Google Analytics Blog

Practitioner Post: Adwords Auto-Tagging and URL Redirects

2008-07-17T16:24:00.000-07:00

Recently, I watched all 5 seasons of Angel on DVD, and now I'm watching all 7 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (I realize that I'm going backwards, but I just had to know Angel's back story.) If you've watched the shows, you know that the character Angel starts off as one thing and ends up as something completely different.

URL redirects are like Angel in this respect; they start off as one thing and end up as something else. In the process, Adwords auto-tagging (the "gclid") frequently gets "slain". Let's look at how we can address the resulting reporting problems.

First, a quick review of the back story.

Adwords auto-tagging makes it possible for you to see Adwords information in your Google Analytics reports without manually tagging each keyword. You simply enable auto-tagging in your Adwords account. The auto-tagging option is located on the My Account tab, on the Account Preferences page (click image to enlarge):

If you select this option, Adwords automatically appends a "gclid" parameter to your destination URLs:

www.example.com/?gclid=123xyz

If you already have query parameters in your URL, it will look something like this:

www.example.com/?param=a&gclid=123xyz

(Note that in the first example, "gclid" is preceded by a "?" and in the second example, it is preceded by a "&". Remember this distinction because it will be important later on.)

What if you're also using a third-party tracking system such as DoubleClick, or your destination URL redirects to a second or even third URL before Adwords users arrive on your site? Will the gclid be retained or get slain?

That depends on the tracking system or behavior of your redirects. This is a very important question to address before you enable auto-tagging.

Some redirects strip the gclid. While Google Analytics still records the visit and the subsequent user activity, it doesn't have the information necessary to properly attribute the visit to your Google ad. As a result, some of this traffic will be included in the "direct" category while other visits may show up as "not set". Furthermore, your Adwords Campaigns report in Google Analytics may show cost metrics, but your visits columns may show zeros (click image to enlarge):

Ugh! Can you prevent this from happening?

Absolutely! Performing a simple test before you enable auto-tagging will ensure that you receive valuable information on your Google campaign performance. Here are the steps for two URL scenarios:

Scenario 1
If your destination URL has no query parameters and looks something like this: www.i_will_redirect_you.com/:

Paste this URL in your browser's address bar, but before you press Enter, append "?gclid=test" to the end, like this: www.i_will_redirect_you.com/?gclid=test.
Now press Enter.
If the gclid is present on the final landing page URL, you're golden. If not, keep reading to learn about your alternatives.

Scenario 2
If your destination URL already has query parameters and looks something like this: www.i_will_redirect_you.com/?param=a&param2=b:

Paste this URL in your browser's address bar and before pressing Enter, append "&gclid=test" to the end, like this: www.i_will_redirect_you.com/?param=a&param2=b&gclid=test.

(This is why the "?" and the "&" distinction were important to note earlier. It's a matter of URL syntax. Luckily, auto-tagging knows the difference.)
Press Enter.
If the gclid is still there, you're in good shape, and need only to enable auto-tagging. If not, what are your options? Read on.

If the gclid is not retained during your test, you're not out of luck. Here are a couple of suggestions:

Suggestion 1. Ask your friendly admins or third-party contact to please configure their servers to pass the gclid. If you're not sure what this means, don't worry, your server admin does. It's like repeating something in a foreign language you don't speak. If your pronunciation is good, a native speaker will understand you and all will be perfecto!

Suggestion 2. If suggestion 1 isn't possible, you'll need to manually tag your destination URLs instead of enabling auto-tagging. (This is one of the very few circumstances in which you should manually tag destination URLs in AdWords.)

The best way to get started with manual tagging is to use the online URL Builder. You'll need to fill in your landing page URL and fill in the campaign name, source, medium, and term (keyword). Then, press "Generate URL" and you'll have a URL that will correctly report campaign information to Google Analytics.

You probably already know how to use this tool based on an earlier post we made, but here is an example followed by step-by-step instructions on a recommended way to use i:

Step 1. Put the final landing page URL in the Website URL field. The reasoning behind this is that since the gclid is stripped by the redirects, the manual tags will most likely be stripped as well. In our example above, www.example.com is the URL to which Adwords users are redirected.

Step 2. Fill in each of the additional fields as follows:

Campaign Source: "google" in lower case
Campaign Medium: "cpc" for cost-per-click campaigns or "cpm" for our cost-per-impression campaign model
Campaign Term: fill in your AdWords keyword
Campaign Content: if tagging your keywords individually, leave this field BLANK. If you're only tracking Google ad unit performance, as in the case of running a campaign that is running exclusively on our content network, fill in an ad unit identifier, such as a text ad's headline or the name you've given your display ads.
Campaign Name: this is the name of the campaign you've set up in the Google ad system. Assuming you've linked your Google Analytics and Adwords accounts, it is important to type in the campaign name exactly as it appears in our ad system. Otherwise, the Clicks tab of the Adwords Campaigns report in Google Analytics will have multiple entries for the same campaign. Cost information such as impressions and clicks will be listed next to the campaigns that are running in our ad system, while visit information will be listed next to the campaign names you've typed into the URL Builder, and that would just be confusing!

When you generate the URL, you will end up with something like this, personalized with your keyword and campaign, etc.:

http://www.example.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=keyword&utm_campaign=Adwords%2BCampaign%2BA

Once a person clicks on an ad and finishes her journey through the land of redirects, she'll see the URL above in their address bar. Also, in the case of third-party redirects, this is the URL you'll want to send to your vendor to convert into tracking tags.

