Search & Analytics provides readers with tips and techniques for utilizing web search analytics and measurement tools to define and manage success metrics from (organic and paid) search driven traffic. Columnists write about the basics of implementing analytics software, covering tagging and tracking search traffic to more advanced issues and topics such as ROI and conversion tracking, as well as how to gain greater insight and develop actionable strategies from your search analytics data.

A Foolproof Approach To Writing Complex Excel Formulas

Feb 1, 2013 at 9:15am ET by Annie Cushing

There comes a time in a marketer’s life when making pretty charts with a predefined dataset just doesn’t cut it. And finding the sum and average of a column of data just doesn’t satisfy you anymore. Eventually — and it's really inevitable — you will actually have to dive deep into the data and cull out a smaller dataset or manipulate it in some way to make it cough up what you need. And, as freaking intimidating as they can be, formulas become your lifeline in these moments. Admittedly, the learning curve with formulas can be pretty steep, but the only way they'll become intuit [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Analytics

How To Estimate Incremental Revenue Opportunities With Impression Share Data

Jan 25, 2013 at 11:24am ET by Benjamin Vigneron

When looking for opportunities for growth, most search marketers try to find ways to estimate how much they can scale up their paid search effort, and what would be the impact on ad spend, revenue volume, and efficiency. There are lots of different ways to go about this – one way I’d like to cover in this post is to leverage impression share data. We’ll see how to aggregate and dig into impression share data, and how to estimate incremental revenue opportunities based on those impressions missed due to insufficient budget. Due to the length of this post, I thought I’d cover those im [...]

Can TV Advertising Really Impact Search Performance?

Jan 18, 2013 at 12:57pm ET by Benny Blum

It’s relatively easy to report what happened in an ad campaign, but much more difficult to understand why things happen. Visits or conversions might go up or down, but why? It could be some form of seasonality or maybe your latest review hit the front page of Reddit. The mysteries of consumer behavior like to be hidden in the shadows of other events that have happened prior to and during the timeframe in question. Connecting Online & Offline Advertising Drawing connections between online and offline advertising efforts is full of externalities and question marks. Seasonality, sales, bu [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Analytics

Analytics Matched Search Queries Vs. AdWords Keyword Details Report

Jan 11, 2013 at 9:11am ET by Carrie Hill

A question recently came across my desk regarding the use of the Matched Search Queries Report in Analytics when compared to the Keyword Details Report in AdWords. The inquirer was interested in the benefits or drawbacks to both reports, also asking if they were interchangeable. I figured this was a great question to answer in the Search & Analytics field, so I'll do my best to define and give my opinion regarding the pros, cons and interchangeability of these two complex reports. First, we need to understand what each report provides data-wise. Let's take a look at the basic data av [...]

Advanced Filters: Excel’s Amazing Alternative To Regex

Jan 4, 2013 at 12:38pm ET by Annie Cushing

One thing I've never understood about Excel is why it doesn't support regular expressions (which the cool kids call regex). Regex allows you to do advanced sorting and filtering. The SeoTools plugin for Excel supports regex, but it — like most cool resources for Excel — is PC-swim only. For those of us red-headed stepchildren Mac users, that blows. (Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with the SeoTools plugin in any way.) However, as it turns out, Excel offers an alternative to regex that gives you all the same functionality — and is available on all operating systems. They're called a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Analytics

Search & Analytics Year In Review

Dec 28, 2012 at 4:57pm ET by Elisabeth Osmeloski

As we head into the holidays, we're looking back at our own metrics for top posts of the year, and we wanted to share a recap of the most read stories in several categories on Search Engine Land. In the Search & Analytics column, our experts cover everything from the basic installation of tracking codes and tags, to advanced statistical analysis to measure the success of your organic SEO activities, paid search campaigns, social media efforts and everything in between. In 2012, search marketers were also faced with some bigger topics related to data analysis - with 'big data' being a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Analytics

Reporting On Social Media Engagement

Dec 14, 2012 at 2:05pm ET by Carrie Hill

I was in this industry when people were starting to throw around the phrase Web 2.0. Video marketing was in its infancy, Facebook was only for college students, and MySpace was where you sold things to a 12-year-old. Along with my time in the industry, social media has grown from a conversation we had with clients, but didn't really worry about, to an intensely competitive and important form of marketing. As we traveled through the lifespan of social media marketing to date, we heard and said a bunch of phrases like, "revenue tracking isn't really possible here" and "your revenue is in [...]

