funnel city

2011 Scotiabank Half-Marathon Course Map

noreply@blogger.com (lzcabrera) — Fri, 20 May 2011 07:19:00 +0000

Since the previous map we created with an interactive course map for a half-marathon was a hit, we decided to create one for the 2011 Vancouver Scotiabank Half-Marathon. Here is the course map for all of you training for the race. The date is fast approaching, so make sure you get your training runs in. Take advantage of the gorgeous spring weather!

Visit the race official site for more details.

See full page mode or the mobile version.

Happy Training :)

BMO Vancouver Half-Marathon 2011 Race Route

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 07:00:00 +0000

We are running the Half-Marathon this coming Sunday May 1st and have created a Google Map with the 21.1 km Mobile Course Map as an alternative to the PDF available on the Official Site.

This interactive course map is mobile-friendly. The bubbles with numbers are kilometer markers. Feel free to share the link with your cheering squad and good luck to everyone running the race!

See full page mode or the mobile version using the short custom url http://bit.ly/bmohalf.

Favourite April Fools' Jokes 2011

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:48:00 +0000

I found lots of interesting April Fools' tweets on my twitter feed this morning, but my favourite, just to confirm that I am just another measure geek, is:

Ask a HIPPO

Kudos to the guys at unbounce! The site was built using the their Landing Page platform and I think it is a great marketing campaign.

For those of you not familiar with what a HIPPO is, in the Web Analytics world, a HIPPO is "Highest Paid Person Opinion" (as introduced by Avinash), these individuals tend to have faith-based opinions most of the time and can make the Web Analyst job "a bit more fun" because we like fact-based opinions.

If you are still on the mood to check other 2011 jokes, check out these videos:

Google Motion Beta

Playmobil Apple Store Playset

I think funnel city needs to start planning an April Fools' joke for next year. I have added it to the calendar and will keep monitoring today's jokes via twitter.

The Importance of Navigation

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 22:01:00 +0000

Came across and interesting article about the importance of navigation on websites. Bill Slawski, from SEO by the Sea, explains the issue with some very useful analogies that you can use to determine if your website's navigation is actually helping people find their way around the site.

Network Analysis for SEO

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:16:00 +0000

I had the opportunity to attend Charlotte Bourne's presentation on Network Analysis for SEO a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to share her presentation as it is a very interesting topic.

My favourite part of the presentation was when she talked about some network analysis tools that let you piece together (through graphs) the reason why it is important to have a social media strategy that will interact nicely with your SEO strategy that will eventually help achieve your business objectives by increasing your company's social network.

Getting Started with HTML Emails

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 23:37:00 +0000

Here is a very useful tutorial on how to style HTML emails for your email marketing campaigns by Tessa Thornton.
And if you are wondering why HTML emails needs its own tutorial, the answer as explained by Tessa, is that:

CSS support in email clients is inconsistent. As a result, we must resort to ancient techniques, such as using tables, and inline CSS.

Thanks for writing a great article with a detailed step-by-step tutorial Tessa!

For all of you interested Web Analytics enthusiasts, remember to tag all links within the HTML emails with the appropriate parameters in order to identify the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.

The SEO Success Pyramid

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 05:13:00 +0000

The SEO Success Pyramid is a great article by Matt McGee for those interested in the SEO basics. What I liked the most about the post is the following idea:

"...the best SEOs don’t talk to their clients about rankings; they talk about the process of making great web sites that earn traffic and convert visitors into customers. They talk about the process of creating great content that attracts links like bees to honey..."

Read more: http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/the-seo-success-pyramid/971/#ixzz1EezmRoi9

Everyone uses search engines to find about pretty much anything and that is why it is important to make your website easily accessible to search engines, so they can bring more visitors which can be considered potential customers.

In order to optimize your website for search engine visibility make sure to pay close attention to the SEO success pyramid and focus on improvements starting at the very bottom so that your changes can have the most impact.

Google to launch paid-for analytics package

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 04:35:00 +0000

Good news for all of you waiting for the enterprise version of Google Analytics. According to brandrepublic.com, Google has been working on this enterprise version for the past six months.

