I finally found it, well, the site automatically gives it to me. I’m still not sure how you find it on your computer, but I finally got the filter set up. Now hopefully my blog will not count visits from my computer, which will help give me a better idea of how many “real” visits are occurring on my site.
I also added a couple of custom filters to the site. This process I found somewhat easier, although there are filters listed that I’m not sure how they are used/why. I chose to include the visitor city and whether or not the visitor is a new or returning customer. As I went back to my report, it appears that the custom filters available are already on my report, including the ones I thought I just set up. I don’t know if Analytics holds a spot for the filters on the report, and only includes the actual data after you have set up the filters.
I wanted to add a custom filter and keyword ranking system to my analytical tool. I spent much of Sunday afternoon trying to figure those out. After some help from the professor, I was able to get my hands on an article from Internet Marketing Insights, which walked me through the process. I was very excited to actually be getting somewhere with these analytical tools and then, “bam,” I hit another wall. After following the directions, I was able to set up a new Web site profile and go in and edit according to the directions. It’s when I get to the “add the three keyword filters” that I begin to have another meltdown. I did that, however, no report is showing up on my site. And, how is it tracking keywords used by others to get to my site when it never asks me which words I want to track?
As part of the learning process during the past two weeks, we have been using Conversion University. These videos are a little more helpful than just reading the articles/information, but they are obviously developed for those who work in the Web/data analytics field (lots of jargon). And, I also found it funny that nearly all of the people participating in these videos – either those teaching or those sitting in the class – are all men. Maybe this is the problem? Sorry guys, just kidding, sort of…
As noted earlier, I really do understand why this is important. And, I believe the information can provide intriguing data that will help us build better Web sites, add programs/services that will give them what they want, and help our bottom line. But, trying to teach a simple public relations practitioner all of this jargon, technical directions, etc., is like telling a cat it has to love to be in the water. More than likely that’s not going to happen. So, my advice to those like me is to work with your Web experts to help you identify the data you want to collect, ask them for their suggestions, and then work together to gather/review the data. A team approach with the right players is your best bet.
References:
Google (2009, June 4). Google Analytics. Google.com. Retrieved February 20, 2010, from http://analytics.blogspot.com/2009/06/event-tracking-now-available-in-all.html
Radhakrishnan (2009, November 22). Search Engine Ranking - Track keyword rankings in Google using Google Analytics. Internet Marketing Insights. Retrieved February 22, 2010, from http://seo-insights.blogspot.com/2009/11/track-keyword-rankings-in-google-using.html
Monday, February 22, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Using analytical data to learn more about your consumers
Our blogs for class are fairly straightforward. There aren’t many bells and whistles on the blogs, so our Google Analytics reports will be fairly simple. We can get information on how many people visited our site, how long they stayed, and even from where they viewed the page(s).
Although I’m not sure the funnel would have much function on my site, I guess directing visitors to another site or perhaps a particular Web site, Twitter or Facebook page could be mapped out through a funnel. For example, if I am writing on particular topic, let’s say the latest shoes for spring in this case, and I want to get people to visit my latest line of spring footwear on my Web site or Facebook page, then I might want to have a funnel in place to get people to those sites via my blog or vice versa. And, I want the path clearly defined so that people do indeed get directed to that information and actually go there.
Goals in the analytical tool appeared to be more complicated to me. I understand the point of it, but how to set those goals up were unclear to me. I think on the blog it would be nice to add a thank you feature when someone comments on your blog. This could be done by establishing a new goal, although I am not sure how to do this via the directions. I think it would be beneficial to learn more about html and how to write code if you are indeed going to be adding these features into your Google Analytics tool.
As I discussed in the previous blog, understanding how much time people spend on your site is important in determining what you are doing right. The time spent can be found in your report for Google, and I have asked the report to let me know who visits the site and spends more than five minutes on the site. If I am posting information and people are only skimming over it, I may not be doing a very good job presenting the information (or I’ve not selected a very interesting topic). I have often visited a site and because the site wasn’t very organized, I immediately exit if I am unable to find what I’m looking for, so you definitely want to avoid that when you can and work to develop a site that people feel is useful.
