Big news for webmasters and SEOs: Today at SMX Advanced, Google announced they will be adding Google Webmaster Tools data directly within Google Analytics. This was also announced simultaneously on the Google Analytics Blog and the Google Webmaster Blog. The new feature is coming out later this month but is in pilot now. It will add a new section under "Traffic Sources" named Search Engine Optimization with sub-sections for Summary, Queries and Landing Pages. Here is a picture of the section: Google also shared an example of the query report; here are screen shots: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Google: Analytics | Google: SEO | Google: Webmaster Central | Top News

Although webmasters can install the new Google +1 button on their websites today, it may be a little while before the expected +1 analytics are available. Google product manager Christian Oestlien tells us that the company is working with launch partners to make sure the reporting is accurate before offering the data on a wide basis. He also shared a preview of what to expect when +1 analytics is rolled out. How Google +1 Analytics Will Work When it's ready, Google will report aggregate +1 data in four categories: Geography: webmasters will learn where +1 activity is happening D [...]

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One of the major headaches in multinational campaigns is solving the many web analytics issues thrown up as a result of operating across multiple subdomains, in multiple languages. Part of the problem is technical, but probably the most difficult issue you'll encounter is actually maintaining consistency in numbers across the various departments and agencies involved in multinational campaigns. Getting the right numbers into the right reports for the right people should be straightforwards but rarely is. Here are my top tips for making your multinational analytics drive success. Tip #1: [...]

Related Topics: Advanced | Channel: Analytics | Google: Analytics | How To | How To: Analytics | Multinational Search

Since the beginning of last year, Google Analytics has been pushing a faster load time by pushing the new asynchronous tracking code to being the default code. Matt Cutts also commented on how the new Google Analytics code is slightly better in terms of search (watch video on the bottom of this article). But now, with the addition of Site Speed to Google Analytics*, we will be able to understand how load times affect not only search ranking (or ppc quality score), but also how it affects user experience and ultimately, the conversion rates of specific pages and the site as a whole. New [...]

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Google has released the latest version of Analytics to all users, introducing a completely redesigned interface, multiple customizable dashboards, event goals, more powerful custom reports, and a search term cloud visualization. When users log into Google Analytics, they can access version 5 by clicking on "New Version" at the top right of the page. (Toggling back and forth between versions will be possible for now.)   Google announced the new version, as a closed beta, back in March. The company also promised new features "coming soon," including the ability to export reports to [...]

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Following the recent launch of Google Analytics v5, Google is launching (in limited pilot) an important set of reports that will help marketers understand which marketing channels customers interact with prior to a website conversion. These reports are a natural evolution from Adwords Search Funnels, which helps understanding which Adwords campaigns drive conversions and which of those are helpful in assisting conversions. With this update, Google is bringing the issue of conversion attribution to the masses. This subject has been discussed over and over on the Web Analytics community, b [...]

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What is the first report you look at when you get access to a new Google Analytics account? Do you start by looking at the Dashboard, Ecommerce report, Content report, Traffic Sources or any of the technical reports? Psychology has shown that many of our day-to-day behaviors are deeply related to our personalities, beliefs, and cultures. In the same spirit, I believe we can learn about people's professional inclinations from their analytical behavior. Google Analytics & A Tour Of Jerusalem Recently, I presented at a Google Event in Israel on the subject of Analytics and Testing. Follo [...]

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In a dynamic and constantly changing world like internet marketing, measuring the outcomes of our activities is increasingly important. To get a deeper understanding about the most important developments in 2010 and the biggest challenges lying ahead for us in the rest of 2011, I interviewed four of the most influential gurus in the field of web analytics: Avinash Kaushik, Jim Sterne, Dennis Mortensen and Stéphane Hamel. Their insights and predictions follow. Avinash Kaushik Avinash Kaushik is the Analytics Evangelist for Google, co-founder of Market Motive and author of inspiring book [...]

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Google's Gingerbread (Android 2.3) offers near field communication (NFC) support, which can be used for both "contactless payments" and marketing purposes. People tend to think about and discuss NFC in the context of "mobile wallets" and payments exclusively but there's a great deal more it can do. For example, Google has been testing NFC-based marketing in Portland with window decals for small businesses. The idea there is touch the phone (Nexus S) to the window decal and get a bunch of information about the business (e.g., Google Place page data). Big Plans for NFC Beyond Payme [...]

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Call tracking pre-dates the internet. At times it has been the subject of intense debate about its use in online (local) marketing (see Related Entries below). However in Q4 last year Google launched its own call tracking solution: Google Call Metrics. Google Call Metrics uses the same technology that's behind Google Voice. It generates a unique phone number for each ad/search  campaign and can be used for both PC search ads and those that appear on smartphones or tablets. To showcase Call Metrics Google has put out a new case study. It involves agency ConvergeDirect and "a large fi [...]

