Beyond BASIC Website Analytics

The reason why website owners implement website analytics tracking software onto their websites is to be able to quantify the activities of their visitors and measure their online advertising programs.  Once the analytical data starts to flow into the reporting modules, the Internet marketing team begins a detailed review of the behavior and performance.

Before we look into activities that are Beyond Basic Website Analytics, we will review the obvious or basic website data review including things like: unique visitors, page view, keywords, time on website, most viewed pages, least viewed pages, etc.  This important analytical activity needs to include website conversion components.

What is a Website Conversion?

These are the goals that are established by the website owner i.e. lead generation, revenue, etc.  How can these goals be measured?

- Make a Purchase

- Download a Document

- Sign Up for a Newsletter

- View or Request a PDF

- Complete a Contact Us Form

- Submit a Request a Proposal

- Fill In a Request for Info Form

- Click on a Specified Link

The process used to measure these goals is found in submitting a Thank You page to the visitor who made the request or took the action.                          

Establishing the Website’s Monetization Value

Many times the website owner or Internet marketing team uses subjective and often arbitrary methods to place value on specific website activities.  We believe you should quantify the value of a lead or conversion in a more analytical manner i.e. establishing the value of a lead followed by the value of a new customer.  This is often done using the simple equation of establishing the # of Visitors : First Order Value.

Relating Website Traffic Sources to Conversion

The basic analytics review focuses on visitor source i.e. Natural Search, Paid Search, Referral Site, Email Marketing, Banner Ads, etc.  The next step is to review the Keyword Phrases that are driving traffic and are converting.  Quantifying the value in Dollars vs. Source is a very important measurement within website conversion enhancement.

Selecting the Website Analytics Solution

Remember… web analytics is the process of gathering and analyzing your website’s data in order to glean meaningful information about how your site is being utilized by your users. There are plenty of web analytics programs to choose from.  Some of the larger, better known applications are: GoogleAnalytics, Omniture, Webtrends, HitWise, Coremetrics, ClickTracks, ComScore, etc. There are also a broad number of alternative programs that are lesser known; however, they are useful and free of charge: Piwik, FireStats, Snoop, BBClone, Whoopra, JAWStats, MochiBot and Grape Web Statistics. The intention in showing you numerous analytics programs is meant to provide insight into the various methods used to collect and distribute the data for user analysis and reporting.

Asking Pertinent Questions

So now the question is: How do we go beyond basic website analytics in determining the present and future of our website? Let’s take a closer look at some issues by asking questions:

-         Why do some of the keywords drive high traffic volume to the website with the conversion rate being very low?  What about the opposite situation?

-         Have you compared analytical data against keyword rankings within the SERPS to determine if more or less investment of time and money is required?

-         After reviewing recent monthly analytical report data, did you come to the conclusion as to where your Internet marketing effort should be placed?

-         What effect does each website promotion activity have on your bottom-line?

Now that you have focused on specific some points of measurement, we need to move on. One More Step Beyond the “Basic”…

Prospective Client Data Collection

Expanding your basic website analytics and information gathering can be assisted by considering the use of the following two [2] programs:

iPerceptions 4Q Program – This program is provided by one of North America’s leading web-focused attitudinal analytics providers. webValidator Continuous Listening Solution and its proprietary Satisfaction Index turn thousands of data points into easy-to-understand strategic and tactical decision support.

ClickTale Heatmap Program – The service helps you analyze the traffic that goes to your site. It is similar to a Google heatmap result that tells you on which part of a page people look at the most, and in what order they tend to scan the page.  Think about it… with that information, you could design each page to place the critical components exactly where people look at the most, scroll to or click on. 

This insight provides the Internet marketing team with specific data that can be used to modify each webpage to the optimum level possible. 

Now you know that basic website analytics are not enough!  Using tools like the ones mentioned above will provide your Internet marketing team with the special insight needed to create and maintain a highly optimized website.

Finally, be sure to hire Internet marketing professionals to do the job if you don’t have the capabilities in-house.  Too much is at stake to leave this part of your business to chance!  We are pleased to provide you the insightful comments contained herein.  Please contact us at www.InternetConsultingAndCoaching.com or call us at 631-423-0815 for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team or to review the Full list of PDF documents on Internet Marketing and Conversion techniques.

Technorati Tags: analytics, Basic, Beyond, website

Hello,

I am still in high school. I still need another year to finish my high school program. I am already 19 years of age. However, is getting my High School Diploma is not my best option? Should I just go to community college and begin some classes? I have taken various AP, Honors, an Advanced classes, I just never got credit for them. I dont know if a University will accept me without a diploma. My ACT Score is 33.

1. I am an eBay Powerseller and Top Rated Seller; with experience in global logistics, and importing an exporting, and working with Chinese Manufacturers and other outsourcing experience. This was my first company I started when I was 17.

2. I am an AdWords Qualified Professional and Search Marketing Expert, I have my own Search Agency that is a partner with Google, and I offer Lead Generation services to Law Firms and Sole Practitioner Lawyers. I also hold Advanced Google Certification in Analytics in search engine and performance based marketing and statistical and quantitative SEM analysis. (And I just want to be more financially sophisticated as a personal goal.)

