But what have they changed and how will it affect us all?

Why have Google changed their Privacy Policy?

Google say that the purpose of the new changes, to be implemented from the 1st of March 2012, is to provide one simple and easy to understand privacy policy across all Google Products and Services.  And to be fair it does.  The current policy was 6 sides of A4 long but had 35+ links to cover all the differences between the different services.  The new policy is 7 sides of A4 and only links to 3 other services!  The language is considerably simplified and makes sense to anyone without consulting a lawyer or technical guru.  As a user experience design company I like the new policy, it is simple, understandable and compared the to last one it is much better.

I’d say there is one problem with combining all the policies into one document that I found: when you read all the data that they collect using all their products and services it can be confusing and worrying which applies to you.  For example they clearly state that they may collect

‘telephony log information like your phone number, calling-party number, forwarding numbers, time and date of calls, duration of calls, SMS routing information and types of calls.’ .

They do not confirm however if they collect this information if you are logged into any Google product on your phone or just their telephone and SMS products.

What are the changes to the policy?

Google are now planning to share all information that is associated to you between it’s services and products.  The aim is to give you “one beautifully simple experience” across all products by remembering your preferences, improving search results and, most lucratively for Google, a better quality of adverts.  Here is their nice video that explains in brief how your Google interaction will be improved:

In essence the new policy allows Google to associate all of the personal information that you give them with all of your Google user accounts.  The idea is to make it easier for you to share your photos, videos, status updates with the people you know.

That all sounds good – Where’s the catch?

The catch all depends on what Google does with the data.  They clearly state that they will not associate personally identifiable content, unless you ‘opt-in’, with their Double Click Cookies for their Advertising Service companies.  Advertisers will still get information about your account, what you like and how you behave online, but it will be anonymised.  They also state that they will never ‘sell’ their data stored on you but that does not stop them sharing it for free.

However, this is the only service that it is clearly stated will not have you personal information, such as phone number, address etc associated to it. Google will start collecting even more information about us as individuals and will be able to legally associate it to individuals.  This information is extremely valuable and in the wrong hands could be seriously misued.

I don’t really believe that Google are necessarily ‘the wrong hands’ however.  I certainly am not of the opinion that the Google bosses want to take over the world to form a dystopian future.  I do, however, believe that they are in a data mining war with Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter and other Social Networks or search engines.

Google confirm that they will share

‘aggregated, non-personally identifiable information publicly and with our partners’

unless they have your consent to share more.

This information is worth a fortune to advertisers, marketers and product developers.  If they can understand how you use the internet then they can start directing campaigns specifically target at you.  If the quality of the advertising that is displayed when you are searching is more targeted then you are more likely to click through. Therefore Google and the advertisers make more money.  Advertisers can also reduce the risk of developing campaigns that do not resonate with their target audience, saving them time and money.

This concept however is not a new one and has always been how the Googles’ and Facebooks’ of the World can survive whilst providing a valuable and free service.  The only difference now is the quality of the data is getting better, more specific and more personal.

What are the options – can I opt out of this data collection and sharing?

In short: No.

This is where Google have received most of their critism. You cannot opt out of their new policy without opting out of using their products altogether.

They do allow you to have some control over the information that is shared and displayed to other users:

• Use the Google Dashboard on your account to review and control some types of the information tied to your account.
• Use the Ads Preference Manager to opt out of certain Google Advertising services or change your preferences.
• Check and amend your publicly available profile using the Google Editor.
• Use the Google+ circles to control the information that you share with groups of individuals.
• Download the information stored on Google services associated with you.
• Set up your browser to block cookies or to indicate when a cookie is in use.  This may stop some functionality working properly.
• Apply to have any information that they hold which is wrong or incorrect to be removed and/or updated.*

Is this the start of Big Google Brother watching us? Should I change how I act online?

Not really, Google have been collecting date on us for a long time.  When you sign up for their accounts it clearly states that they own all the information that is contained within them, no different from Facebook, Yahoo etc.  Yet due to their size and position as the most popular gateway to the internet Google we are more aware of what they do. We are entering into a new era for online search and advertising and this could be a good thing.  Google could truly lead the way for a more intuitive and fulfilling experience online.

The real issue is not what will Google do with the information that they collate, its how much information are you happy to reveal online for a free service? The majority of people I find who complain, on a personal level, about how much data is collected and shared on Google or Facebook ironically tend to be the people who share the most personal information about themselves online.  We as individuals have as much responsibility to protect our own information as Google do. When you open a Google account of any nature you are entering into an agreement where they will let you use their products and services for free and they will use your data.  If you then choose to share you phone number and other personal items with friends through Google services then you should be aware that you have freely given that information to them.