How To Make Google Analytics Talk To Excel, In Plain English

Nov 30, 2012 at 11:45am ET by Annie Cushing

I'm spoiled now. I rarely go into the Google Analytics (GA) interface anymore. You know why? There are cool Excel plugins that will pull your data right into Excel. Of course, most of them are PC-swim only. Sorry, Mac users. I'm going to be testing out the only one I know of for Mac, but I can't verify how good it is. (Disclaimer: I'm not in any way associated with any of the GA plugins for Excel or their manufacturers.) Before jumping in, let's talk about some basics that you will need to understand to navigate the API. Learning The Language Of The API The trickiest part about using t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Analytics

Using Time To Stop Undervaluing Channel Performance

Nov 23, 2012 at 11:42am ET by Benny Blum

Standard channel performance analysis makes the assumption that a click from all channels behaves the same way. Picture your weekly performance report - in a given week you observe x clicks and y conversions coming from a given channel (eg PPC, Organic search, Display, Remarketing Facebook, etc). If one channel looks better than the others you shift budgets or bids accordingly. It’s standard practice but is it the complete picture? What if all channels aren’t equal? A click from one channel might be worth more than a click from another channel, especially over longer periods of time. A [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Analytics

How To Gather Evidence To Help Determine If It’s Time For A Mobile Website

Nov 16, 2012 at 11:56am ET by Carrie Hill

Is t time for a mobile website? I was talking to some clients a few weeks ago and in separate conversations, both asked me if it was time for a mobile website. Their current websites rendered okay on a smartphone, but they noticed a lack of conversions for mobile users, as well as a high bounce rate. Generally, a page that can be enlarged can be read on a mobile device. What you run into for the user is a lack of functionality and interaction with the site. Dropdown or slide out navigation is nearly impossible to click on; if you're using video or Ajax functionality it can be lost or not n [...]

How To Use Macros You Find Online In 6 Easy Steps

Nov 2, 2012 at 2:31pm ET by Annie Cushing

Have you ever done a search to find out how to do something in Excel, just to find the search results littered with macro options? I used to avoid those results like the plague because I found macros (at least those beyond what I could create with the Macros Recorder) really intimidating. And I’m writing this post because I'm assuming that I’m not the only one who has done that. Amiright? So I’m going to show you how to take a macro you find online or get from a trusted source and add it to your workbook and run it — on both a PC and Mac. If you want to follow along, you can down [...]

Keys To Projecting Latent Value In Visitors

Oct 26, 2012 at 12:24pm ET by Benny Blum

One of the most difficult and valuable exercises in quarterly planning is forecasting. Many companies require budgets to be set well in advance, and as a result, analysts often prepare conservative projections in order to remain cautious and not setup their marketing colleagues to under-deliver. The byproduct of conservative projections is more difficult forecasting mid quarter as it becomes apparent that not all referring traffic sources are equal in traffic and value. The inevitable question comes up: how much more revenue can be delivered from channel X with additional budget? To a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Analytics

How To Turn (Not Provided) Into Useful, Actionable Data

Oct 19, 2012 at 4:55pm ET by Carrie Hill

We've all seen it, lurking in our Analytics reports, nearly always at the top, sucking a huge chunk of data into a black hole of uncertainty and uselessness. Not provided was predicted as having a single-digit impact on sites. In my research, I've found it to have upwards of a 40% impact, especially on smaller traffic sites. In conversations with clients, and looking at my own sites, I knew the numbers had to be better – but what do you tell a client when chunks of data, in some cases over 30%, are attributed to (not provided) instead of the keywords you've given time, attention and te [...]