If you're running a campaign with many keywords, here's a helpful tip: Only use the URL Builder for the first URL. Then, use Excel's handy "concatenation" function to create an Excel worksheet that generates the rest automatically.

Even if your campaigns are free of redirects, it's still a good idea to test for auto-tagging compatibility before enabling it. You may still need to have that cryptic conversation with your server admins about "configuring the server to pass the gclid." In any case, never use auto-tagging and manual tagging in the same Adwords account. Even though your users won't be affected, your Google Analytics reports will not be accurate and you'll spend more time trying to make sense of the numbers than optimizing your Google campaigns.

As always, happy tracking! And now back to Buffy…

Posted by James Tipton, Google Analytics Team

Seminars For Success coming to Portland and San Diego

2008-07-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

Since we launched Google Analytics Seminars for Success, we've been getting requests for more seminars in more cities (though still waiting to hear from you, Honolulu :-).

So here's a quick heads up about a few upcoming seminars:

July 23 & 24: Portland, OR
August 11 & 12: San Diego, CA

For more details and to sign up, click the cities above or visit the seminars page where you'll see a list of upcoming seminars for both AdWords and Google Analytics.

As a refresher, these are live, single day courses designed to educate you on how to get the best usage out of Google's free Analytics solution, and most importantly, how to use it. There are two tracks: an introduction and user training seminar, and an advanced technical implementation seminar.

Don't know which course is for you?

Surveys from prior sessions have shown that the Intro and Advanced sessions have been most beneficial for folks who wear the following hats in their company:

Intro session - agenda
Executives/decision makers - learn about why web analytics is important and which reports to look at to analyze your site traffic or campaigns.

Marketers/web analysts - improve your skills in high level Google Analytics report analysis to make smarter, metrics-based decisions.

Advanced session - agenda
Site developers/web engineers/Analysts - get in depth instruction on things like setup, advanced usage and troubleshooting.

Those of you who wear multiple hats might want to attend both sessions.

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Reminder: Trifecta Webinar Tomorrow

2008-07-07T14:58:00.000-07:00

Just a quick reminder about tomorrow's free Google webinar, which we mentioned in more detail in a post last week. It's not too late to sign up:

TITLE: The Google Trifecta: Webmaster Tools, Analytics, Website Optimizer
DATE: Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
TIME: 9:00 - 10:00 am PT (Pacific Time)
JOIN US: Register to attend (free)

Get firsthand exposure to Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics and Website Optimizer from Googlers who work on them. We'll talk about each tool individually and also discuss how you can use them together to improve your SEO, SEM and website conversion efforts.

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Google Analytics and Ad Planner

2008-07-03T14:24:00.000-07:00

Since the announcements of Google Trends for Websites and Google Ad Planner last week, we've gotten lots of interest from agencies and advertisers excited about the opportunity to expand their media plans to sites that they might have overlooked before. But we've also noticed some confusion as to how Google Analytics data might be used in those products, and we'd like to clear that up.

Google Analytics doesn't share individual, site-level information with Google Trends for Websites or Google Ad Planner. These products gather data from multiple sources, then check the data against anonymous, aggregate, industry benchmarking data within Google Analytics. This helps Google Trends for Websites and Google Ad Planner calibrate category data and correct for under- or over-reporting in certain verticals. The benchmarking data comes from Google Analytics customers who've chosen to share their data in aggregate (see our earlier blog post).

Your data confidentiality is important to us, and we're committed to preserving your trust in us.

You can check out Google Trends for Websites for yourself here or sign up for the Google Ad Planner beta here. More information is available on the Trends for Websites Help page and on the Google Ad Planner Help Center.

Posted by Brett Crosby, Google Analytics Team

Come See The Big Three

2008-06-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

Faithful Analytics blog readers, I don't want to bore or alienate any of you—a diverse and geographically disperse group of intelligentsia—but today's blog post draws on something close to my heart: a professional basketball team called the Boston Celtics. Stay with me, just for a few more sentences. All will become clear ...

About a week ago, the Celtics won the National Basketball Association championship over their biggest rival, the Lakers (sorry, Lakers fans). As I say when something like this happens, "Whoo-hooot!!!"

Ahem. Anyway, the reason the Celts won is that this season their management united three of the best players in the NBA: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen. These players strove for years to win the title on separate teams, playing with less talented players, and finally, when they joined forces, everything fell into place.

How does this trifecta relate to web analytics, online marketing, and website management, the topics closest to our heart? Well, we've also got a big three for you, dear reader. And they're taking the stage July 8 in a one-hour webinar, presented by our team, called, "The Google Trifecta."

Who are our big three? You might be able to guess: one of them is Google Analytics, so you can start getting your "Whoo-hooot!" ready. Rounding it out are Webmaster Tools and Website Optimizer, two other free Google tools for website-owners. The first helps you improve your site's visibility in Google search results, and the second helps increase your conversion rate once visitors arrive on your site.

Individually each tool is powerful; combined, they offer you a holistic, detailed understanding of your website: how you're faring on Google, how your visitors land on and navigate to your site, and which combination of content most effectively gets them to convert. If you're already using one tool, you can use your same login for the others. And unlike the Celtics, you don't have to trade any co-workers or pay any money.

In this vein, we posted a couple of months ago about how you can identify your high-value, low-performing pages with Google Analytics, then test and optimize them with Website Optimizer to improve your conversion rates.

Here's the webinar info:

TITLE: The Google Trifecta: Webmaster Tools, Analytics, Website Optimizer
DATE: Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
TIME: 9:00 - 10:00 am PT (Pacific Time)
JOIN US: Register to attend (free)

In the webinar, team members will introduce each product for newcomers, highlight recent product developments, and discuss the benefits of using all three products together. And when you register, we'll also invite you to submit any questions you'd like the presenters to answer.

