Statistics are everywhere, whether we’re talking about crime rates going down or high school graduation rates going up. It’s no different when it comes to websites, where we track metrics like page views, conversions, and bounce rates. Although we’d like to believe that we’re savvy about the numbers, we may not be as adept at interpreting them as we think. In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman explains why.

One Mind, Two Systems

Kahneman characterizes our two thinking systems as fictional figures called System 1 and System 2. System 1 operates automatically to quickly generate complex patterns of thought. We use this system when we perceive that one object is farther than another one or when we detect an angry tone of voice. Its capabilities can be innate, such as recognizing objects, while others are learned, such as reading and understanding social situations. Whether they’re inborn or acquired, System 1 thinking requires little or no effort on our part.

In contrast, System 2 thinking is deliberate. This system handles operations that require our attention, and we don’t perform them well if we’re distracted. We use this system when we focus on one person’s voice in a crowded and noisy room or when we search our memory to identify a surprising sound. System 2 thinking involves making choices and deciding what to think or do.

The Division of Labour

Although they function in different ways, they work together to make sense of the world. Both systems are active when we’re awake; System 1 runs automatically while System 2 operates in low-effort mode, using a fraction of its capacity. System 1 generates suggestions based on impressions, intuitions, and feelings. System 2 will usually adopt these suggestions with little or no modification. Most of what we think originates with System 1, but System 2 has the final say. However, when System 1 runs into a situation that doesn’t fit into the model of the world it constructed, System 2 is activated to help by searching our memory to find a story that explains the anomaly.

This division of labour works well most of the time because System 1’s models of familiar situations and short-term predictions tend to be accurate. It’s good at automatically identifying causal connections and events—even when it’s not a solid connection. System 1 suppresses ambiguity and spontaneously constructs stories that are as coherent as possible, and System 2 will generally accept that answer without questioning it. This story construction can work to our disadvantage in considering statistics.

The Wrong Focus

We tend to focus on the story rather than the reliability of statistics. In one example, Kahneman cited a study of kidney cancer rates in 3,141 counties in the US. The counties that had the lowest rates were mostly rural, sparsely populated, traditionally Republican, and located in the Midwest, the South, and the West. If we try to explain this pattern, System 1 brings up facts and associations that support an explanation for System 2. We would probably examine the rural characteristic because we associate it with clean living (access to fresh food and no water or air pollution). This explanation makes more sense than trying to explain the lower rate in terms of political views.

However, the counties that had the highest kidney cancer rates also had the same characteristics (rural, sparsely populated, Republican, same locations). Again, we might focus on the rural lifestyle, which might mean poor access to medical care, a high-fat diet, and too much tobacco. For both situations, we look for a story that explains the cancer rate. We’re so focused on explaining how a rural lifestyle contributes to a lower or higher cancer rate that we miss the fact that these areas are sparsely populated; as Kahneman points out, smaller sample sizes tend to yield extreme results more often. Rather than questioning the validity of the statistics, we skip over that to try to explain the results.

Objective Results

So what does this mean for you? When it comes to your website metrics, do some preparation before you gather data. Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Define your goals. The information you’re looking for will determine which metrics you’ll use. Are you trying to increase conversions? Do you want to make sure that your site is user-friendly? Are you looking for more information about your site visitors?
2. Decide which metrics to use. Before you begin measuring, make sure the metrics will answer your questions. For example, if you want to test the usability of your site, you should consider metrics such as the time taken for a task, the error rate, and the user’s subjective satisfaction.
3. Pick a tool that meets your needs. There are plenty of options out there, so do your research to find the best fit for your goals.
4. Make sure your statistics are reliable. Before you try to explain the statistics, make sure they have a solid basis. Are you looking at the right metrics? Is your sample size big enough? Is it composed of unique site visitors?