Ultimately it is up to you to judge whether having the full proposed Google experience will be worth the privacy you may give up.

Let us know what you think about the proposed changes and whether you think we give away too much information online.

In fact selecting the tutorials to attend is no easy feat. As on each day there’s at least 3 tutorials vying for your attention. I won’t be able to attend an event each day but if I could I think I’d go for:

Monday 19th of March 2012

Web Page Design: The Anatomy of High-Performing Web Pages
Kara McCain

Tuesday 20th of March 2012

The Human Mind and Usability: How Your Customers Think
Marieke McCloskey

Wednesday 21st of March 2012

Fundamental Guidelines for Web Usability
Kathryn Whitenton

Thursday 22nd of March 2012

Information Architecture 1: Structuring and Organizing Web-Based Information
Kathryn Whitenton

Friday 23rd of March 2012

Information Architecture 2: Navigation Design
Jen Cardello

If I could clone myself I’d also love to drop in on:

• Catherine Toole’s Content Strategy tutorials Process and Qualitative Audits (on the Wednesday) and Content Formats and Guidelines and Brand Tone of Voice (on the Thursday).
• Marieke McCloskey’s tutorial on Wireframing and Prototyping (on Friday)

Check out the full line-up of tutorials and remember early-bird registration discounts will only apply till February 17th 2012.

I hope you find selecting the tutorials you’d like to attend easier than I did!

Could not create database for connection named <your_database_name>
SQLSTATE[XXXXX] [YTYYY] No such file or directory

The reason this is happening is because you are using MAMP’s MySQL server. The location of its unix socket tmp file (/Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock) is different from the default location (/var/mysql/mysql.sock or /tmp/mysql.sock) of the MySQL unix socket file of an OSX installation. By default, Symfony2 assumes it should use OSX’s own MySQL server and all of the files associated with it. Therefore, it cannot find the correct files in the places it would normally look.

To fix the issue, edit the file:

symfony2_project/app/config/config.yml

and add the following line:

unix_socket: /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock

inside the dbal: section make the code look like:

doctrine:
    dbal:
        driver: %database_driver%
        host: %database_host%
        port: %database_port%
        dbname: %database_name%
        user: %database_user%
        password: %database_password%
        charset: UTF8
        unix_socket: /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock

    orm:
        auto_generate_proxy_classes: %kernel.debug%
        auto_mapping: true
...

This overwrites the default location of the mysql.sock file and lets Symfony2 know where to find MAMP’s mysql.sock file.

You might need to adapt the examples above to suit your installation in case it uses different paths but this example should help you on your way.

User Interface 16

We couldn’t make it to the event but the organisers have recently announced they’re releasing the video recordings and slides from the conferences amazing line-up of speakers. UI16 OnDemand provides access to the following speakers and talks:

• Luke Wroblewski on Web forms and user input
• Hagan Rivers on Application maps
• Kevin Hoffman on Kickoff meetings
• Kim Goodwin on UX leadership
• Bill Scott on Design principles
• Steve Portigal on User culture
• Stephanie and Greg Rewis on CSS3
• Brandon Schauer on the value of UX in an organisation
• Jared Spool on Making design intuitive

Access to these resources will cost $189, if you buy before February 2nd, 2012. Thereafter the price will rise to $239. In return you get lifetime access to premium content that you are free to share within your company.

If you’re not convinced why not check out the conference website and an amazing taster video from Kevin Hoffman on the true cost of design meetings and how the team at Happy Cog have tried to address this.

Convinced?

Then purchase UI16 OnDemand you won’t regret it!

Photo courtesy of Simon 'Kelp' Keeping

Merry Christmas from the team at Border Crossing Media!

We’ve had a very busy 2011 with new projects and even our own rebrand.  We’d like to thank all the people we have had the joy to work with over the last year and wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a spectacular New Year.

Our office will be closed from 12pm Friday the 23rd of December  until Wednesday the 4th of January 2012.

We will be checking emails and picking up messages over the festive period but all non-critical issues or enquiries will not be dealt with until January 4th 2012. For all critical enquiries please call your designated point of contact on their mobile phone.

Have a wonderful Christmas & New Year!

What is a sitemap?