In looking at a particular company’s Web site (let’s use Allstate in this case), establishing filters would also be beneficial. If I am understanding this correctly, I can exclude visitors from a specific domain (in this case allstate.com) so that my data is more accurate. If employees are using the site daily (even making it their home page), then including those visits would skew my data. In my own work, I do use our Web page daily and have it as my home page. When we are collecting data, we certainly wouldn’t want to include anyone in our office who is doing this or using it daily because that really makes a difference in our number of visits.
The whole concept of Google Analytics is pretty complicated, but certainly critical in developing your various marketing tools for your business/organization. For those who don’t work with this type of information often, it is probably a good idea to consult with an expert or your Web team to ensure that you are establishing the right parameters, goals and tracking information to get the most out of your reports.
Reference:
Google Analytics (2010). Conversion University. Retrieved February 7, 2010, from http://services.google.com/analytics/breeze/en/ga_intro/index.html
Although I’m not sure the funnel would have much function on my site, I guess directing visitors to another site or perhaps a particular Web site, Twitter or Facebook page could be mapped out through a funnel. For example, if I am writing on particular topic, let’s say the latest shoes for spring in this case, and I want to get people to visit my latest line of spring footwear on my Web site or Facebook page, then I might want to have a funnel in place to get people to those sites via my blog or vice versa. And, I want the path clearly defined so that people do indeed get directed to that information and actually go there.
Goals in the analytical tool appeared to be more complicated to me. I understand the point of it, but how to set those goals up were unclear to me. I think on the blog it would be nice to add a thank you feature when someone comments on your blog. This could be done by establishing a new goal, although I am not sure how to do this via the directions. I think it would be beneficial to learn more about html and how to write code if you are indeed going to be adding these features into your Google Analytics tool.
As I discussed in the previous blog, understanding how much time people spend on your site is important in determining what you are doing right. The time spent can be found in your report for Google, and I have asked the report to let me know who visits the site and spends more than five minutes on the site. If I am posting information and people are only skimming over it, I may not be doing a very good job presenting the information (or I’ve not selected a very interesting topic). I have often visited a site and because the site wasn’t very organized, I immediately exit if I am unable to find what I’m looking for, so you definitely want to avoid that when you can and work to develop a site that people feel is useful.
In looking at a particular company’s Web site (let’s use Allstate in this case), establishing filters would also be beneficial. If I am understanding this correctly, I can exclude visitors from a specific domain (in this case allstate.com) so that my data is more accurate. If employees are using the site daily (even making it their home page), then including those visits would skew my data. In my own work, I do use our Web page daily and have it as my home page. When we are collecting data, we certainly wouldn’t want to include anyone in our office who is doing this or using it daily because that really makes a difference in our number of visits.
The whole concept of Google Analytics is pretty complicated, but certainly critical in developing your various marketing tools for your business/organization. For those who don’t work with this type of information often, it is probably a good idea to consult with an expert or your Web team to ensure that you are establishing the right parameters, goals and tracking information to get the most out of your reports.
Reference:
Google Analytics (2010). Conversion University. Retrieved February 7, 2010, from http://services.google.com/analytics/breeze/en/ga_intro/index.html
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Google Analytics can provide important data, if you can decipher the directions
As noted in the Conversion University overview, obtaining and reviewing data can help businesses and organizations gain valuable information from their consumers (Conversion University, 2010). This information can help us determine if our site is designed in such a way that visitors actually come to the site, how long they stay there, what they look at while they are they and how they interact with our site pages.
This week we began using Google Analytics on our blogs (i.e., Getting your arms around social media). As with much of the search engine information I have experienced so far, I found the assignment to once again be challenging. I think the biggest challenge, and the one that affects me the most, is the use of very technical terminology in the directions/instructions on how to use/set up Google Analytics tools in your profile. The information as it is presented is not done in “easy to understand” terms, unless you are someone who works with this type of data on a regular basis. Even when going to the “help” section, I didn’t get my questions answered.