In case you didn't know about Google Webmaster Central, take a look. It's a one-page resource linking to many of the tools Google offers to help you build and maintain an effective site, including Google Analytics, Website Optimizer, and Webmaster Tools, the trifecta, the big three, the three amigos, the rule of three. Hope to see you at the webinar!

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

One year after the redesign

2008-06-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

Anyone remember the previous Google Analytics interface? Here's a screenshot of the dashboard:

And another of a report with cross-segmentation clicked on:

Just over a year ago, after extensive user interviews, surveys and live usability studies, we completed a substantial redesign project and released a completely new Google Analytics interface.

And voilà:

The redesign addressed an important shift in the analytics industry's customer base. Not only are more businesses using web analytics than ever before, but an increasingly large number of business generalists (non-web analytics specialists) in these companies are using web analytics to drive decision making. We redesigned Google Analytics to help these legions of new users ask insightful questions of their data and get actionable answers.

Instead of adding reports with specialized information, the new Google Analytics places data in context making it easier to discover information relationships via navigation and data visualizations. We created a custom dashboard and introduced sparklines. We developed new graphing tools and added a new type of date slider that allows you to view spikes and dips in traffic as you set date ranges. And one of the most popular new features is one of the simplest: the ability to e-mail reports and schedule these e-mails so that information can be easily shared with key stakeholders (as well as curious counterparts).

When we announced this new version, we committed to continue adding new features in a steady stream of updates. I believe we've made good on that commitment, but you can be the judge. Below are my highlights from the last 12 months:

1. Internal site search: We've always shown you which keywords people search to find your site. Now, internal site search tracking shows you how people search once they're already on your site. See the keywords and search-refinement keywords people use, and the pages from which they begin and end their searches. And, find out how search on your site affects site usage, conversion rates, and e-commerce activity. Here's a shot of the insights you can get with site search data (click to enlarge):

2. Industry Benchmarking: With Benchmarking, you can compare your site data with site data from a variety of industry verticals. And the accompanying data-sharing settings let you control whether and how Google services interact with your data to enable and disable these features. Here's a screenshot (click to enlarge):

3. New visualizations and analysis features: You can now view many reports by hour or day and graph data by day, week, or month. You can also graph two metrics against each other over time—we call it multi-line graphing. So, for example, you can compare the number of visitors vs. bounce rates for a certain week, or see whether visitors who come to a website through AdWords spend more or less time on your site than visitors overall. In this screenshot, we've chosen to look at visitors trending in weekly units as opposed to daily. This makes it easier to spot trends when looking at longer time periods. And we're looking at visits compared to conversions:

4. New ga.js tracking code: Our new pagetag allows for a more flexibility and customization. Its just as easy to install as the old code, but allows more sophisticated users to track e-commerce transactions in a more readable way and take advantage of advanced tracking features. We've also added the Google Analytics codesite to help developers take advantage of documented customizations.

5. Correlations with offline marketing with Google Audio Ads and TV Ads integrations: Audio Ads and TV Ads customers can now track whether their Google radio and TV campaigns sent additional traffic to their website based on when and where the ads run.

6. Website Optimizer: Google's free multivariate website-testing tool is out of beta and available to everyone. And now you can even log in with your Google Analytics account.

7. Urchin Software: If you have content behind a security firewall or on an intranet or internal network that prevents you from using Google Analytics, you might want to consider Urchin 6. You can also track your website with Urchin and Google Analytics together.

8. Support and Help Centers in eight additional languages: We've added Thai, Filipino, Indonesian, Czech, Hungarian, Portuguese (Portugal), Turkish, and Polish. This brings the number of Google Analytics supported languages to 25.

9. Authorized Consultants (GAACs): This is the year of the Authorized Consultant. We've added six new GAACs in the past few months, bringing our worldwide total to 51. We have also added Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant and Urchin Software Authorized Consultant networks.

10. You: We have a sophisticated, engaged and vibrant user base from whom we're learning daily. We're so excited about the future: it's palpable at Google, and it all comes from you and our ecosystem of users, bloggers, consultants, and developers. We have many more new developments underway that I believe you'll enjoy so I hope you continue to stay engaged with this blog, our Google Group and our codesite.

Posted by Brett Crosby, Group Manager, Google Analytics

Make Your Content Reports More Useful

2008-06-17T15:11:00.000-07:00

Here's another practitioner-focused approach from James Tipton, one of our specialists in New York.

A Web Analyst is on an eternal quest to understand content consumption. When Visitors come to your site, what do they read? What fascinates them? What do they find depressing?

In this quest, the Google Analytics' Top Content report can be powerful and full of insights. But depending on your website platform and use of URL parameters, it can also appear cluttered and, in rare cases, confusing.

For example, dynamically generated query parameters, such as session IDs, can exponentially increase the number of URL's displayed and may even result in the unhelpful "other" listing in your content reports. As a result, the report may no longer be instantly useful when you look at it.

In your Top Content report, “other” shows up when your website data contains more than 50,000 unique URL’s for a given day. It is important to point out that there are no pageview limits, only limits to the number of unique URL's that can be displayed in the report. So no matter how many times your pages are viewed, data is still captured, processed and presented correctly. The "other" category comes into play only when more than 50,000 unique URL's are registered.