Watch out Omniture and Coremetrics, there is some serious competition coming up.
Here are funnel city we are excited about the news and anxious to know its release date!

Drupal 7 Release

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:12:00 +0000

Today, the most popular open source CMS is releasing a new version, Drupal 7.

The community had been working hard and today is the big day. No more beta releases, it is official, Drupal 7 is ready.

We are definitely looking forward to learn about its improvements to consider using in on future projects. How about you? What do you think is the best feature of Drupal 7?

My first Analysis Exchange project

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:27:00 +0000

Learn more about me on my Analysis Exchange profile.

I had the opportunity to work on an Analysis Exchange project for a non-profit organization (NPO) in the United States known as The Conservation Fund. It was a great opportunity to get real hands-on experience in Web Analytics and enjoyed every minute of it. I’m glad I did, as it reassured me that I made a good decision when I enrolled and completed the Web Analytics program at UBC and it has encouraged me to learn more about this field and its industry.

By volunteering to work on The Conservation Fund website analysis, I had access to a large data set and some key questions that needed to be answered to help the organization with an upcoming re-design.

I must admit that it was a challenge to dig into the data to find useful information on my first project, but that is why I’m so grateful that Michael Helbling signed up as mentor. He helped me focus on insights that would be the most useful and actionable to the client, leading me into the right path when I was overwhelmed by information overload and a deadline.

It was a privilege to work with Micheal Helbling, an Analysis Exchange mentor with many years of experience. I learned lots of tips from him and I’m definitely looking forward to volunteering more of my time to more good causes so I can get the chance to interact and learn from other knowledgeable and experienced Web Analysts.

If you are new to the Web Analytics field and want to get some hands-on experience don’t hesitate to sign-up for a project. I can guarantee it is a rewarding experience that will help your career and at the same time will give you great sense of accomplishment when you know your efforts can make a difference. I helped the environment by delivering to The Conservation Fund, an organization that supports green initiatives and the environment, my first Analysis Exchange website analysis report and presentation.

Thanks to Eric Peterson for creating a great program that supports NPOs and Web Analytics enthusiasts like myself.

Mobile Web Design Best Practices

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:49:00 +0000

Here is a great article about Mobile Web Design do's and don'ts plus mobile development resources by Alexander Dawson.

Remember that a mobile strategy is just as important as a web strategy now that smart-phones are pretty much everywhere.

QR Codes: when marketing meets technology (again...)

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 03:12:00 +0000

Do you know what a QR code is? I didn't until I read this article and the wikipedia entry:

A QR Code is a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by QR scanners, mobiles phones with camera, and smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data.

Long story short, if you are walking by on the street and you see a poster and don't understand what is they message it is trying to convey, take a picture of it with your smart-phone to find out what the subliminal message is...

I haven't tried it yet, but will post how to decipher a QR code using an iPhone once I figure out how to do it... My first guess is that there is an app for that... hopefully it's free because I have heard MEC is doing QR codes here in Vancouver already and I want to try taking a picture of one to see what happens and who knows maybe create my own.

Update: I managed to find a free iPhone app and here is a video I found on YouTube that shows you how it works.

The Whole World is Analytics

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:52:00 +0000

To read more about what can it be done with data, visit A smart planet.

IBM buys Coremetrics

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 14:13:00 +0000

For those of you skeptical about the importance of Web Analytics, I hope that the latest news in the world of acquisitions confirms how important Web Analytics has become. It was announced today that Coremetrics will be acquired by the blue giant, IBM. Coremetics is a real time web analytics platform that will be integrated with IBM's Websphere.

For more info:
IBM Advances Analytics with Acquisition of Coremetrics
IBM reaches agreement to acquire Coremetrics

Google's strategy: Innovation

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 05:33:00 +0000

Here is a good interview with Google's first female engineer, Marissa Mayer, which I found by browsing through the Fortune 500 Top 40 under 40 list.

Entrepreneurs can change the world

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 02:27:00 +0000

Effective URL Removal from Google search results

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 04:02:00 +0000

Are you wondering what to do to remove a URL from Google search results? If you are, you have come to the right place. I was in that situation recently, and to my despair finding a clear step by step tutorial was impossible. I did somehow manage to figure it out on my own and I have decided to share with you how I did it.