So, after some help from the professor, I was finally able to get a link into the code to get the tracking set up. Once that was done, I returned to the tool to start adding some parameters/goals as part of the tracking process. Because our blogs are fairly simple, the number of pages and opportunities to actually set up parameters for information is slim. One of the areas I that I would like to get more information about is which links/articles the visitors go to when visiting the site. From the report, it doesn't appear that this information is included; it only reports the pageviews and is not specific to which pages are viewed. I think this information will help to see what information they are viewing and how long visitors spend on certain topics.
Additionally, I would also be interested in knowing which links users click on when reading through the articles. This will help me determine if people are finding the links useful when reading through the material.
I think determining what you want to track and how to set it up through the analytical tool is fairly complicated. When I edited my profile, I came to the area where it asks “track site search.” I thought that I probably should add that as part of my profile, but once I clicked “yes,” I was asked to set query parameters. Unfortunately, I had no idea what that meant, and the help section was of no help, so I decided that I guess I wouldn’t/couldn’t track the site. But when reading the report from the blog, it appears that information is already in the content information. It is not clear to me what the goals are and why/how to set those up.
For me, trying to grasp the technical terms/information has been the biggest challenge in setting up the Google Analytics tool. This again goes back to the fact that I am a novice at looking at/using this information and the information is not presented for a novice. But, I’ll continue plugging along, hoping that a light bulb will eventually go off in my head!
References:
Google (2010). Google.com. Retrieved February 7, 2010, from http://www.google.com/analytics/
Google Analytics (2010). Conversion University. Retrieved February 7, 2010, from http://services.google.com/analytics/breeze/en/ga_intro/index.html
This week we began using Google Analytics on our blogs (i.e., Getting your arms around social media). As with much of the search engine information I have experienced so far, I found the assignment to once again be challenging. I think the biggest challenge, and the one that affects me the most, is the use of very technical terminology in the directions/instructions on how to use/set up Google Analytics tools in your profile. The information as it is presented is not done in “easy to understand” terms, unless you are someone who works with this type of data on a regular basis. Even when going to the “help” section, I didn’t get my questions answered.
So, after some help from the professor, I was finally able to get a link into the code to get the tracking set up. Once that was done, I returned to the tool to start adding some parameters/goals as part of the tracking process. Because our blogs are fairly simple, the number of pages and opportunities to actually set up parameters for information is slim. One of the areas I that I would like to get more information about is which links/articles the visitors go to when visiting the site. From the report, it doesn't appear that this information is included; it only reports the pageviews and is not specific to which pages are viewed. I think this information will help to see what information they are viewing and how long visitors spend on certain topics.
Additionally, I would also be interested in knowing which links users click on when reading through the articles. This will help me determine if people are finding the links useful when reading through the material.
I think determining what you want to track and how to set it up through the analytical tool is fairly complicated. When I edited my profile, I came to the area where it asks “track site search.” I thought that I probably should add that as part of my profile, but once I clicked “yes,” I was asked to set query parameters. Unfortunately, I had no idea what that meant, and the help section was of no help, so I decided that I guess I wouldn’t/couldn’t track the site. But when reading the report from the blog, it appears that information is already in the content information. It is not clear to me what the goals are and why/how to set those up.
For me, trying to grasp the technical terms/information has been the biggest challenge in setting up the Google Analytics tool. This again goes back to the fact that I am a novice at looking at/using this information and the information is not presented for a novice. But, I’ll continue plugging along, hoping that a light bulb will eventually go off in my head!
References:
Google (2010). Google.com. Retrieved February 7, 2010, from http://www.google.com/analytics/
Google Analytics (2010). Conversion University. Retrieved February 7, 2010, from http://services.google.com/analytics/breeze/en/ga_intro/index.html
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