3 Useful Analytics Lessons of Google Webmaster Tools
It’s probably not the first tool you’d think about to help your web analytics efforts, but Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) provides more data than most webmasters and online businesses know that can really provide value to their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) initiatives. And Google Webmaster Tools is getting better, with regular updates and new data. However, GWT data alone isn’t necessarily what you’re looking for, but cross-referencing GWT data with your regular analytics tool can provide powerful insights.
If you’re not familiar with Google Webmaster Tools, check out Google Webmaster Tools and SEO. If you’ve heard of GWT before, let’s move on.
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Google Analytics ga.js vs urchin.js
Back in 2007 Google Analytics decided to switch over to ga.js, which is a new version of the javascript tracking code which is loaded through the snippet of code implemented on your webpages. Ga.js provides the functionality required for specific actions and events to be captured, processed and passed on to your Google Analytics reporting.
Although urchin.js continues to deliver the data just like it did in the early days of Google Analytics, there are some important benefits to updating your code to ga.js:
- ga.js loads and works faster than urchin.js, reducing page load time
- ga.js is easier to understand and customize
- It detects the use of https automatically
- e-Commerce and cross-domain tracking are easier to set up
- Allows you to use new features offered by GA now, and in future updates
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Using setVar (_utmsetvar / utm_setvar) for custom segmentation
SetVar (for older versions utm_setvar or _utmsetvar) is a function in the Google Analytics javascript code that allows you to set a custom segmentation rule. GA already offers a set of standard segmentations, as well as more advanced segmentation techniques in the reports interface, but setVar (_utmsetvar / utm_setvar) allows you to take a slice from your traffic before the reports and apply the segmentation options available in the reporting. This kind of custom segmentation gives you an extra dimension and more freedom to interpret the data through the reports.
Tags set for setVar in the code will appear in the report Visitors > User Defined.
Uses of setVar ( _utmsetvar / utm_setvar)
SetVar can be set to tag specific(entry) pages, but also values from a registration form, e.g. “job title”, which would show the values set for this item in your registration form. This will enable you to figure out how each of these visitor segments behave on the site (and possibly use this knowledge to adjust your marketing strategies).
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Google Analytics experiences “data processing error”
Today, as I logged into my Google Analytics account, I got the following message:
System Message: Analytics Processing Delay from April 30th to May 5th
Google Analytics experienced a data processing error from April 30th to May 5th. Almost all of the data has been recovered and is currently being reprocessed. The recovered data will be reflected in your reports within a few days. Please note that a small percentage of data, particularly in the area of e-commerce reporting, was not recoverable from those dates.
We sincerely apologize for this processing issue and are taking every precaution to prevent such disruptions from occurring again in the future. For more information, please read through our common questions.
The Google Analytics Team
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Q&A: Bounce rate and Top exit pages
I often get questions on how and for what certain terminology is used in Google Analytics. Some terms used tend to be confusing – not necessarily on their own, but when used in context with other reports. Examples are the bounce rate metric and top exit pages report, and more particularly how Google Analytics defines the two.
Bounce rate
The bounce rate is a percentage value that represents the amount of visitors that exited the site from the same page they landed on (one-page visits). So when visitors enter your site and leave without navigating to another page, that’s quite literally a “bounce”. So how can this value be of significance to your reports?
Retailer websites, for example, will want to reduce the bounce rate, thereby improving the amount of visitors that stay on the site (increasing visitor retention) and hopefully improving conversions. Imagine the following scenario: You sell apples. A visitor searches for ‘apples’ on a search engine, clicks on your site in the SERPs but the first thing they see is an image of a pear. These people are likely to “bounce” and it’ll be up to you to figure out what makes (targeted) visitors not stick around on your site (images of pears, for obvious reasons). Bit of a silly example perhaps, but you’d be amazed with some of the mistakes made by online retailers.
Q&A: Google Analytics code in footer using Dreamweaver
Now and then I get some pretty interesting questions, sent to me through my contact form. I got one such question several times, and mostly from marketers who don’t really deal with the back-end of websites and aren’t quite sure how to get Google Analytics code up on their sites.
So the question I’m tackling today is: “How can I include Google Analytics code in the footer of my pages using Dreamweaver?”
Let’s start with some basic instructions on how to include Google Analytics code on your website’s pages. If you intend to update individual pages (not recommended for large sites), simply load Dreamweaver, load the page you’d like to place Google Analytics code on and in the top of your screen click on the Code view button to get into the page’s code.
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Google Analytics feature request (1): Show full referring URL
Now and again I come across a flaw in Google Analytics and, rather than keeping these little frustrations to myself, I’ve decided to share them with you and Google. Who knows the greater powers that be will hear me!
Now, after reading the title of this post you might think: “This guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about – you do get the full referring URL in the Referring Sites report.” Fair enough, you’re right to a certain extent: You get the referring domain first, then when you click on a domain you get the full URL. The problem I found, however, is that if a dynamically generated page links to you, you don’t get to see the query string in the referring URL and as a result you cannot find the exact page on another site that links to you.
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Connecting with your visitors/customers to boost conversions
I’m a big fan of Bryan Eisenberg and the way he makes visitor behavior and its relation to web analytics understandable. I learnt quite a few things on behavioral analytics from reading his books and Future Now’s blog and one of the most important lessons has to be the importance of making a connection with the your visitor/prospective customer.
In a nutshell, this concept goes as follows: Your site’s visitors all have goals and don’t have endless patience – They will spend less than 10 seconds evaluating (scanning) your site’s landing page. They have a need and hope your site will fulfil that need. It’s your job to help your visitors by turning the table around when you look at your website to try and see things from the visitor’s perspective. The better you manage to understand your visitors and what they want, the better you can connect with them and the better your conversion rates will be and the lower your landing pages’ bounce rate will be.
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Yahoo buys Indextools – YAHOO!
The recent news of Yahoo buying Indextools gives me plenty to look forward to – it’s an exciting development in the world of web analytics which will stirr up things and bring about another shift.
As with Google Analytics, there’s a catch – only sunshine is free these days! By offering users a free web analytics tool that currently competes with the likes of Omniture and WebTrends, Yahoo are cunningly luring advertising dollars into their Yahoo Search Marketing program.
Using Google Analytics for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
For a lot of marketers out there, web analytics is something they do on the side to help them get more out of what they do. They don’t have web analysts around to tell them what works and what doesn’t, so they get into the data themselves trying to figure out how they can measure what they do. Measuring keyword performance is an important part of an internet marketer’s toolbox, so here are a few pointers using Google Analytics.
Going deeper for SEO – Google Analytics and keyword targeting
If you’ve invested time and effort into building quality content, you’ll want to make sure that this content is paying off in terms of traffic and conversions (sales, registrations, sign-ups, etc.). There are a few things you can do to help you find the gems in your traffic-driving keywords.
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