Remember that website statistics aren’t necessarily objective because you can interpret them subjectively based on your prior experiences and associations. If it’s your own site, you may be too close to what you’re measuring to analyze it. For example, you may be too invested in a design to objectively evaluate the metrics for the calls-to-action. Bringing in outside help to assess your site’s analytics can help ensure that your metrics are being measured and interpreted properly.

Image Credit: TEXample.net

When you run a digital marketing agency, the #1 query you get is: if I contract with you for search engine optimization, can you guarantee a first place ranking on Google?

What this tells us is that there are SEO providers out there who make such promises. As a result, there are clients who may achieve a top ranking – but not much else to show for their investment in SEO. The words “guaranteed rankings and traffic” have tainted the reputation of the industry. One of the most common tactics is for the SEO provider to select your keywords for you. They will select non-competitive keywords which your potential customers are unlikely to use. This makes it easy for them to deliver a high search ranking based on those keywords, but this does not deliver quality traffic.

Companies who spend a lot of money raising their ranking from #2 to #1 may lose sight of conversion or dismiss pay-per-click campaigns that could help their bottom line. It’s possible to reach #1 and achieve little or no impact. It depends.

Search Engines Warn Against Guarantees

Google provides a very instructive set of guidelines on search marketing that every SEO client should read. They make one very clear statement: No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. Although this section specifically warns about providers who claim to have special relationships with Google (such as access to knowledge of the ‘secret sauce’ behind Google’s search algorithms), the warning comes straight from the company who would know better than anyone that SEO guarantees are not feasible. For one thing, this would destroy the integrity of Google’s organic search model, which is the entire basis of their business success.

Rankings are Dynamic and Unstable

A reputable provider knows that search results for the same search term can vary from hour to hour, and from location to location. It depends on which search engine server is fulfilling your query at any point in time; whether you log in to your personalized Google account or some other account; or which city you’re in when you type the query. These factors change the order of results, so making guarantees based on uncontrollable circumstances does not make sense.

Rankings are the Wrong Metric for Business ROI

This is the most important thing to remember. The reason companies want high search rankings is to increase business. Rankings are a means to an end, not the end. Rankings alone do not increase traffic or convert traffic into business.

The most basic metric of SEO success is quality traffic. If an SEO campaign shows a marked increase in search engine traffic, that’s one part of the success. The other part is whether visitors stay on the site and spend time on product and services information, play with demos or watch videos. This means SEO has brought the right audience to the site.

Traffic is good, but converting traffic into visitors who take action is the ultimate success metric. Conversion could mean buying a product, or for non-eCommerce sites, it could mean signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a white paper. When visitors land on a company’s website, how easy is it to find information? Is the content clear and informative? Is the website easy to navigate? Does it provide calls to action in visible, logical places? Does the company know which phone calls or emails to the sales department come through search and which ones through traditional marketing?

SEO can drive traffic but not conversion once the visitor lands.

This is where Analytics come into play. An SEO provider will always install analytics to determine where the traffic is coming from, which were the most popular search terms and so on. Analytics can also monitor user behavior on a website: which pages were most popular, how long did visitors spend on each page, when they abandoned the site and on which page. This helps determine how a website could be improved for better conversion. A website optimized for conversion is also part of the business equation. A high search ranking definitely helps, but by itself will not convert business for you.

So What’s a Reasonable Promise?

A good digital marketing provider will focus on increasing a client’s business. This means taking a consultative approach that is broader than merely SEO. Typically this means an audit of the client’s existing online presence that includes search, website effectiveness, social media, and even offline mediums that drive visitors to the website. This will generate recommendations which may include content strategy, website optimization, or a social media strategy. This takes a lot more work than just promising to submit a client’s website to all the search engines.

A client may not have the budget to implement all the recommendations, but the provider will be able to advise which components are the most critical.