3. I am currently studying for my Series 7 Exam, a financial exam to become a licensed stock-broker. I have a Financial Firm that will sponsor and offer me employment.

4. I am running for a current political position in my country, we have started my campaign, and I have a very high chance of getting elected. I am very active in my political party and backed by my party.
I meant to add:

"(And I just want to be more financially sophisticated as a personal goal.)"

Under point 3, not point 2.
My GPA at presence is 2.1.

Technorati Tags: 19 years, act score, analytics, chinese manufacturers, ebay, ebay powerseller, generation services, global logistics, goal 3, google, gpa, high school diploma, personal goal, political position, practitioner lawyers, search agency, sem analysis, series 7 exam, sole practitioner, stock broker

I have few domain names that all are redirecting to one domain name. Currently i am using the html tag <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=mydomain.com/" />. I was hoping that all the redirected traffic will increase my main domain page rank due to the traffic.
But I read yesterday that this ‘refresh’ meta tag is actually bad for SEO. They mentioned there that search engine actually unindex domains like that and therefore i would lose that traffic and the domains would not show up in search results.

Can any one suggest me a good way to redirect the traffic from my secondary domains to my primary one? I would like to monitor the traffic in the secondary domains as well as in the primary domain. Currently i am using google analytics to give me traffic information about all the domains.

Please, when answering this question include whether your method is SEO friend, and how? And, also include whether i can monitor it with google analytics or maybe you can suggest other traffic analytics tool?

Thanks.

Technorati Tags: analytics, domain name, domain names, google, html tag, lt, meta tag, page rank, quot, search engine, secondary domains, seo, traffic information

I need some help understanding how exactly to create the keywords behind my officelive website. Anybody have any advice or basic instructions? I have Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics right next to me, but that’s just too much. I am using Google Analytics.

Thanks.

Technorati Tags: analytics, google, officelive, web metrics

I have my website link and company information on several different websites, that pertain to my industry. When I ran Google analytics for my website, it did Not show my website as having any back links. I guess I do not understand what a back link is and how it works. Could someone please explain what it is that I need to do in order for the back link to be recognized? Thanks!

Technorati Tags: analytics, back links, company information, google, link and company

I understand that pages’ rankings can be heavily influenced by appearing or being linked to from more respected / large / proper web sites.

Say for each time the string ‘http // www. wherever . com / a file.html" appears in the source, we will call it an instance.

Would the crawler consider any or all of the following as ‘instances’, in the source and if so, which one(s)..

Example 1 ( a direct, visible link ) .
<a href = " http : // www. thesite . com / a file. html " > regular link < / a >

example 2 (simply displayed as just text, no link.)
" i found this page it’s at http : // www. the site . com / a file. html "

example 3 (the one I’m most curious about, a link commented out)

< ! — analytics / hitbox / whatever else code and meta tags
< a href = " www. thesite. com / a page. html " >& nbsp ; < /a>
– >

Any help or educated guesses are appreciated.

Just an update…

Basically, would examples 2 and 3 have the same weight as example 1…

thanks.

Technorati Tags: amp nbsp, analytics, hitbox, instances, lt, meta tags, proper web, quot, visible link

I have a small business and use Google analytics but really am looking to increase my traffic quickly without paying a big service

Technorati Tags: analytics, google, small business, traffic

Our Web hosting agency provides us with Web Trends (a version from the dark ages) yet they refuse to apply the browsers.ini filter to our tracking configuration to filter out search spiders. My company does not want to switch hosting agencies because the one we have is so reasonably priced. So, I am considering setting up Google Analytics for our sites. I don’t want to wind up in the same situation though – does Google Analytics filter out search engine bots from tracked data?

According to our dark ages Web Trends, search spiders are approximately 75% of our traffic. Therefore I completely mistrust the accuracy of pretty much all the metrics – visits, page views, average visit duration, bounce rate, etc. Do you think Google Analytics can provide us with a more accurate measure of our sites’ performance???

Technorati Tags: accuracy, accurate measure, analytics, bounce, dark ages, duration, google, metrics, mistrust, page views, search engine bots, search spiders, traffic, web trends

I want to use google analytics to optimize my website. I haven’t registered yet though, because I’m not ready to–my site isn’t up yet. I’m just curious how the whole thing works.

Technorati Tags: analytics, google

I am a beginner but have learned a lot about search engine optimization (SEO). We have worked on Google AdWord campaigns, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and used Google Analytics. We used a broad search as well as an industry specialized search, which has obviously been more cost effective.

I have recently submitted our company and link to multiple industry directories with higher PageRank than ours. I have used free keyword tools found in AdWords, Analytics, and Search Marketing, respectively, as well as the free tool on wordtracker.

Also, we have recently created static pages to our web site for added content. Hopefully our recent steps (directory submission, upping our bids in PPC programs, and creating content based pages) will work.

Can anyone help on ways to direct more traffic to our site? Help us maximize our ROI? We usa a dynaminc web site but want to raise our PageRank and site visits.

Thank you,
e-mail: arsenal11385@yahoo.com

http://www.peaktopeakpower.com

Technorati Tags: added content, analytics, campaigns, directory submission, e mail, free tool, google, higher pagerank, industry directories, marketing, optimization seo, ppc programs, search engine optimization, steps directory, traffic, wordtracker, yahoo