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Much has been said about A/B testing techniques and the value that Website Testing can bring to website owners. In this article, I will not discuss what to test or how to do it, but how to analyze what you have already done. I have written in the past about the differences between A/B and Multivariate Testing and how to choose between them. Back then, I wrote that one of the advantages of multivariate tests is that you can analyze each and every interaction between elements in a much deeper level. However, one of the points that I missed is that A/B Tests are easier to be analyzed using [...]

Related Topics: Advanced | Channel: Analytics | Google: Analytics | Google: Website Optimizer | How To: Analytics | Search & Analytics

Google has just announced a new version of Google Analytics, introducing a completely new user experience. The product got a significant face lift and it now looks more enterprise-like. The last time Google Analytics released such a major version was 1.5 years ago; we covered the release in-depth on this post, but basically the release included the intelligence engine, custom variables, expanded goals, expanded mobile reporting and others. Below, I share a few screenshots of the new face of Google Analytics (still in closed beta) and explain how they will change product usage. The new ve [...]

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Lately, Webmaster Tools has been improving its analytical capabilities significantly. This trend comes as a great benefit to webmasters and search marketers, both of whom are gaining access to important data in order to understand how their Search Engine Optimization is performing, as well as additional tools to help optimize their efforts. Last year, Google launched a set of improvements in graphs that empower webmasters to analyze search traffic. The most significant feature (in terms of data analysis) was the possibility to segment search data by Type of Search, Location, and Traffic siz [...]

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Istvan Turk has tipped us off to a blog post over at SEO Sport noting that the verification page of Google Webmaster Tools now includes a Link to Google Analytics option for all verified sites. Note this this is different from site verification using Google Analytics, which was added last year. The Google Webmaster Tools help information notes that you can link the two and in doing so, can access the Google Analytics Referring Pages report from within Google Webmaster Tools. It seems as though Google has been fully rolling it out as I've been typing as the user interface has changed before [...]

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In a move that could harm its country's own businesses, Germany is targeting Google on privacy issues again -- this time over Google Analytics. German privacy officials are concerned that Google Analytics tracks web users' IP addresses, and that could violate an individual's privacy. According to German news site The Local, Johannes Caspar, data protection commissioner in Hamburg, told a German newspaper that tracking IP addresses of web users should be illegal. Since it's not, German officials are threatening to levy a "steep fine" against German companies that continue to use Google Analy [...]

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There are confirmed reports that Google Instant Previews may be skewing your web analytics data. It appears that in some cases Google will conduct an on-demand fetch of your page to dynamically create an Instant Preview. The on-demand fetch happens when a searcher places his mouse over the search result on Google and the image preview comes up. Some analytics tools, including Google Analytics, may consider that a visit, because Google Instant Preview is actually visiting the page in real-time to get that on-demand Instant Preview. There are several complaints about this issue in the [...]

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Last year, we covered Google Analytics' launch of Google Analytics Intelligence, an engine that helps the analyst by applying data mining and other techniques. Today, Google Analytics announced a major upgrade to the intelligence engine through a feature called "Major Contributors." From the Google Analytics blog post: "When Google Analytics detects causes to a major change in traffic, this section will display up to 5 segments that have contributed to that particular change." What is very interesting about this launch is that you can now create custom alerts to be sent to yo [...]

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Google has removed the "Site Overlay" tool from Google Analytics and replaced it with a new one called "In-Page Analytics." It's fairly similar to Site Overlay, but appears on first glance to offer better data visualization and an improved interface. In its announcement, Google admits that the old Site Overlay tool "hasn't worked as well it could." The new features of In-Page Analytics are probably best described in Google's video, which demonstrates how it works with the various filters, options, and other reporting tools in Google Analytics. [...]

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Many advertisers use keyword level tracking in AdWords destination URLs. This allows your server to track the source of paid search traffic hitting the site. Recording this data with each inbound paid click allows you to collect your own data for analysis. It is possible to track the search engine, account, campaign, ad group, keyword, and so on, augmenting what is available from Google AdWords and Analytics reports. Why go to this additional effort? Maybe you have a local data warehouse, the ability to track the actual user search (from the referrer URL), or you want to watch for click [...]

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In mid-November, Google Analytics and Feedburner announced a very interesting integration. While this is excellent news for Google Analytics and Feedburner users, it must be dealt properly when it comes to SEO, especially on websites that are heavily based on RSS feeds. Google Analytics users rejoice! This integration is very interesting in that it allows a much deeper understanding of the interaction of users coming from feeds and the profitability of this segment on websites. So, which level of granularity can be achieved through this integration? Which parameters get added? As can [...]

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