The other factor is time. There will always be components that only the client can implement. This includes tasks such as freshening content and images, developing marketing content specific to the business, regular blog posts, and setting up offline mechanisms for tracking (different phone numbers for web queries and print ad queries is a good example). Fresh content helps boost search engine rankings; this is why regular blog posts are important. Social media also requires real commitment from the client. But a client may not have the staff or time to do this, so again, a good provider will explain how the various components impact the success of the plan and help the client prioritize.

Given factors such as: competing SEO campaigns, changing search algorithms, client resources and/or ability to implement, the only guarantee a digital marketing agency can give a client is: to provide the best advice possible for using the Internet to increase traffic and improve business.

Google Becoming Social

Google Plus is an entire suite of social products that in a way integrate the functionality and features of Facebook, Twitter, Skype and then some. All under one roof with one account. Here is a short video overview of the platform:

The three main elements of google plus are circles, sparks and hangouts. These three features are the social elements that are going to rival companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Skype as the platform picks up momentum. And considering that Google is the largest internet company in the world traffic and exposure shouldn’t be a problem. The coolest element of Google plus has to be hangouts. Imagine if Facebook chat was done via video and you could talk to 10 people at once. Google hangouts:

Will Google Plus Succeed?

This isn’t the first time Google has made attempts to break into the social space. Google Wave and Google Buzz were million dollar projects that were launched before with similar intentions that have made practically zero impact on how we use Google. The Google +1 button has been around for months now but it is still not clear what purpose it actually serves. It is essentially Googles version of the Facebook Like button but unlike the latter it doesn’t share anything or have any residual value, it is just a button that you click that seems to have no impact on your immediate experience. Only time will tell, but the amount of commitment and back end changes involved with Google’s venture into the social element of the web it is a good guess to say that the large social media companies now have another heavyweight competitor to share it’s user base with.

Down the Rabbit Hole…

As an ordinary user the new layout or the new social products  don’t really impact your life in any way other than giving you the ability to do even more cool stuff on the internet that you weren’t able to do before. But as a business owner or somebody who utilizes the internet to some degree to generate revenue or leads this leap into the social space brings with it a heap of new problems and opportunities.

Google has been focusing on location based search over the last few years and has succeeded in delivering relevant results to users based on their geographic locations. By doing this it has also succeeded in practically putting all phone book companies out of business. It has diminished local newspaper advertising revenues and taken on an entirely new type of media. The leap into the social space has brought with it the time and relationship factors. Bing has tied in Facebook search a while ago where if you are logged into Facebook any searches you type into Bing will return Facebook related results specific to your social network. Google has been giving you Twitter results for certain topics for a while now as well.

The sidebar on the left of your search results now lets you choose a date range for your search results. So if you are looking for the latest sports scores you can search your teams name and filter by 24 hours thus getting the latest updates on the topic.

If you use Google analytics you can now set it up to track your social media efforts as well as your website interactions:

The implementation of social elements into analytics tracking and webmaster tools is much more than a set of new features, along with Google+ and other new social products it’s a clear statement of the direction in which the company is headed. It is also an outrageously blunt hint as to what factors are being looked at by the new search algorithms updates when ranking certain sites above others in search results.

Google Algorithm Update “Panda” 2.2

If you have noticed that your search engine rankings are all over the map these last few weeks, going up and down twice daily or if your website has disappeared from Google’s results completely then you are experiencing the full wrath of Google’s Panda 2.2 algorithm update.

Google is about relevance and user experience. The main objective is to give the user the most relevant high quality result for their search query. SEO or search engine optimization is nothing more than at attempt at telling Google that your site is more relevant than the other sites about your specific subject. Link building and and keyword placement on the site have been proven factors in ranking your site higher in organic search results since the very beginning. However, people have learned through trial and error what elements the Google algorithm looks at when deciding which sites rank highest and have begun to take advantage of their knowledge by concentrating primarily on black hat techniques that work exceptionally well in raising their rankings. However once this became the focus the content quality has began to decline. People would rank mediocre or poor content sites at the top for high search volume key words in order to make an extra buck. This in turn makes Google look bad as the quality of the results it delivers to it’s users suffers as well. The answer – Google Panda.