You may be thinking that 50,000 unique URL's on a single day seems like a lot. But you may be surprised at how quickly multiple sets of query parameters can cause your site to reach that limit. It goes without saying that trying to evaluate the bounce rate, exit percentage, time on page and other such lovely metrics for that many pages can be a daunting task. Seeing the "other" category can create an even bigger challenge, and take away from your quest for the long tail in your data.

Luckily, Google Analytics has a couple of simple solutions for cleaning up unnecessary URL parameters from your content reports.

Let’s assume that our website is www.example.com and our product pages' URL's look like this:

www.example.com/products/awesomeproductpage.html?sid=ap5829g2k&param=supervalue

In this case both "sid" and "param" in the URL above are URL parameters, and both are being added to the URL by the website platform (and hence they're unnecessary).

So how do you keep your Google Analytics reports clean and useful?

The first way to address unnecessary parameters is to use the Main Profile Settings in your account.

Here are the steps:

Click into the "Profile Settings" page and then on "Edit" in the "Main Profile Settings Information" bar.
Enter the query parameters you'd like to exclude in the "Exclude URL Query Parameters" field and click "Save Changes."

Note that in the Exclude URL Query Parameters area we have added sid and param, since we want them filtered out.

Advice: We recommend that you always maintain an unfiltered "master" profile, because you never know when you may need to see those parameters. When you exclude parameters, do so in a duplicate profile. Then you can relax knowing you won't be caught off-guard.

The second way to address non-essential parameters is to use the features within the Internal Site Search set-up and use the Internal Site Search admin panel.

To enable Site Search, click on "Edit" under the "Settings" column next to the name of the profile on your analytics Settings page. Next, Click "Do Track Site Search" and, after you fill in the appropriate query parameter ("query" in the example below) in the Query Parameter field, select "Yes, strip query parameters out of URL."

Then hit Save. Going forward all the URL parameters will be removed, presenting you with a clean list of URL's you can better understand in your Google Analytics report.

Speaking of Site Search: if you haven't activated Site Search yet, do it today. It only takes seconds (OK, maybe a couple of minutes) but it's well worth the small effort needed.

So when do you use each of the above recommended methods?

Use method one, Main Profile Settings, when you want exclude just some of the parameters.

Use method two, Internal Site Search Settings, when you want to exclude all the parameters.

In closing, excluding query parameters from your profile will dramatically reduce the number of unique URL's you have to sift through and make the Top Content report immediately useful. Now, rather than hundreds of distinct URL's all pointing to the same page, you may see a single entry per page. That means you'll spend less time de-duping URL's and more time evaluating them.

Good luck, and happy data hunting!

Posted by James Tipton, Google Analytics Team

Boot Camp for Google Analytics

2008-06-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

Did we say, "Boot Camp for Google Analytics?" How does that work, one might ask? Do I have to get up at 5am to have someone yell at me about goals, funnels and filters, now repeat! Get that bounce rate DOWN mister! Conversion rate UP, lady! Now give me 5 industry benchmarking metrics and hit the showers.

Whoa, whoa...not at all...

It's more like boot camp for your online-marketing brain muscle, highly enjoyable, in an idyllic New England setting, with the coolest folks around. Get into scary good shape (knowledge-wise) with the Online Marketing (OM) Boot Camp, hosted by EpikOne and co-sponsored by Google at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont.

For four days (June 17-20), you'll learn how to use the latest Google marketing and analysis products, get informed about the online advertising industry, and network with Google Analytics experts. Instructors include Google's own analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik, Ben Bullock and Alex Ortiz from the Google Analytics team, and Justin Cutroni, Seminars For Success instructor and author of Google Analytics Short Cut.

Our users often ask us about training opportunities, and this is a great one for both beginners and advanced users, including agencies. The boot camp has various course levels on topics such as Adwords, Google Analytics and Website Optimizer.

Day 1 is a thought-leadership summit where attendees will hear analytics evangelists speak and enjoy a cocktail networking opportunity in the early evening. Days 2-3 will encompass various course levels of Google product training taught by industry experts.

Only 70 seats are offered for this education-only camp, so you'll get lots of discussion and hands-on training. For more information and to register, visit www.OMBootCamp.com.

Posted by Eva Woo, Google Analytics Team

The Web Analytics Championship!

2008-06-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like a little healthy competition! When you reach a certain level of expertise at some discipline, adding a little competition against others can help you to develop new skills and improve your "game" more than anything else. And it can be a lot of fun!

That's why we're hoping you'll grab your laptop, hook up your favorite mouse, stretch out your fingers, and join:

The Web Analytics Championship!

presented by the WAA

(Cue "Star Wars" theme song) If you choose to join the competition, you'll have a few days to analyze the last month of traffic to the website www.webanalyticsassociation.org using the WAA's Google Analytics account. Then, simply email in an analysis or recommendation for how to change the site or marketing, or even a simple insight about their traffic, keywords, or visitor navigation.

Basically, you are acting as a one-time analyst. What do you think is the most insightful traffic data? What reports and trends should be acted on? (As a starting point for readers of this blog, read what Avinash says about bounce rate - it might be a good place to start, and you can see this metric clearly in almost every Google Analytics report.)

Entries will be judged by a panel of experts (Neil Mason, June Dershewitz, and Avinash Kaushik), and prizes will be given for the most effective and insightful analyses. Here at the Google Analytics team, we might also might send a prize to the finalists, and also, we're hoping to do a blog post here after the championship where we'll name the contest winners and show the recommendations and insights they submitted. We're talking fortune and glory (cue "Indiana Jones" theme song) -- the techniques you use to analyze the data may be immortalized to inspire many a future analyst or marketer.

