Today’s post is about a new, easy-to-use feature in Google Analytics called “Weighted Sort.” If you’re unfamiliar with it, watch the video, and after the break, I’ll go into why and how it’s useful, as well as what to do in situations where you can’t use weighted sort.

After watching that brief video, you now understand that you can sort using the usual metrics, OR you can let GA use visit or pageview metrics to “weight” the significance of the sort. The…

...continue to read "Your New BFF: Weighted Sort in Google Analytics"

…conversion [rate] optimization is the science and art of creating an experience for a website visitor with the goal of converting the visitor into a customer.

-Wikipedia

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Create a good experience and your visitors will convert. But is it really that simple?

This post will explore why I believe CRO isn’t easy at all, and can’t be done successfully by just anyone or any company. Anything that combines “art” and “science” is going…

...continue to read "The Art & Science of CRO"

We all know that waiting for test results is exciting, but somewhat tortuous. Our minds run wild, asking things like: Why is this taking so long? Why won’t Google Website Optimizer (or any other testing platform) declare a winner already? What does “statistical confidence” mean, anyway?

You experience this anxiety, FutureNow clients struggle with it, and we analysts stress over it, too. You’re not alone.

The key point is that you can’t give in to the temptation to end tests early! Ending a…

...continue to read "Top 10 Things To Do When Waiting for GWO Results"

I’m going to share a custom segment that I came up with that has been both fun and useful to apply to our clients’ web analytics data.

One of the best reasons to segment web analytics data is to answer a business question, so let’s start with a few business questions that this segmenting trick might help answer:

I want to optimize the conversion rate for my segment of engaged, return visitors. Where should I focus my optimization budget?

I’m redesigning my Information Architecture.…

...continue to read "Analytics How-To: Segment for Sticky Content"

I recently attended a trade show with one of FutureNow’s clients, and was reminded of how valuable this type of experience is to online marketers who want to improve their online conversion rate and marketing/sales results.

Before I dive into my 3 1/2 reasons why you should attend your company’s next relevant trade show, let’s make sure we’re on the same page about what a “trade show” is.  There are many industry-centric gatherings that I’m NOT focusing on. An example might…

...continue to read "3 1/2 Reasons Why Online Marketers Should Attend Tradeshows"