SEO Practices are Changing…

Google panda focuses on filtering out those sites that have thousands of poor quality spam links and those with duplicate or poor quality content out of it’s search results. Unfortunately it isn’t possible for Google to make an algorithm that will de-list all the websites that use these bad practices because that would give spammers a weapon against good quality sites that they could sabotage via the same methods. So what’s the answer? Avoid the whole situation all together, rather than punishing sites with poor practices they will reward sites that have good practices. And with all of the new social media features and directions that Google is taking you can bet that your social media efforts are now of direct relevance to your keyword rankings on Google.  As noble as the attempt and idea is, it has millions of website owners around the world pissed off as they watch their rankings disappear completely for 2 hours and come back better than ever 2 hours later only to drop again to the bottom of the pile the next day. If you have a web store or a business that relies on the internet to generate leads or income you will definitely feel uneasy while these changes are happening. The ripple effect from the panda update and the social media direction can be felt most by those websites who have relied on link building more than content and social media before. This is likely to go on for the next few weeks as the dust begins to settle and your rankings begin to solidify again.

So what will work now? The same concepts apply: quality content, quality link building, quality website, etc. Everything works just as it did before but with more emphasis on one thing: quality. However there is now a social layer added to the equation. If you are up against a website with a bigger social media presence and activity in your industry, you can bet that they will be ahead of you in the search results as well.

Collecting analytics data about your site visitors is a good thing. The theory behind collecting information is that if you have some sensible data, you can better plan when executing business objectives. But, like most good things, there’s a catch.

You need a way of testing all this wonderful data against your theories of what works. If you don’t, you will be left with a big blob of information that doesn’t do your organization much good except supply icing for colourful reports.

For example, how useful is it for you to know that, on average, your website visitors spend 40 seconds on your landing page?

Or, what intelligence do you get from knowing that your customers drop out at the third step of a registration process on your site?

You can get all of this data from analytics, but so what? How does that translate into implementing changes to your site to help achieve results? If only there was a way to use this data to help achieve business objectives…

Enter Optimizer.

It’s all about testing. No, I am not talking about a 100 question multiple choice exam. Think simpler. Think kindergarten: A or B questions. With Optimizer, you can test two different scenarios against each other to see how your visitors react (split testing) and use that raw data to see which scenario works better. It’s so simple that it makes achieving business objectives a breeze. And the best part is that you can test anything: content, call to actions, graphical elements, even user interface concepts.

Let’s take one of our previous raw data examples and see how Optimizer can help. Let’s say your customers are dropping out on the third step of your registration process and you want to find out why.

You have two theories as to why they are leaving:

#1) You are asking them for too much private information.

#2) The third step is too long and the user gets bored and leaves.

Let’s say you decide to test theory #1: you are asking too much private information (maybe you are collecting credit card data to verify someone’s age). You decide that this step is not necessary and you remove the credit card details and run a split test (some visitors go through the original registration process while some go through the modified version). You let this experiment run for a while and then review the results. The version of your site which successfully converts more visitors into registrants is the more optimized site.

Congratulations, you just ran your first simple split test and achieved a business objective: getting more registrations.

Of course, real life optimizations can be far more complex. You can run multivariate tests to see how several versions of a site perform and you can make the tests more efficient by testing multiple elements simultaneously. For time sensitive projects (such as a product launch) this type of testing becomes crucial as the website success is a function of time. By running split tests, you reduce the time it takes to discover the most optimized configuration for your site.

Running proper test campaigns takes knowledge, a good grasp of usability and a well defined business objective. Next time you are pouring over your analytics data, think about how your site is meeting your business objectives and consider how a test campaign can help you meet your goals.

Image Credit: brockvicky/cc

The key to tracking different PPC Ad Campaigns is Google’s URL Builder. Using this handy tool, you can track the conversions and return on investment from your online advertising spending.