If you don't have a Google Analytics account, this would a good way to learn about Google Analytics, and since we've made actionable data discovery as intuitive as possible within Google Analytics, finding insight is not a difficult task.

The competition is easy to join: simply sign up to be a Web Analytics Association member, which brings a lot of benefits such as discounts to industry events, informational newsletters and best practice guides, exposure to thought leaders and peers who also work in web analytics, and access to advanced instruction about website analysis techniques. The Championship started on June 1 and there is still plenty of time to do some analysis and submit an entry. You'll definitely come away a better user.

We're rooting for you! For more details, visit the Web Analytics Championship page and FAQs.

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

New Analytics Report: TV Campaigns

2008-06-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

Hot on the heels of this March’s release of the Audio Campaigns report within Google Analytics, we’ve just added more offline-to-online reporting features: TV Campaigns reporting. This report represents a further integration between Google Analytics and AdWords, and another helpful tool for you to measure the online effects of offline marketing.

AdWords TV Ads is an all-digital system that distributes advertisers' TV ads to participating channels nationwide. You can upload your TV ad—a video file—to your AdWords account and, with a few clicks, start a campaign by choosing from more than 90 nationwide TV stations to air the ad on. You can also specify the time of day and week, audience demographic, and type of program you'd like to target. If you need help creating a TV ad, you can find and connect with production specialists through our Ad Creation Marketplace. It’s a simple and streamlined process for TV advertising.

And the best part: it’s highly trackable. If your AdWords account is linked with your Google Analytics account, you can easily see what happens to your online traffic while a TV spot is running. The current available TV metrics include:

Impressions delivered
Number of ad plays
Cost
CPM

You can now track these metrics and plot them alongside metrics already within Google Analytics, such as conversions, visits, and time on site. This way, you can see correlations between a TV campaign and your website traffic. Take a look at the below screenshot of TV spots run by a pet company. It shows website visits plotted against the number of TV impressions (how many times your TV ad played). If you've already linked your Analytics account to your AdWords account, this data appears automatically within Analytics when you run a TV ad.

Audio Campaigns and TV Campaigns are especially helpful for marketers taking advantage of the offline advertising options within AdWords. AdWords is running a promotion in which Google will cover the cost of creating your TV ad through our Ad Creation Marketplace, up to $2000.

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Website Optimizer Contest

2008-06-03T13:45:00.000-07:00

We recently blogged about how you can use Google Analytics and Website Optimizer to identify your high value pages and set up experiments that will eliminate the guesswork from their design. Now that you're on the path to increased conversions and more efficient funnels, we thought we'd give you the low down on a new contest that might spark your interest.

Earlier today at the SMX Seattle conference, the Google Website Optimizer team announced the launch of the Google Website Workout contest. The idea behind the contest is simple: they're looking to help four businesses "pump up" their websites so they can get more sales, leads, or signups. Their consultants will work with the four winners to increase site performance by identifying and testing which combinations of page design, copy, and graphics yield the highest conversion rates.

To enter, just visit their contest site and answer a few easy questions about why your site needs a workout. They're only accepting entries through June 17th, so don't wait to enter. Check out the short video below for more details:

Posted by John Stona, Website Optimizer Team

Google Analytics training in NYC

2008-05-21T08:49:00.000-07:00

Lunametrics is a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant led by Robbin Steif, one of the board members of the Web Analytics Association. She and her team are leading a day of training called "Getting Ahead with Google Analytics" in New York City, June 4 at the Harvard Club - see the agenda or register here.

This is going to be a fun and informative training if I know Robbin (which I do) geared towards the online marketer, analyst or webmaster. Her team will touch on how to set up Google Analytics, and then take a practical deep dive where you'll learn how to get insight from all the data within Google Analytics, as well as how to optimize your online marketing and how to test and create a testing culture. They're offering some breakout sessions and different tracks so you can learn the stuff that's most valuable to you. Take a look at the topics that will be covered:

How to get actionable data out of your analytics
How to use your analytics to understand where your users are having trouble
Which little-used but valuable features of Google Analytics will shine light on special opportunities
How to decrease your AdWords spend (and increase your conversions)
How to use Google Website Optimizer to increase your conversion rate
How to get everyone in the company to love their data
How to set up profiles, filters, goals, cross-domain tracking and user defined variables.

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Analytics Seminars for Success coming to Boston, Orlando and Chicago

2008-05-19T12:40:00.000-07:00

Seminars for Success are day-long seminars designed to help you improve your online marketing and get the most out of Google Analytics (separately offered for AdWords as well). We've selected industry professionals from our Google Analytics Authorized Consultant network to teach these seminars in cities around the U.S.

You can take an introductory seminar or an advanced seminar or both. They are being offered consecutive days for your convenience.

The "Introduction and User Training" course is designed to provide high level overview of Google Analytics and will cover key features and reports. It's perfect for a marketer or account manager who is interested in learning more about how Google Analytics works and who wants to understand how to use the information in reports to make decisions about online marketing, website traffic analysis, and website optimization.
The "Advanced and Technical Implementation" course is for those who need hands on implementation training. You'll learn how to install Google Analytics on your site, whether you're running an e-commerce store, tracking branding, rich internet applications, leads generation, or more. You'll learn how to optimally set up Google Analytics to get the types of information that you need.

Both classes will include an introduction to Google Website Optimizer.

Register here or see dates and locations, also below. We will let you know when future dates have been added.

