Measuring Success

Here I write about Google Analytics setup and usage; Online privacy - debunking the myths; Data accuracy - what is accurate, what is not and how to live with it; Website usability & conversion optimisation - the whole raison d'etre for measurement in the first place; Democratisation of data - spreading the love; Google in general - business practices, approach and strategy.

Jun 10

Why web measurement is easy, yet gaining insights is hard

Categories: Implementation ABCs, Metrics understanding Comments (2) »

Collecting data is very straightforward – you simply paste a few lines of JavaScript to your pages and data will start to stream into your account. I am specifically referring to Google Analytics here, but the principal is the same for all the main web analytics vendors. Superficially that’s all there is to it. If you just wish to view visitors and pageview counts you don’t need an analytics specialist to help you – all you require are basic webmaster skills. However, products such as Google Analytics have 100+ reports so that you can analyse much more than these – in fact, regardless of how much traffic you receive, those can be covered in a handful of reports. So why so many reports…? If all you require are traffic volume graphs and a site-wide conversion rate (i.e. the number of transactions divided by the number of visits), then you don’t! That’s the Read the full article…

May 11

Show Me the Money: How much value is your website generating?

Categories: Metrics understanding, SEO & Analytics No Comments »

It never ceases to amaze me how much emphasis organisations still put on measuring website volume – “How many visits (or conversions) did our last campaign generate?” It surprises me because volume metrics are a very useful guide to failure – but not success. That is, low traffic and conversion numbers tell you that something went wrong. For example, wrong message, wrong audience, wrong timing, or a landing page error – but they are a very blunt metric for success. A key meaning for measuring success is knowing which visits and conversions are your high value ones. In other words, which visitors are the most profitable to acquire. This can be measured directly if you are a transactional site, or indirectly as new leads/contacts/advocates. That is the principal behind optimisation – focusing your efforts on attracting/converting your most valuable visitors and pages. Dave Chaffey is a SEO expert, distinguished author, active blogger, Google Analytics Read the full article…

Apr 29

Google Analytics ebook (PDF) available – 3rd edition

Categories: Google Analytics specific Comments (37) »

For those that are interested e-books (great for copy & pasting code) there is a PDF version of the Google Analytics book – Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics book, purchasable from Wiley.

Apr 23

Understanding Web Analytics Accuracy – Whitepaper

Categories: Metrics understanding, Privacy and Accuracy, Pro Lounge Comments (8) »

I first wrote about web analytics accuracy in 2007 while working at Google. At that time numerous clients (big spending Google advertisers my team helped) were contacting their Adwords account managers asking why Google Analytics numbers did not match their AdWords click-through reports, or for that matter, match the other web measurement tools they were using.

Apr 07

Google Analytics IQ promotional code

Categories: Google Analytics specific Comments (11) »

If you have a copy of the Google Analytics Book, you will know the second edition contains a 50% discount coupon/promotional code for completing the GAIQ certification – part of the Conversion University online learning centre. In turns out using this can be a little confusing and you may see a message saying “invalid code”. This means you are trying to put it in the wrong field…! Don’t put the discount code in the first screen, that is for vouchers, which are different. Instead: From the test start page, click purchase select the GAIQ exam. Enter the coupon code from the book in the “Promotional Code” field – see screenshot What is the GAIQ certification? Back in 2007, while working at Google in London, my view was that there was far too little knowledge “out there” that helped digital marketers, web managers and developers learn the fundamentals of visitor measurement. Read the full article…

Mar 15

Google Analytics Book – 2nd edition launched

Categories: Google Analytics specific Comments (22) »

The second edition of Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics started shipping from Amazon last week – almost exactly two years since the first book. Like becoming a father (well not quite), it’s a proud moment and milestone for me. If you want to dive straight in, try one of these: Download sample book content: Intro, Table of Contents, Chapter 1 and the Index (1.88Mb PDF) or Read more about the book or Order from Amazon.com (.co.uk) or Barnes & Noble or buy the PDF ebook or leave me your feedback with a comment, retweet or rating… Here’s what industry movers and shakers think about the second edition: “If you’re looking for a practical, tactical guide in how to implement and think about web marketing optimization, look no further. Brian Clifton spells it out by industry, by job function, by Key Performance Indicator, and more.” —Jim Sterne, Founding Director and Read the full article…

Mar 04

How to choose between Urchin or Google Analytics

Categories: Google Analytics specific, Urchin software specific Comments (11) »

There are two Google products for web analytics – Urchin Software and Google Analytics. Which one should you choose? This article describes what criteria to use for deciding between the two and is a follow up to my recent article “What is Urchin 6“. As a general guide, Marketers prefer Google Analytics, IT departments prefer Urchin… This statement is reflected in the user-base for each product. Urchin is mainly used for measuring intranets (an area of the business that Marketing is not involved in), and used by web-hosting providers where deployment scalability for a large number of websites is important. On the other hand, Google Analytics, apart from being a free service (Urchin requires a purchased license), is used by organizations that wish to have greater control of their individual web analytics implementation. Those are not mutually exclusive rules or requirements, so lets look at some criteria. When GA is Read the full article…

Feb 12

12 Useful Tools for Google Analytics Administration

Categories: Google Analytics specific, Implementation ABCs Comments (18) »

Tools and helper applications I have come across as a practitioner come in two flavours: those that help you with your administration of Google Analytics – install, setup and configuration, and those that help you use or interpret reports – visualisation aides, third-party integration, segmentation help, and so forth. Often these two scenarios overlap, and marketers frequently find themselves using the same toolset as webmasters and web developers. This post is a compendium of useful tools I have used for GA administration. Regardless of your job role, all the tools listed here are straightforward to use. [ This page is an edited version of Appendix B, taken from the second edition of Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics. The new book is due March 2010 ] Tools to Audit Your GATC Deployment The key to being able to improve your website is having good, solid, accurate data that you can rely Read the full article…

Jan 29

What is Urchin 6?

Categories: Urchin software specific Comments (14) »

I often receive questions about Urchin – what it is (typically: Is it the commercial version of GA?) how it compares with Google Analytics, and how to choose between the two. This post, an abstract from the latest version of the book, explains what Urchin is, its relationship to Google Analytics and why, if at all, you need to consider it. Urchin Software Inc. is the company and technology that Google acquired in April 2005 and went on to become Google Analytics—a free web analytics service that uses the resources at Google (I explain more about its history in Google Analytics – Fours Years on). Urchin software is a downloadable web analytics program that runs on a local server (Unix or Windows). Typically, this is the same machine as your web server. The Urchin Software creates reports by processing your web server logfiles (including hybrid logfiles) and is commonly referred Read the full article…

Jan 19

Don’t buy this book

Categories: Google Analytics specific Comments (25) »

Seriously – don’t buy Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics (first edition)…. Why? Because there is a second edition just around the corner. In fact its due in March The first edition is nearly two years old – eons in Internet years (well probably equivalent to dog years). Those two years were a great success – both personally for me (reading reviews of your work form people you have never met before always brings a smile to my face and a glow to my cheeks – it’s a fantastic ego boost. So much so, I have to prick my head occasionally to prevent it getting oversized!) and for the publisher, who figured out the business of printing and distributing it was good enough to invite me to update the original. And that’s how it started out – an update. A few week’s work right, ten at tops. However, within 3 Read the full article…

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