To get started, here is how to use Google’s URL Builder for the most common PPC Ad Platforms:

1. How To Track Your MSN adCenter PPC Campaigns:

If you leave your MSN adCenter ad untagged, then your paid traffic will be indistinguishable from your organic traffic from MSN and Bing. To create custom tags for your Microsoft adCenter URLs, enter the information below into Google URL Builder:

1. Campaign Source: bing
2. Campaign Medium: cpc
3. Campaign Term: {QueryString}
(this is a custom tag that Microsoft Adcenter supports for tracking keywords )
4. Campaign Content: {AdID}
(this is another custom tag unique to Adcenter for individual ad tracking)
5. Campaign Name: {OrderItemID}
(this imports your Ad Group ID from Microsoft Adcenter or choose a custom campaign name)

Plug this data into Google’s URL Builder and you should get something like this:

http://www.yourwebsite.com/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=ppc&utm_term={QueryString}&utm_content={AdID}&utm_campaign={OrderItemID}

Notice that the Google URL Builder may converts the “{” and “}” characters  to character string “%7B” and “%7D”. I’d recommend modifying the URL so that the “{” and “}” characters are intact. Now, login into your Microsoft Adcenter account and ad this custom URL to each individual ad as the landing page URL.

2. How To Track Your Yahoo Search Marketing PPC Campaigns:

Tracking your Yahoo Search Marketing Ads is very similar to the previous example with Microsoft Adcenter. Again, what you need to do is create custom tags for your individual Yahoo Ad Campaigns:

1. Campaign Source: yahoo
2. Campaign Medium: cpc
3. Campaign Term: {OVKEY}
   (Yahoo’s custom tag for tracking keywords)
4. Campaign Content: {OVADID}
   (Yahoo’s custom tag for individual ad tracking)
   
5. Campaign Name: {OVCAMPGID}
   (Yahoo’s custom tag for campaign ID or choose a custom campaign name)

Plug this data into Google’s URL Builder and you should get something like this:

http://www.yourwebsite.com/?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term={OVKEY}&utm_content={OVADID}&utm_campaign={OVCAMPGID}

Now you will need to verify that Yahoo’s custom URL tagging (which only works with Yahoo! Web Analytics) is disabled by going to the Administration tab and clicking on Tracking URLs. Set Tracking URLs to OFF and save your changes. This will ensure that your URLs will not be double tagged. Next, in your Yahoo PPC campaign manager, you will need to enter this custom URL for each individual ad in your PPC campaign as the landing page URL.

3. How To Track Your Facebook Ad Campaigns:

With Facebook’s growing influence in online advertising, running PPC campaigns on the Facebook platform can be very lucrative for certain businesses. If you don’t set up a custom URL for your Facebook Ads then they will appear in your Google Analytics data in a similar fashion to clicks from your Facebook Page or links posted on Facebook. That’s not very helpful if you’re trying to track return on investment (ROI), which is especially important for Facebook Ads which can be a goldmine for some businesses and a moneypit for others.

1. Campaign Source: facebook
2. Campaign Medium: cpc
3. Campaign Term: (here can you place your targeted keywords)
4. Campaign Content: (this can help you differentiate your ads if you’re running multiple ads)
5. Campaign Name: (choose a custom campaign name)

You completed URL will look something like this:

http://www.yourwebsite.com/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=seo&utm_content=ad1&utm_campaign=facebook-seo

Next, enter this information as the landing page for your individual Facebook Ad ads and campaigns and you won’t have to rely anymore on the mediocre analytics provided by Facebook Insights.

Conclusion

I highly recommend to customers that are currently using Google Adwords to try out these other platforms. While the search volumes are nowhere near Google’s, the cost-per-click is often much lower and the advertising competition is less intense. This can make it much easier to convert your paid traffic spending into conversions that a solid return for each dollar spent.