Boston
- Introduction and User Training Seminar, May 26
- Advanced Technical Implementation Seminar, May 27

Chicago
- Introduction and User Training Seminar, June 2
- Advanced Technical Implementation Seminar, June 3

Orlando
- Introduction and User Training Seminar, June 24
- Advanced Technical Implementation Seminar, June 25

Posted by Eva Woo, Google Analytics Team

Google Analytics How-To Videos

2008-05-15T09:12:00.000-07:00

If you've recently signed up for Google Analytics, but aren't sure how to start interpreting and acting on your data, we've posted a couple of videos to our Conversion University Playlist on YouTube to help you out.

For an under-10 minute lesson on the data to look at first, what it means, and what to do about it, watch Beginning Analytics: Interpreting and Acting on Your Data. Also embedded here:

Do you know how to use the date-range selector to compare Mondays to Mondays? If not, you can see how in the Google Analytics Interface Tutorial. The video's other tips include how to jump directly to data without clicking through reports and how to quickly create a print-ready presentation within the interface. Here it is:

More videos are coming to the playlist, so stay tuned :-)

Posted by Alden DeSoto, Google Analytics Team

Google Analytics for Blogger now in private beta

2008-04-30T11:54:00.000-07:00

Several weeks back at South by Southwest, Jeff Veen announced our new Google Analytics for Blogger reporting interface. Currently available only in private beta, this product is a collaboration of several teams and marks the transition of Measure Map customers to a new Google Analytics interface designed specifically for Blogger users.

Here's what Jeff had to say:

"Many of you may remember when Google acquired Measure Map, our analytics product for blogs. When we came to Google, our first job was to take the experience of providing clear, accessible reports, coupled with powerful tools for analysis, and apply it to Google's already robust Analytics product. The result of that collaboration launched last May, in the redesigned Google Analytics interface.

Since then the team has been hard at work fulfilling our original promise: to help bloggers understand the impact that their blogs are having on the world. To that end, we've rebuilt Measure Map as an integrated feature of both Google Analytics and Blogger. We hope you like what you see."

Though we usually don't widely announce private-beta programs, we are migrating all existing Measure Map users (which include many prominent bloggers) to this new interface. With all the excitement around it, we knew we couldn't keep it a secret, so we decided to let the cat out of the bag early.

However, please keep in mind that this is an early beta; as such, we expect changes and hiccups along the way. We'll be refining the new interface throughout the year before we release it to the general public as an optional reporting interface in both Blogger and Google Analytics accounts. In the meantime, you can always use Google Analytics to track your blog.

Posted by Brett Crosby, Group Manager, Google Analytics

Which button would you click? A lesson on website optimization

2008-04-30T09:32:00.000-07:00

Start Now, Begin, or Get Started? Orange or blue button? What color text? Does it matter?

Website optimization seemed to be the hot topic at SES New York this year. Everywhere we turned, speakers were discussing how small changes in website content can result in big differences in traffic patterns.

Before we suggest a strategy for optimizing your website, let's make sure we're all on the same page. Many people confuse website optimization with search-engine optimization, so we'll clarify the difference here:

Search-engine optimization means adjusting the content of your site so it ranks higher in the list of search results for a particular keyword or keyword phrase.
Website optimization means creating and testing different combinations of site content to increase visitor conversion rates and overall visitor satisfaction.

Trying to optimize a large website for conversion can be a daunting task if you don't have a plan. The most important pages to test are those that have the biggest impact on your site's success. By using Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer together, you can identify these high value pages and set up experiments that will eliminate the guesswork from their design.

Finding your high-value landing pages

Before you even begin testing content variations, you'll need to decide which pages to optimize. Testing whether an orange or a blue button works better on a page that gets only 1% of your total traffic is probably not the best use of your time. However, the same test on your most heavily trafficked landing page could make the difference between a great conversion rate and a search for a new marketing team.

In his talk on the Web Analytics panel at SES, Avinash Kaushik recounted his experience searching for a new faucet. The top paid ad took him to a page focused on sinks rather than faucets; he was immediately turned off and bounced from the site.

What's the lesson here? Landing pages are key pages to optimize because they are your visitors' first (and often last) impression of your website. If a visitor lands on a page that doesn't provide the information she's looking for, she'll probably leave without clicking any further. For high-traffic landing pages, this can add up to a lot of lost visitors.

That's why it's so important to find, and fix, high-traffic landing pages that lose a high percentage of visitors. Look at the "Top Landing Pages" report within the Content section of Google Analytics. Pages that have both a high Bounce Rate (the percentage of visits that resulted in the visitor immediately leaving the site) and large number of Entrances need to be redesigned.

The Google Analytics Landing Pages report (Content section) shows a list of top landing pages ordered by the number of entrances on the left. On the right, the bounce rate compared to site average is graphically displayed. Pages with a high number of Entrances and a high bounce rate (red bar) are good candidates for optimization.

Don't forget about funnel pages

Other high-value pages are those that lead visitors to your goal pages. Visitors reach a goal page once they have completed a desired action, such as a purchase, registration or download. In Google Analytics, you can specify up to ten pages in a defined funnel representing the path you expect visitors to take on their way to the goal page (conversion!). A page that is part of a goal funnel is another great place to focus website optimization efforts.

The "Funnel Visualization" report within the Goals section of Google Analytics shows you how many visitors exit the funnel at each step in the path towards the goal page. In the funnel visualization below, you can see that most visitors in this funnel are lost in the transition from the "View Shopping Cart" step to the "Login" step. Only 7% of visitors move past this step, but of those who do, many go on to make a complete an order! A limiting step in a path to a goal, like the "View Shopping Cart" step below, is another great place to begin your website optimization experiments.

The Google Analytics Funnel Visualization report (Goals section) shows the pages where visitors abandon a goal path. Pages that lose a high percentage of traffic on the path towards a website goal are good candidates for optimization.