A sitemap is a visual representation of a website’s structure. It should clearly communicate how all of the information on a website or application is ordered and organised. Boxes generally represent pages and lines represent links. Although similar at first glance, sitemaps should not be confused with task or user flows which detail the paths available to a user when they use a website or application.

Why create a sitemap?

Sitemaps are best developed at the outset of a project. Creating, testing and refining one should help ensure:

• pages and blocks of information your website should contain are identified
• pages and functions are aligned to your user’s priorities
• all content has been categorised appropriately
• your website is easy to navigate
• redundant or duplicate content is removed
• all project stakeholders understand how a website and the information it contains will be structured
• the sign-off process on navigation menus, labels and site-wide terminology is not hampered or compromised by internal politics

How to create a sitemap?

1. Start off with a pen and paper. Focus on documenting as many different ideas and approaches as possible rather than worrying about aesthetics.
2. Draw a box at the top of the page and label it “Home”.
3. Underneath this draw a row of boxes that represent the major sections of your website. If there are more than 7 this may require a re-think. For an architecture firm this may include “Services”, “Projects”, “Resources”, “About”. These top-level or “parent” pages are generally included in the main navigation menu but this is not always the case.
4. Use any further rows to signify any “child” pages that are related to these top-level pages, e.g. the “About” page may be related to the following “child” pages, “Team”, “Partners” and “News & Events”.
5. Continue to create, label and organise boxes as if your were developing a mind map or organisational chart until you have detailed every page you want on your website.

Tips

• Try and develop a clear conceptual model.
• Ensure the website is organised from an end-user’s perspective.
• Avoid unnecessary hierarchical levels.
• Organise information hierarchically, from the general to the specific.
• Test all labels and terminology with potential end-users.

Next steps

Once you’re happy with the number of ideas and approaches you’ve captured it’s time to digitise them. This will enable you to share and amend your sitemap efficiently following testing and feedback. Use the programme or application that you are most comfortable with. I personally use OmniGraffle but numerous alternatives exist such as Photoshop, Keynote or PowerPoint. Remember your sitemap does not have to be beautiful it just needs to be clear and readable.

We’d always recommend that you test whether or not prospective users of your website find the organisation and labeling of information on your website easy to understand. Only then can you be sure that you are organising your website in a way that will help prospective customers find what they’re looking for. On-site workshops or remote card sorting tools such as OptimalSort are particularly useful for this.

Now you have completed refining your sitemap it is time to obtain sign-off from senior decision-makers. To facilitate this you need to involve them early on in the process and ensure that they are fully briefed throughout the process. If you’ve done the required research and testing you will also be able to provide compelling evidence why certain terms and approaches have been taken. This should minimise the impact of internal politics and subjective decision-making. Lastly, it is critical that you explain that the sitemap you present is still a work-in-progress. Ongoing flexibility is key and you must be given the freedom to implement amends to the sitemap as and when required.

If you need any a second opinion on your sitemap or want to learn more about testing and improving your website’s information architecture feel free to contact us.

The reason they all cited was that the time it takes to review and delete irrelevant comments had increased substantially. The reason for this was that they were being inundated with spam.

What is a spam comment?

A spam comment is generally posted by automated scripts or software although sometimes you may come across manually submitted spam. Your typical spam comment will:

• have no relevance to the post or thread it is associated with
• add no value to a reader of your post
• be stuffed with irrelevant keywords
• contain at least one irrelevant link
• shamelessly promote something you probably don’t wish to be associated with

Why do people leave comment spam?

People who leave spam comments are doing this to generate in-bound links that can be followed by search engines and people. In effect they are implementing a low-cost and low-value search engine optimisation strategy.

How to combat spam on your WordPress website?

If you are noticing a substantial increase in the amount of spam you are receiving please check and consider the following:

1. Ensure Akismet or the plug-in of your choice is activated and up-to-date

This plug-in uses Akismet’s web service to identify and block comment and trackback spam. Go to Admin>Plug-ins>Active. If Akismet is not activated, activate it now. If Akismet is not up-to-date, update it now.

If you are a Drupal user then we’d highly recommend using the Anti-Spam and/or Mollom contributed modules.

2. Block comments on older posts

You should consider preventing comments on older posts. You can automatically set how long to allow comments on posts by going to Settings>Discussion and checking the “Automatically close comments on articles older than” and entering the number of days in the text box. This blog, which is also powered by WordPress, is set to 30 days.