Now, with custom tracking you can see for yourself if these platforms are worth your advertising dollars by measuring your exact return on investment in Google Analytics.

Google Website Optimizer is an easy-to-use tool offered by Google to help business conduct split and multivariate (3-way or more) testing. It provides you with a powerful tool to increase your conversion rate with its easy testing system. To give an example of just how powerful this tool can be for your business, let’s look at one of the most famous examples of conversion split-testing.

How Barack Obama’s Campaign Used Google Website Optimizer

One of the reasons for Barack Obama’s landslide election win in 2008 was his use of social media and conversion testing to fine-tune the effectiveness of his message. Instead of relying on a team of political experts to make all the decisions, his campaign employed multivariate testing to see which message actually best resonated with voters. His web analytics team was a fronted by Dan Siroker, a former Google employee with extensive conversion optimization experience.

The centerpiece of Obama’s campaign was his online social community My Barack Obama. Primarily through online donations at this website, Obama raised a record-breaking $500 million dollars from 6.5 million donations. The average online donation was $80 and many donors donated multiple times. In September 2008, Obama’s website had it’s biggest month of the campaign, raising $100 million dollars from online donations.

Image-Based Conversion Testing

To maximize the effectiveness of his campaign website, Obama’s analytics team used Google Website Optimizer to run multivariate tests on important pages throughout the website. On the pivotal campaign sign up page, where the initial contact is established with potential supporters, a multivariate test was run to compare the following three call-to-action images:

Of these 3 images, which do you think would be the most successful at motivating people to sign up and support Obama’s campaign?

The Get Involved call-to-action on the left was the original image which the other 2 images were tested against. The Change call-to-action image in the middle resulted in 3.85% more people signing up to support the campaign. But it was the Family call-to-action image that was by far the most successfully with 13.1% more people joining the website.

Button-Based Conversion Testing

The web analytics teams also tested four different combinations of the Sign Up button to see which would be most effective. In addition to the original Sign Up call-to-action button, they used mutli-variate testing to compare buttons with the call-to-actions Learn More, Join Us Now and Sign Up Now. Any guesses as to which button was most effective?

It may not be what you think. The Join Us Now was marginally more effective with 1.37% more clicks and the Sign Up Now was slightly less effective than the original with -2.38% drop in clicks. But the Learn More button showed a substantial conversion improvement with 18.6% more clicks. The result was that by these small seemingly minor improvements to the call-to-actions buttons Obama’s campaign was able to substantially increase the number of potential voters who signed up to support his campaign.

What Can You Do With Website Optimizer?

Google Website Optimizer can  be an extremely effective tool for your business. Even without a substantial increase in your web traffic, multivariate conversion testing can increase the amount of sales or leads that you generate from your current amount of traffic. If your website’s call-to-action messages aren’t optimized in a way that fully engages your potential customers, you’re leaving money on the table.

You can use Google Website Optimizer to not only compare call-to-action images and buttons, but also to compare different versions of headlines and marketing copy. Using this powerful conversion optimization tool, you can take the guesswork out of online marketing and start making data-driven business decisions that will maximize your revenue.

A look inside Google Analytics at some of the statistical data provided.

Google Analytics is a free and easy-to-use website tracking and statistics tool provided by Google. It provides you with detailed statistics and data about the visitors to your website. If you don’t currently have a tracking tool to analyze your website’s traffic, then Google Analytics is a great tool to begin with. Google Analytics is currently used by about 40% of the top 10,000 websites, according to Wikipedia.

