It’s a “crime against humanity” proclaimed my Analytics Evangelist friend, Avinash Kaushik, at the eMetrics Summit. I’ve heard Avinash use this somewhat dramatic expression several times before in relation to web analytics. That is why I’m going to take the equally dramatic liberty of explaining “The 7 Deadly Sins of Web Analytics”:

According to my friend, Stéphane Hamel the developer behind WASP, a FireFox plugin for detecting and reviewing web analytics implementations, nearly 100% of implementations are setup…

...continue to read "7 Deadly Sins of Web Analytics"

When you look at the keywords that are sending traffic to your site, what do you see? Are they highly targeted keywords demonstrating that your traffic is qualified? Or are you getting less targeted traffic from visitors who are searching for more general keywords?

Let’s compare a few keywords to demonstrate the difference.

Traffic searching for “buy Monet print” is highly targeted. These are visitors who are looking to purchase a product from a vendor who sells Monet prints. If someone is…

...continue to read "Bucket Your Visitors By Intent"

I used to run websites for a living.

I was responsible for the performance of those sites, and I was the de facto “web analytics guy” within my company.  But I wasn’t a full-time Web Analyst, and I had lots of other strategic and operational things to do.

Sound familiar?

When I did look at my web analytics, I often skimmed the information contained in my default “dashboard,” and rarely dove into the real data unless someone came to me with a specific…

...continue to read "Beyond the Dashboard: 5 Tips for Data Diving in Google Analytics"

Are you measuring your bounce rates? These are the visitors who are landing on your site and are leaving without making a second click. Bouncers to your website should be considered a negative statistic: the site failed to engage them enough to entice even a second pageview.

How much did you invest to get them there? Did you get your money’s worth out of that visitor?

Usability expert, Jakob Neilsen, recently indicated that one of the biggest findings from his latest user…

...continue to read "What Your Bounce Rate is Trying to Tell You"

There is a lot of interesting information to report from our Marketing Analytics in Action survey from about a week ago. The first thing that really caught my eye was the fact that 96.85% of people are running web analytics, and out of those, 26.56% have a full time analyst and 53.12% are already testing. The thumbnail will show you how often are people looking at their web analytics.

I’ll be filling you in shortly on the rest of the results, but…

...continue to read "Survey Results & a Question: Marketing Analytics in Action Part 1"

The desire to use analytics and testing tools to boost marketing ROI is greater than ever before. I can tell. When I present at conferences, I enjoy speaking with attendees and other industry friends. I’ve noticed some interesting new challenges emerging, especially as the economy slows. My sample size is small, and while asking you may not be scientific, I’d like to see if this anecdotal data is telling us something. Once the information is collected we’ll share it with…

...continue to read "Marketing Analytics in Action: Quick Survey"

Last week, a friend was sharing war stories with me about an upcoming site launch. His highly recognizable site, which will remain anonymous in this column, rakes in billions. I congratulated him and asked how they’re going to optimize post-launch. He told me they’re pausing optimization for six months to collect enough “control” data.

Today’s interactive marketers face and make these types of decisions several times a day. At a glance, my bud’s decision seems sound. But does it hold up…

...continue to read "The Interactive Marketer 2.0"

There’s no one formula for what to look at in your web analytics to try and gain insight into what your visitors are experiencing and how they’re reacting to what’s there. Each site behaves differently and has different strengths and weaknesses.

When I recently walked through my client’s analytics with them, she pointed out that the highest exit pages are probably a good place to start fixing conversion stumbling blocks. In theory, this sounds like the right thing to do. If…

...continue to read "To Boost Conversion, Don’t Focus on Exit Pages ONLY"

It’s not often I read an article and stand up and cheer. Well, a recent Advertising Age interview had me doing just that. And, yes, I did get some funny looks from those around me.

Who had me doing the Tiger Woods I-just-made-another-eagle-putt fist pump? Avinash Kaushik. (The title of the Mya Frasier’s AdAge article is: “Google’s ‘Anayltics Evangelist’ Explains Why Websites ‘Suck’ — Kaushik: Despite Mounds of Data, Marketers Don’t Understand Consumers.”)

Why did this interview get me so fired-up? Because Avinash…

...continue to read "Why Consumer Data Isn’t Telling You What You Need"

I have a friend who works in the online marketing department for a multi-million-dollar clothing retailer in Canada. Because they’re still stuck in the dark ages and don’t yet have an online store, the company’s web marketing team consists of four people.

A week ago, my friend called me to ask, “What’s the industry average time spent on a site?” Her boss asked her to find out because she was doing a presentation to the marketing team and would be attempting…

...continue to read "Are Your Analytics Reports Breaking News or Listing Facts?"