You know which pages to test ...

Once you've identified high value pages with Google Analytics, you can begin optimization experiments using Website Optimizer. If you have some alternate content ready, you can launch tests in under five minutes. The Website Optimizer team has made some helpful video tutorials to help you get started.

A little competition can get your team excited about content experimentation. Try asking a couple of your co-workers and perhaps your boss for suggestions on alternate variations of a high value page. Label each of the suggested variations in Website Optimizer with the contributor's name. Then, ask another set of co-workers to predict which variation will emerge victorious. You can monitor the progress each day to see how everyone's suggestions and predictions are stacking up. Keep in mind that it usually takes at least one or two weeks for the definitive winner to emerge. Once Website Optimizer has determined the winning page, you'll not only have a better performing page, but if you're lucky, you'll have bragging rights in your office!

For regular tips from the Website Optimizer team, subscribe to the team's new blog.

Posted by Laura Melahn, Google Analytics Team, and Jon Stona, Website Optimizer Team

Live Demo/Webinar of Urchin Software

2008-04-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

Hot on the heels of last week's full launch of Urchin Software, Actual Metrics, an Urchin Software Authorized Consultant, is offering a free webinar this week to introduce potential users - or anyone interested - to the software.

This is a great way to see a live demo of Urchin Software (aka Urchin 6), find out what's new with the latest version (see the new Visitor Clickpaths reports), learn how it differs from Google Analytics, and find out how Actual Metrics can help.

The webinar will be offered three times this week. To sign up and see an agenda, click a time below:

Actual Metrics, formerly Xooni, is an Urchin Software and Google Analytics Authorized Consultant based in Arizona and Los Angeles and led by Mike Chipman, a former Urchin and Google employee. Mike is a subject matter expert and has an engaging and fun presentation style which will make this an interesting and informative half hour.

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Graduation Day for Website Optimizer and Urchin Software!

2008-04-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

Today at the ad:tech conference in San Francisco, we very happily announced two launches. If we could have shouted them from the rooftops, we would have. Enjoy!

Website Optimizer now available as a standalone product!

Google Website Optimizer is all grown up. Formerly a feature within Google AdWords only, this free website-testing tool is now accessible to anyone worldwide through its own website. You can now use your Google Analytics login to access Website Optimizer and test which designs, headlines, and graphics lead to the highest conversion rates on your site. Also, we've officially dropped the Beta label. They grow up so quickly these days. :-) Take it for a spin!

The Website Optimizer team has also launched a product blog where you can get the latest product news, industry insights, and testing recipes straight from team members. Head over there now for more details about the launch, but not before toasting another launch....

Urchin now out of beta!

Also announced at ad:tech -- Urchin Software from Google, aka Urchin 6, has graduated from Beta and is available to everyone as of today, April 16th.

For the moment, Urchin is only available in English. That will change though, so stay tuned for info on soon-to-be released international versions.

Urchin formed the basis of Google Analytics, released in 2005. But, while Google Analytics is a Google-hosted service, Urchin is software that you run on your own servers. This makes Urchin ideal for certain applications. You might use it if you:

want to analyze your firewall-protected content, such as an intranet
have 5 years' worth of old server log data to analyze
need to know if your site's visitors are getting "Page Not Found" (404) errors
need to have your site's traffic data audited by a third party
need to create custom reports or integrate with other tools, like a CRM system
need to integrate your e-commerce logs directly with Urchin

That said, we continue to recommend Google Analytics for most users and most circumstances, as its marketing-oriented reports are more advanced than Urchin's. You can even use Google Analytics and Urchin together at the same time and have the best of both worlds.

Urchin is available exclusively through Urchin Software Authorized Consultants, a subset of our Google Analytics Authorized Consultants professional services network. These partners can implement Urchin on anything from a Fortune-500 e-commerce site to a million-site web-hosting operation (and they have!). Authorized Consultants offer not just the software itself, but also an armada of support and consulting service options to suit every type of customer. But you can try out Urchin for 30 days by going to urchin.com and downloading the demo.

An Urchin license is $2995. If you purchased Urchin 5, you can apply all of your purchase price towards your Urchin 6 purchase. The license allows you to analyze traffic for up to 1000 domains, any number of load-balanced servers, and any number of log files (including access, e-commerce, cost-per-click, and other types of logs). Urchin 5 users used to purchase each of these things separately, but with Urchin 6, we're bundling everything together for one price.

Urchin 6 runs on Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD and supports Apache (all platforms) and IIS (Windows only). Here are the technical specifics.

Posted by Scott Crosby, Urchin Software Manager, and Jon Stona, Website Optimizer Team

Join us at ad:tech in San Francisco next week

2008-04-11T14:15:00.000-07:00

Do you have anything to do with digital media or online marketing? If so, you might want to check out the ad:tech conference next week in San Francisco. It's an energetic and fun few days packed with informative seminars and vendor displays, with an attendee list of lots of smart folks from companies on the cutting edge of branding and marketing, or those interested in getting there.

We'd like you to join us for one or more free educational sessions on Wednesday, April 16 and Thursday, April 17 at the conference. We'll discuss the latest AdWords, Analytics, Website Optimizer and Urchin Software product developments and provide new tips on how they can help improve your bottom line. You'll also learn straightforward, data-driven techniques to enrich your website and business directly from our own Analytics Evangelist, Avinash Kaushik. See below for information on the sessions, also in the ad:tech website special events section.