For Drupal you can use Comment Lockdown but be sure to test this on a development website as you may well run into unforeseen issues.

3. Install Recaptcha

In general this is not something we recommend but it certainly is effective! In our opinion this should only be considered in a worst-case scenario. This is because even though you will be preventing scripts and software submitting spam you will also be making it harder for people to leave genuine comments. Therefore, this may well have a negative impact on the amount and quality of comments submitted.

To find and install Recaptcha got to Settings>Plug-ins>Add New and enter “Recaptcha” in the search field and follow the usual steps you take to install plug-ins.

4. Using a third-party solution

You can always use third-party solutions such as Disqus. The benefits of this are that you will be able to leverage their expertise at fighting spam whilst reducing the size of your database. You may also see an increase in the number of comments submitted as users can easily submit comments using their Facebook, Twitter and OpenID profiles. We highly recommend Disqus for high traffic websites that receive a lot of spam. Using Disqus is highly likely to save you time and allow you to focus on more beneficial activities that moderating and deleting spam.

To learn more about Disqus by visiting their website or using the comment features on websites such as CNN, TechCrunch or ReadWriteWeb.

To find and install Disqus go to Settings>Plug-ins>Add New and enter “Disqus” in the search field and follow the usual steps you take to install plug-ins.

Closing thoughts

There is no doubt that spam is annoying and moderating it can be time consuming. That said, we’d always encourage people to trial solutions before removing the option for users to leave comments.

There are numerous other steps you can take to reduce the amount of time you have to spend moderating comments. We’ve detailed a few of the quicker one’s you can implement today to drastically reduce the amount of spam you receive. In our experience taking steps 1 & 2 should be enough to get things back under control but failing that you should trial options 3 & 4.

We’ve concentrated on WordPress because all three of our requests for help originated from WordPress users. If you’re struggling with spam on a different content management system (CMS) then you should still consider the steps highlighted above. When possible we’d also highly recommend the use of contributed software as opposed to developing custom plug-ins or modules.

For specific recommendations on contributed software relevant to your content management system feel free to contact us detailing the CMS you use.

A good litmus test for whether or not you are ready to kick-off your website build or redesign project is to try and answer the questions below:

• what is the purpose of your website?
• who uses your website (split into segments)?
• why do they visit your website?
• what questions and concerns do users of your website have?
• what are they looking for on your website?
• what do people want to do on your website?
• what do you want people to do on your website?
• what information do people need from your website to complete these tasks?
• what will prevent people from completing these tasks?

If you are struggling to answer any of these questions we’d highly recommend you consider slowing things down. Even if you can provide a confident answer to each of these questions, it is important that you reach out and where possible try to validate your responses before you start any creative or technical development work.

The first thing to do, is create a research plan. This should detail the research techniques you will use, the tasks you need to complete and the resources this will require. For most web development projects this will involve some or all of the following:

User research & usability testing

Analytics data

Dig into your analytics data to learn what people are doing on your website. Try to identify which pages are working for you and which are not. You should also look into who currently uses your website, how do they find it, and what they tend to do on it. To gain genuinely meaningful insights you will need to take the data your analytics package presents to you by default and segment it in a way that matters most to your business.

Online & offline surveys

Composing and promoting surveys online is quick and cheap. Once you have identified groups of people who visit or are likely to visit your website you then need to prepare a list of questions to ask them. To obtain the most informative feedback possible we would recommend the use of both open and closed questions in order to help frame and focus feedback. It is also important to ensure you capture feedback from both existing and prospective customers. Responses are likely to be encompass a wide range of goals, purposes and actions. Capture as many as you can then weight them in terms of volume and business value.

User interviews

If you can, conduct follow-up interviews with existing and prospective customers. Use this as an opportunity to validate your early research and gain a fuller understanding of the personas you will be designing and building for.

Online customer support & tools

In the last year it has become remarkably easy to add customer support and feedback tools to a website. There are numerous open-source and freemium software-as-a-service providers from which to choose from. The response rates will not be high but you will capture valuable feedback.

Remote usability testing

You should do this to learn how people actually use your website. Valuable insights can be gained from conducting low-to-no budget usability tests. For example you may discover a number of usability issues that are have a direct impact on the conversion rate of your checkout process. If you are redesigning your existing website we would still recommend that you test it. Doing so will help ensure your new website does not make the same mistakes as the last one. Perhaps more importantly it will also help to convince all stakeholders of the importance of making these decisions from an end-users perspective.