To sign up for Google Analytics and start tracking your website’s visitors, follow these directions:

1. In your browser enter the following URL or click on the link: http://www.google.ca/analytics/
   
2. Click on the large blue “Access Analytics” button on the right-hand side of your browser window.
3. If you already have a Gmail or Adwords account, you can simply enter the e-mail and password you use for that account. If you don’t have a Google Account, then on the bottom right-hand side of your browser window you will see “Don’t have a Google account? Click on the link “Sign Up Now”.
4. You will now be asked to enter your e-mail address and a password for your new account.
5. Type in the Word Verification requested, read the Terms of Service and then click on the button “I accept. Create my account”.
6. An account verification e-mail will now be sent to the e-mail address provided. You active your account, you will need to log into your e-mail inbox and click on the account verification link in the Account Creation Confirmation e-mail from Google.
7. Once you arrive at the E-mail Address Verified page click on the link “click here to manage your account profile.” On the following Google Account page click on “Analytics” and you will be taken to the Google Analytics user login page.
8. On this page you will have to click on the “Sign Up” button and enter some information about the website that you would like to track in Google Analytics.
9. The New Account Signup page looks like this:

Website’s URL: Enter the URL of your website.
Account Name: Choose a name for the account (i.e. “Your Website Name” Analytics)
Time zone country or territory: Choose your country.
Time zone: Choose your time zone.

10. Then click on the “Continue” button.
11. On the next page you will be asked for your First and Last Name and your Country. Fill out this form and click “Continue”
12. On the following page you will be presented with Google’s Analytics User Agreement. Read the agreement and then check the box “Yes, I agree to the above terms and conditions.”
13. After you have checked the box, click on the “Create New Account” button.

Your new Google Analytics account will now be created. To start getting data from your website though, you will need to add a snippet of Javascript code that is provided on the next page. To add this code you will need access to a tool where you can edit your website’s HTML code. If you running an Content Management System like Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal you can easily download plugins that will automatically insert the code on each page of your website. If you aren’t running a Content Management System, then you will need to have access to an HTML editor so you can add the snippet of code to each page on your website that you want to track in Google Analytics.

To add the code to your web pages in an HTML editor, you will need to copy and paste it into the bottom of your content, immediately before </body> tag of each page you want to track. Once you have added the Analytics tracking code to the pages you want to have tracked, click the “Save and Finish” button at the bottom of the Google Analytics page.

You will then be redirected to your Google Analytics Dashboard. To see if the Google Analytics tracking code is properly installed, load up your webpage and then re-load the Google Analytics Dashboard. It may take up to an hour before Google Analytics tracking is activated. Well, there you have it, you can now track how vistors find and navigate through your website in Google Analytics.

To get started, you can access the Filter Manager in Google Analytics by clicking on “Analytics Settings” in the top left corner of your browser window. From the Analytics Settings page, click on “Filter Manager” in the bottom right. In the Filter Manager you can create a new filter by clicking on “+ Add Filter” link on top right of the “Existing Filters” table.

Google Analytics Filters

#1 – Exclude Internal Address Filter

To make your statistical data as accurate as possible, you will probably want to exclude traffic from within your company. At the very least, you should exclude the IP of the webmaster and the employees who do the editing on your pages. You can easily do this by excluding the entire IP address range of your company’s network. If you don’t know your IP address, use What Is My Ip?. Once you have your IP address handy, Google has created a tool to exclude traffic from a range of IP addresses. Simply cut and paste the code Google gives you into the IP address box as shown below.

#2 – All Lowercase Only Filter

A problem in Google Analytics is that it is not case-sensitive, so it will track a page differently depending on how it is typed into the browser. For example, if your website’s main page is www.website.com/index.html, Analytics will track www.website.com/Index.html or www.website.com/index.Html as different pages. This can easily complicate the analysis of your website’s traffic. To fix this problem, you can add a very easy filter.

From the Add Filter Page again, select “Custom Filter” from the Filter Type dropdown menu. Select Lowercase from the radio buttons and then for the “Filter Field” dropdown menu select “Request URI”

#3 Full Referral URL Filter

Another small problem in the basic setup of Google Analytics is that it shortens the website URLs in the referring traffic results. This can make it difficult to find the exact page on the website that is referring you traffic. To solve this problem, you will need a filter that allows the display of the full website URL in the Visits section of Google Analytics.