If you don't already have a pass to this great conference, just visit the ad:tech site to register for and obtain a free exhibit hall pass to attend the following sessions:

Location for all sessions: Room 110

What's New with Google Analytics and Website Optimizer?
Wednesday, April 16: 9:30 - 10:30 am
Thursday, April 17: 12:00 - 1:00 pm (Repeat Session)

We're continuing to rapidly iterate on tools that provide analytical power and accessibility to digital marketers. Come hear the most up-to-date news about Google Analytics, Urchin Software and Website Optimizer. This is an event not to be missed!

Scott Crosby, Business Development Manager (Urchin Software)
Tom Leung, Business Product Manager (Google Website Optimizer)
Jeff Gillis, Product Team (Google Analytics)

Successful Web Analytics - presented by Avinash Kaushik
Thursday, April 17: 3:15 - 4:45 p

So much of making money on your web acquisition strategies comes down not to the awesomeness of your campaigns and choosing the right keyword or promotion but rather the greatness or crappiness of your website. This is where Web Analytics and Landing Page Optimization come in. You'll learn how to improve any site using data, and if you pay attention you just might learn how to sell a lot more of whatever you are selling with help from Google!

The first fifty attendees will get a copy of Avinash's book, "Web Analytics: An Hour A Day."

The Google AdWords team will also be hosting several educational sessions that are worth checking out. Here's a full list of free Google events that you can attend:

Tuesday, April 15:
12:00 - 1:00: AdWords Fundamentals
3:30 - 4:30: Optimization Strategies: Part 1
4:45 - 5:45: Efficiently Managing Your Account

Wednesday, April 16:
9:30 - 10:30: What's New with Google Analytics and Website Optimizer?
11:00 - 12:00: Increase Your Advertising Reach (Traditional Media)
2:45 - 3:45: Optimization Strategies: Part 2
4:00 - 5:00 Measuring and Tracking For Success

Thursday, April 17:
12:00 - 1:00: What's New with Google Analytics and Website Optimizer? (Repeat Session)
1:15 - 2:15 Online Video Advertising at Scale
3:15 - 4:45 Successful Web Analytics

See you in San Francisco!

Posted by Jon Stona, Website Optimizer Team

New Graphing Options: By Week and By Month

2008-04-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

Sometimes trends can hide pretty well, and one of Google Analytics' jobs is to make the most actionable trends as apparent as possible so you can surface them to your colleagues and management (and get a promotion). And we realize that most management reporting is done in weekly and monthly time buckets.

With that in mind, we've made it even easier for you to use Google Analytics to create clear and effective management dashboards without having to extract data into other programs. You can use the rich Google Analytics UI and present your promotion-worthy numbers in all their vibrant glory by clearly visualizing trends in weekly or monthly units, in addition to day by day. Have fun with this feature! Watch the patterns come into focus.

Let's look at how the weekly and monthly graphing views can be used by comparing them with viewing the data by day, which used to be the only option. It's very interesting to open up one or two years worth of data to look at your site over time. (Click on the images below for larger views.)

Graph by Day

Strategic insights come from analyzing long term trends. This is the default view in Google Analytics. It hints at something interesting going on in terms of Visits on your site.

New: Graph by Week

Try this cool thing. Click on the Week link on top of the graph, it is newly available in your reports! Suddenly it is more clear what the trend in Visits is. Cooler!

New: Graph by Month

Click on Month and you are now really cooking. Months and months of data visually represented in a way that allows you to clearly show a positive trend, highlight the key points, and yes even ask for a bonus.

Of course all other visualization features in Google Analytics are even more useful now as you use these new time buckets. For instance, take a look at the compare to past visualization.

Comparison in Day view

Comparing two different time periods is a great way to get context to your current performance...

New: Comparison by Month

...but you can highlight the trends in your performance much more optimally by simply clicking on the Month link. This works great for your management reporting and moves you into that corner office. :-)

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

YouTube now offers more analytics

2008-03-27T08:49:00.000-07:00

Want more info about how popular your YouTube videos are, and where your viewers are coming from? According to Nick Jakobi, a product manager at YouTube,

"Google Analytics enthusiasts, those of you who post videos to YouTube may be interested to learn about our new video analytics tool called YouTube Insight. Find out location data and relative popularity of your video, as well as over-time changes. Read about this new service on the YouTube blog."

Bravo, Youtube! Check out a screenshot:

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Benchmarking Data Now Live!

2008-03-20T16:34:00.000-07:00

On March 5th, we announced the rollout of our new Benchmarking reports. These reports provide context to your Google Analytics data based on industry verticals so that you can gain more insights for your own business. As of today, users should start seeing Benchmarking industry data populate in Google Analytics. The number of verticals and the quality of the data will likely grow as more and more customers enable this feature.

It is important to note that Benchmarking is opt-in only, so if you haven't yet enabled benchmarking in your account, but would like to, please do so now. Simply have your account's administrator login to the data sharing settings page and select "Share my Google Analytics data... Anonymously with Google products and the benchmarking service".

Posted by Christian Yee, Google Analytics Team

New Help Articles from Google Analytics Authorized Consultants

2008-03-17T16:21:00.000-07:00

As part of our desire to provide ever improving educational and help resources to all Google Analytics users, we are experimenting with providing Help Center articles authored by our Google Analytics Authorized Consultants. Our first contributors are EpikOne, the published author of this help center article and LunaMetrics, author of a series of concise and helpful explanations of POSIX Regular Expressions as they relate to Google Analytics. (Click on each of the wildcard symbols in this overview article to see them all.) Stay tuned, more articles are in the pipeline.

Posted by Alden DeSoto, Google Analytics Team