Documenting your findings

If you’ve done the requisite research we would recommend you summarise and share your findings. Developing deliverables such as personas and user stories will help you establish a shared vision of who you are trying to reach and convert online. It will also provide the project team with a reference point that they can refer to throughout the design and development process.

Internal research & business analysis

At the same time as doing your external research you should conduct internal exercises for all key stakeholders and decision-makers. It is critical that you involve those who have customer-facing roles too.

Questionnaire

Compose a questionnaire that includes both open and closed questions. It is important that you capture inputs from across the business. To do this you need to get buy-in from senior managers and be realistic about scheduling deadlines. We’d also recommend that all responses be anonymised so that people are as honest as possible when they complete the questionnaire. Finally, do not underestimate the time it will take to process the information submitted. As there is no point conducting this if you do not have the time to analyse and synthesise the feedback you gather.

Workshop

Once you have the responses from your questionnaire you can start to plan a series of workshops. When selecting participants it is important that you maintain a balance and ensure all key stakeholders are represented. These collaborative sessions should involve a number of research and interaction design techniques that will enable you to sort and weight ideas, objectives and requirements.

Competitor research

Review your competitors website’s and where possible obtain prospective customers feedback on them. This will allow you to identify key points of difference to exploit. An investment in keyword research is also advisable as this information should inform the information architecture of your website as well your ongoing approach to search engine optimisation.

Pulling it all together

Work closely with senior decision-makers to obtain sign-off on the project’s objectives and requirements. An effective balance between business objectives and the needs of your existing and prospective customers must be found. This stage of the project is of critical importance as it will directly influence how your new website will look and work. Ensure you use the knowledge you have acquired to help guide decision-makers through this process.

Defining & communicating your requirements

Once you have got sign-off at a senior level on the project objectives you should then move on to producing a project definition document that includes the following:

• Project objectives
• Business objectives
• End-user objectives (by user type)
• Content objectives
• Design objectives
• Technical objectives
• Measurements of success
• Branding & design guidelines
• Personas & user stories
• Sitemap
• Page descriptions
• Technical documentation

We supply all of our customers with these deliverables when we undertake a design and build project. We do this to ensure all participants have a shared understanding of what we are going to do. There’s no doubt that these deliverables take an investment of time or money to produce. However, skimping on these during the planning stage of a project is always a false economy. None of what we do is impossible for you to do yourself! The only obstacle to doing it is not giving yourself the requisite time to undertake this properly.

If you would benefit from templates or need guidance on conducting any of the steps detailed within this post feel free to contact us.

Does the speed of your website really matter?

As of April 2010, a website’s page load times have been a ranking factor for Google search engine results. Even though Google thinks the speed of your website matters, they certainly don’t weight the speed of a website higher than its relevance, reputation or the value they perceive it provides. In fact the impact of speed on search results seems to have been minimal at best. That said the recent graduation of Page Speed Online from Google Labs signifies that this is still something Google thinks website owners should invest in whether or not it impacts their rankings.

Like Google we think you should care about the speed of your website. The reason for this is simple: people will be happier to use your website. Studies have shown that faster websites result in increased engagement and conversion rates.

How to speed up your website?

Optimising the speed of your website isn’t all about your infrastructure. Switching hosting providers or investing in a content delivery network won’t eradicate all of the bottlenecks that are having a detrimental effect on the load time of your web pages. To do this you need to invest the time to identify and resolve issues that generally fall into the following categories:

• content
• server
• cookies
• CSS
• JavaScript
• images & videos

There’s a list of a few entry-level tools and resources below. These are great for identifying and resolving the issues you are encountering. Once you’ve done this we’d strongly recommend you put in place an ongoing testing and governance policy too.

Must-use tools:

• Google’s Page Speed Online tool analyses the content of a page and details recommendations on how to speed it up. It’s also worth playing around with some of these other tools too.
• YSlow, is a browser add-on that will allow you to analyse web pages and identify ways to speed them up based on a set of rules for high performance web pages.

Optional tools:

• Gomez Networks free testing tool allows you to conduct a real-time instant test for an individual web page. We particularly like this tool as it allows you to test the performance of a page from an external node location. This is particularly useful for websites and applications with a global audience.
• LoadImpact is a simple tool that allows you to load test your website to discover performance limitations. The free plan allows you to run up to 50 concurrent, simulated users. Doing this will allow you to stress-test your website and identify issues that only appear under heavy usage conditions.
• Pylot is a free open source tool for testing the performance and scalability of web services. It runs HTTP load tests, which are useful for capacity planning, benchmarking, analysis, and system tuning.