To do this, create a new filter called “Full Referral URL” and then from the “Filter Type” dropdown menu choose “Custom Filter” (you can also refer to graphic below to see how to input the information). Next, select the “Advanced” radio button.  In the “Field A > Extract A” menu select “Referral” from the dropdown menu and enter (.*) in the text field, which tells Analytics to select the entire URL. For the “Field B > Extract B” menu you can leave the dropdown menu and text field empty.

Next, from the “Output To > Constructor” menu select “User Defined” from the dropdown menu and enter “$A1″ in the text field. For the radio buttons below, in “Field A Required” select the Yes radio button, in “Field B Required” select the No radio button, in “Override Output Field” select the Yes radio button and in “Case Sensitive” select the No radio button.  Save the new Filter Profile and you’re done.

There you have it, three Google Analytics filter profiles that will make your website statistics more accurate. I recommend that you quickly add these filter profiles whenever you create a new Google Analytics account. To learn more about advanced features in Google Analytics, you can download our latest Google Analytics White Paper.

Download a copy (below) to learn how to set up a wide range of useful goals ranging from tracking newsletter signups, social media bookmarking to tracking the completion of an online sales process. The goal conversions outlined in the white paper are intended for websites of all sorts, including:

• Brand Awareness and Engagement Website: For brochure-style websites that don’t directly sell products or generates leads for your business.
• Lead Generating Website: For websites where you want visitors to contact you for further information about your products and services.
• E-commerce Sales Website: For online E-commerce stores where you want to track visitor behavior and analyze how they navigate through the online sales process.

The reason why every website with Google Analytics needs conversion goals is that they allow you measure which search engine keywords and external traffic sources are providing traffic that is converting. They also provide insight into which landing pages and important content on your website is attracting the visitors that are using your website in a way that achieves your business goals.

With the actionable insights provided by well set goals, you can steadily improve the user experience for your visitors while making your website a more effective marketing tool for your business. This white paper provides step-by-step instructions to set up conversion goals in Google Analytics, and provides these other important tips on how to improve the effectiveness of your analytics data:

• How to filter traffic internal traffic from your company.
• How to create a visual sales funnel to track the sales process.
• How to create virtual pageviews for difficult-to-track goals that require JavaScript.

Download a copy of the white paper in PDF format here: Google Analytics White Paper

After 15 years of providing integrated Web solutions to businesses across Western Canada, Vancouver Internet marketing firm SmarttNet is setting out to help small and medium sized enterprises enter the profitable world of Web Analytics.

The recent addition of 4 Google Analytics Qualified Individuals to the company is a major expansion, but also a natural progression for SmarttNet, whose Chief Marketing Officer Martin Wong has always put hard numbers first when it comes to measuring the success of any marketing campaign.

“Web Analytics should be a cornerstone for any web strategy,” says Wong, “Especially with the economic downturn, it is absolutely essential for companies to measure and analyze any marketing activities. Web analytics can help you control your costs and optimize your return on investment by observing how your customers react and behave cross-channels.”

Google Analytics is a free and powerful tool that lets business owners measure website traffic and determine the effectiveness of their online marketing efforts. While it is free to install, small businesses stand to benefit greatly from the training and insights that Google Analytics Qualified Individuals can provide.

“Recent research from Forrester Research has shown that 75% of large enterprises consider Web Analytics technologies to be indispensable,” says Wong, “Through our expert implementation services and training programs, we want to bring the power of analytics to local businesses.”

SmarttNet is a full service Internet marketing firm with a long history of serving Vancouver’s business community. The company has roots as a connectivity provider and has since expanded to include co-location, web design, search engine optimization and social media marketing services.

With 4 Google Analytics Qualified Individuals in house, SmarttNet currently employs nearly ten percent of the 53 certified professionals in Canada.

For more information please contact

Jon Mandell
Writer and Media Specialist
jon.mandell@smartt.com
www.marketingsmartt.com