10 Simple Tips To Make Your Excel Charts Sexier

Oct 12, 2012 at 12:38pm ET by Annie Cushing

Having covered all the basics of how to make tabular data tell a story using custom cell formatting and conditional formatting for both static tables and pivot tables, we're now going to jump into the really fun stuff: charting data out in Excel. I’m not going to cover the basics of creating charts in this post. If you want a primer, you can find this resource from Microsoft for the PC and this one for the Mac. 1. Remove Noise From Your Chart’s Background When you’re presenting data, it's very important to reduce the noise and hone in on actionable signals. If you have read just a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Analytics

Why Clean Source Tagging Is Worth Your Time

Sep 28, 2012 at 9:25am ET by Benny Blum

Messy, incomprehensible analytics make my stomach churn. Just knowing that I’m going to spend the next several hours cleaning up sloppy data puts the kibosh on my day. The problem with Google Analytics, or any analytics package for that matter, is that even if my site is properly tagged and I’ve developed a systematic inbound link tagging notation, it’s almost certain that my Source/Medium/Referral URL reports will still include inconsistencies that need to be resolved to provide accurate reporting: Software doesn’t know what isn’t logically defined. Google does a decent job of [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Analytics

How To: Google Analytics Installation For Novices & Beginners

Sep 21, 2012 at 10:51am ET by Carrie Hill

If you're an intermediate to advanced Google Analytics user, this article will probably be of little interest to you personally. I suggest you bookmark it anyway as a reference for clients or friends who are just starting out with Analytics. As a long-time agency employee, I see many clients, prospects and even casual acquaintances with websites that feature absolutely no Analytics data. They have no idea what is going on, or what they're missing because the visitors that come to their site disappear into a vacuum. This article is meant to walk first-time installers through the process, [...]

How To Go Picasso On Your Data With Conditional Formatting

Sep 14, 2012 at 12:53pm ET by Annie Cushing

Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a fan of tabular data (data in tables). If you want your data to be persuasive, it needs to be visual. However, when you’re dealing with large data sets that’s not always feasible. For example, when I’m dealing with data from webmaster tools or Screaming Frog, there’s just too much data to analyze with charts. That’s where conditional formatting comes in handy. Unlike custom cell formatting, which is static, conditional formatting is based on — you guessed it — conditions that you set. You can find the Conditional Formatting options on [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Analytics

The Right Time To Start Analyzing Data

Aug 31, 2012 at 12:50pm ET by Benny Blum

You’re a product person. You’ve bootstrapped together your website, dropped relevant metadata, setup an e-commerce platform, installed analytics, and are generating solid original content on your site and/or blog. You’re doing everything by the book. But the question remains: when it is the right time to dig in and try to understand what people are doing once they get to your site? In the early stages of a website, analytics are a double-edged sword. Dig in too early and you don’t have enough data, wait too long and you potentially lose out on opportunities for growth and revenue [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Analytics

A Primer On AdWords Remarketing Using Google Analytics

Aug 24, 2012 at 9:39am ET by Carrie Hill

Remarketing has been around for quite a while as part of the Google AdWords suite of tools. Remarketing works by creating a "list" or "audience" within Google AdWords. The pages that are pertinent to that audience are tagged with special code that allows Google to place a cookie in the browser of anyone who visits that page. It's a great way for you to get your brand out there in front of your website visitors, even when they're not thinking about shopping and buying from your site. There are tons of ways for you to segment your website to serve remarketing ads; you can even get as granular [...]

Easy To Advanced Uses Of Cell Formatting In Excel

Aug 17, 2012 at 9:40am ET by Annie Cushing

In my post on table formatting, I demonstrated how to transform your static data into a simple yet sexy database in a matter of seconds. If you don't know how to use table formatting, go read that post and then come back. Otherwise, your data will look like one of those housewives who goes to grocery store with curlers and a moo moo sporting red lipstick. Enough chatter. Let's jump in. If you want to follow along, you can download the Excel file. (Just click the Download button in the upper-right corner of your browser window. Don't ask me why Dropbox sticks it up there. Developers ...) St [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Search & Analytics

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