Evan LaPointe
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Analytics & conversion

Why 50% of SEO/PPC Engagements Fail

A few months ago, I tripped across a staggering (but believable) statistic: 50% of major B2B engagements fail to produce a positive ROI. The book cited three (I like it broken up into four, though) primary reasons for this: The service offered wasn’t capable of producing value. The client/customer/receiver of the service was unprepared or […]

Analytics & conversion

Stop Treating Your Website Like A Broken Old Boat

There are two prevailing mentalities when it comes to the investments we make in business. First, there are the investments we make in our future: things we build on, knowing our initial investment is just the beginning. We see our children this way, to draw a personal example. The second mentality sees investments as expenses: […]

Google

The JCPenney Situation Is A Symptom Of A Bigger Disease

Assuming you haven’t been living under a rock for the past week, you’ve certainly heard about this JCPenney SEO debacle. But I think it’s worth mentioning that while this issue revealed itself through some sketchy SEO, the issue here really isn’t about SEO at all, and it’s not limited to JCP at all. The links […]

Analytics & conversion

3 Issues To Consider Before Focusing On More Traffic

In our collective day-to-day, it seems the conversations we hear tend to skew heavily toward one thing: the need for more traffic. The logic here is that more traffic leads to more sales, more revenue, bigger, better. But this is broken logic. You don’t want more traffic. You want more Benjamins. (Think you’re better off […]

Analytics & conversion

Are You Minivan Racing?

When is the last time you flipped over to ESPN on race day and saw a Honda Odyssey taking corners at high speed? It doesn’t happen because minivan racing is stupid. But in our web businesses, we do it every day. We pile 9 or so whining people [who act like 8 year olds] into […]

Analytics & conversion

Tis The Season To Sell Your Management On SEO

Chances are you’re totally unprepared for the holiday season. It’s probably not your fault—the business just de-prioritized things all year, and here you are, too late to make up for lost time. Your rankings aren’t what you hoped for. Your landing pages are weak and unfocused. Your cart process is cumbersome and drops customers like […]

Analytics & conversion

Of SEO And Spaghetti Sauce

I can virtually guarantee that you aren’t satisfying at least one major segment of your customers. Did you know that it took until 1989 for chunky tomato pasta sauce to come out? A guy by the name of Howard Moskowitz cracked this code for the Prego brand while they were trying desperately to defeat Ragu, […]

Analytics & conversion

The Value Of “Wasted” Search Marketing Dollars

Advertising pioneer John Wanamaker once famously said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” And as digital marketers/SEO ninjas, you certainly know how this feels. We pay for impressions that result in almost no clicks. We pay for clicks that bounce like rubber balls. We […]

Analytics & conversion

How To Hire A Good Web Analytics Person

I’ve been asked several times lately how to attract good web analytics talent. It’s a bit of a tough question, but I do think there are some guidelines that can be followed to increase your chances at finding a really talented web analytics person. Here’s my best shot at that formula.

Analytics & conversion

How To Look Smarter By Dumbing It Down

Let’s take a break from focusing on the practice of analytics this week to focus on a single idea I think both search marketers and analytics people alike can benefit from enormously. We need to learn how to make the message simple. With all of the complexity involved in what we do, it’s easy to […]

Analytics & conversion

Google Analytics Releases New, Faster Tracking Code

Last December, Google Analytics announced an alternative tracking setup by using a “parallel rail” to execute JavaScript, meaning analytics wouldn’t slow down your site, and your site wouldn’t hold up analytics. They call it their asynchronous code, and it’s now out of beta and available right in the Google Analytics setup process. This is important […]

Analytics & conversion

Getting The Credit Your Analytics Efforts Deserve

The population of search marketers out there (you’re a lovely people) relies heavily on analytics tools to capture and report on success, and most of the time, there isn’t a safety net with your analytics tool—you pretty much have to capture the data the right way the first time around. You have to measure paid […]

Analytics & conversion

The Real Value Of Web Analytics

OK, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say something that might not make sense at first: the most important outcome of successful web analytics (or SEO effort or landing page testing, etc.) is not a better web site. The most important outcome is a better, more functional company. Let’s pause from […]

Ecommerce

Google Analytics Adds “Please God, Tell Me What To Do” Feature

Google Analytics announced a new and powerful feature today, leveraging the company’s investment in the recently released Google Intelligence analysis and alert system.  The new function is called “Please God, tell me what to do” (PGTMWTD), and allows users single-click access to a report showing web site owners exactly what to do on their web […]

Analytics & conversion

Improve Your Search Campaigns With Smart Cross-Selling

Let’s get a little more hands-on this week and walk through something practical that will immediately impact the conversion potential of any web site and increase the performance of both paid and natural search campaigns. The examples I’ll use today are specific to ecommerce, but the same ideas can be translated to other industries, and […]

Analytics & conversion

Don’t Let Your Analytics Deceive

If John F. Kennedy were an internet marketer, I think he would say, “Ask not what your marketing can do for your site. Ask what your site can do for your marketing.” Kennedy understood the idea of cause and effect in his original quote: that people make a nation effective, and not the other way […]

Analytics & conversion

Analytics, PPC & SEO: So Happy Together

“Search is the world’s largest focus group.” A while ago, someone said this to me (I can’t remember who, but buy yourself an eclair if it’s you: you’ve earned it), and it struck me as pure brilliance. We tend to get so focused on the challenge of showing up in search results that we frequently […]

Analytics & conversion

Is Web Analytics Easy Or Difficult?

Two rockstars have emerged in the web analytics field to date. We all know who they are: Eric Peterson has demystified analytics for us, while Avinash Kaushik has helped us take it one day, or dare I say, “an hour a day,” at a time. And one of them says web analytics is easy while […]

Analytics & conversion

Make Google Analytics Your SEO Watchdog

Did you know that there are a handful of simple reports you can check in Google Analytics to see if your search engine optimization guru (or Agency) is catching critical pieces of the SEO puzzle? Take quick a look to sniff out what might be missing in your SEO effort. Uncovering technical SEO issues Of […]

Analytics & conversion

How To Choose A Web Analytics Solution

Choosing the analytics tool you will use to track what’s happening on your web site can be a time-consuming, expensive, and incredibly frustrating experience. There are a number of good candidates to choose from and each touts an impressive feature set that promises to significantly improve everything about your web site. But while there’s a […]

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