Next steps

Start off by allocating a day for your developer to spend speeding up your website. All of the tools listed above are free so the only cost will be your developer’s time. Doing this will enable you to identify and resolve a number of bottlenecks immediately. You are also likely to find key areas in which content administrators require additional training (e.g. image optimisation). After this initial pass implement an ongoing testing schedule that will enable your developer to allocate the time required to monitor and improve page load times on an ongoing basis.

Switching hosting providers or offloading heavy assets to a content delivery network (CDN) is always an option that should be considered. However, this is likely to come at a substantial ongoing cost. What’s more you will not be addressing the underlying issues that are slowing your page load times down. That’s why we always recommend that you get your developers to see what they can do to improve page load times before you investigate any changes to your underlying infrastructure.

If you need any further advice on optimising the speed of your website, selecting a content delivery network or undertaking a hosting audit please feel free to get in touch.

The wonders of Google Analytics

Google Analytics automatically detects and logs organic referrals from websites or other search engines. Google AdWords users should already know all about the benefits of tagging your ads. If you’re not taking advantage of this, turn auto-tagging on now by:

1. Logging-in to AdWords
2. Click on My Account>Edit
3. Tick the “Destination URL Auto-tagging” checkbox
4. Click “Save”.

Many people stop there but you should be tracking all of your non-AdWords campaigns. This may also include the links you share via email and social media. Doing this will mean you can access and compare the data on all of your marketing activities in one place.

It’s also worth remembering that if you’ve built a landing page it is critical that you display paths to it prominently on your website. Throughout a campaign, a landing page should always be possible to find without the original link. As there’s no point in developing and optimising a landing page for conversions if people can’t find it.

Applying tagging and tracking to an offline campaign

Tracking offline events and campaigns is somewhat harder. People often forget the URL you’ve advertised and end up accessing the website via Google. This means that visit will not be attributed to your campaign by your analytics software. This is why you should familiarise yourself with the baseline activity on your website. Doing so will allow you to identify any spikes in traffic that are likely to be attributable to a specific offline campaign.

Once you decide to track an offline campaign tagging the link you advertise offline should just be the start. Build in other tactics such as memorable discount codes or custom phone numbers. All of these will help you track users who have been exposed to your offline campaign but don’t use the URL you’ve advertised offline.

In short tracking an offline campaign is not an exact science but it is doable.

To track an online or offline event or campaign you need to:

1. Select the URL of the page you wish to direct traffic to.
2. Go to Google’s URL Builder http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=55578 to generate a trackable link.
3. Enter data in the required fields:

Campaign Source – enter the source of the referral, e.g. quarter 1 email newsletter, or any other source you will be using to promote your landing page.
Doing so will allow you to identify the source of the referral.

Campaign Medium – enter the marketing medium you are using for this campaign, e.g. banner adverts, email newsletter, email, cost-per-click, cost-per-impression, cost-per-action, etc.
Doing so will allow you to identify the marketing medium used to advertise your link.

Campaign Name – enter the name of your campaign.
Doing so will allow you to segment data relevant to a specific campaign.

4. Enter data in the optional fields. You don’t have to complete all of the variables but you will regret it if you don’t when it comes to filtering the data.

Campaign Term - identify the paid keywords used, e.g. kids toys.
This is only relevant to keyword-based campaigns.

Campaign Content - enter something that will differentiate this link from other links you create that point to the same landing page.
Doing so will allow you to differentiate between different ads/links that point to the same landing page. This is critical if you are A/B testing the content of your ads.

5. Publish and share the link generated.

Doing the above will enable you to track and segment a visit to your website by the dimensions you set-out when you generate your links. This will give you access to invaluable data that previously wasn’t being captured.

In fact once you’ve familiarised yourself with the process we’d highly recommend you start doing this for every ad/link or marketing campaign you implement going-forwards.

What next?

Having access to this data is just the start, it’s how you segment and filter it that matters.

Over time you can refine the way in which you track both online and offline events and campaigns. At first start off small – start off measuring the click-through rate and depth of visit your email newsletter generates. Then over time expand this to tracking and segmenting visits from your email newsletter by the specific call-to-action clicked on within the newsletter.

Using this data will help you to optimise your messaging as well as assess the return on investment each of your marketing activities is generating. Taking such an approach will no doubt help you to allocate your marketing budget and resources more effectively.