What do you need?

A gmail account
Access to modify your site's homepage html code

Now here we go with the instructions:

Step 1. Go to the Google webmaster tools homepage
Step 2. Log in using you gmail account credentials
Step 3. Click on the Add a site button
Step 4. Enter the homepage of the site with the URL you want to remove on the field that is asking for the URL of the site you would like to manage
For example if you want to remove the page: http://www.mysite.com/randomdirectory/pageshouldnotbelisted.html you will have to enter http:// www.mysite.com
Step 5. Now we have to verify ownership of the site using the meta tag verification method (you can use the other method if you wish to)
Copy the meta tag provided and paste it into your site's home page. It should go in the section, before the first section.
Step 6. Now let's go back to the Google webmaster tools interface and click on the Verify button
Step 7. If verification is successful, you are sent to the Dashboard page
Step 8. On the left navigation menu click on Site configuration > Crawler access
Step 9. Click on the Generate robots.txt tab
Step 10. Set the default crawler access to Allow all. The reason for this is because you still want most of your pages to appear on search results
Step 11. Specify additional rules using the drop-downs provided
Step 12. Copy the text generated on the Download your new robots.txt file box and paste it on a simple text editor like Notepad
Step 13. Save it as robot.txt
Step 14. Upload it to the root directory of your website, this is the same directory where homepage html file resides
Step 15. Now if you are securing the files that you don't want listed on the search results, then this is the last chance to do it. If you are not going to secure the files, then delete them.
Note: that delete them does not remove the files from the search result, as you might have noticed already and perhaps that is the reason why you are reading this post
Step 16. We are not at the step where we request Google to remove the URL from their listings. Go to the Remove URL tab (next to the Generate robots.txt tab, which is the tab we were just working on.
Step 17. Click on the New removal request button
Step 18. Enter the URL you would like to remove, this field is case-sensitive and for the removal to be successful the URL you enter must be a subpage within the site. In other words, you can only remove pages that have the homepage URL as a prefix. So if you want to remove the page http://www.mysite.com/test.php from Google listings, then you need only to enter test.html on this field
Step 19. Click continue
Step 20. Select a reason for your request
Step 21. Check the checkbox stating that the page returns a 404/410 or has been blocked by robots.txt or a noindex meta tag (we took care of this on Step 15)
Step 22. Click Submit Request
Step 23. You will now see a message at the top highlighting that your request has been added for removal. You can now go back to Step 17 if you have any more removal requests
Step 24. Wait for the request(s) to be process. You can come back Site configuration > Crawler access > Remove URL anytime to check on the status of you request
Step 25. Once your requests have been processed they will show as removed and a Reinclude button will appear next to them in case you change your mind and want them back on the search results (just in case you didn't delete the files)

Hope you find this information useful, and feel free to contact me if you require any assistance.

The history and evolution of email

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:37:00 +0000

Check out this cool info-graphic created by Focus on how email is used as a mean of communication. Some highlights:

2 billion emails are estimated to be sent each day
there are 1.3 billion users worldwide
the average person spends 2.8 minutes managing spam

How to make the most out your email marketing campaigns?

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Thu, 13 May 2010 06:33:00 +0000

Email marketing campaigns are a great tool to use as part of your customer retention efforts.

I receive quite a few emails from several different companies on a frequent basis and I'm always willing to check what deals they have to offer me. However, I get really frustrated when I open up an email and I can't read what's in it on my iPhone.

This post is a note to companies sending automated or non-automated email marketing campaigns that are not readable on mobile devices: Please upgrade your system so that it sends emails readable on mobile devices to avoid loosing customers and to increase the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts.

The number of mobile users is on the rise at an exponential rate and it is expected to reach 5.8 billion in 2013, according to mobiThinking. Unless you make changes to the formatting of your email campaigns on mobile devices, your customers will feel they are being spammed when they receive an email from your company and will eventually unsubscribe or flag you as spam.

Thus, perhaps if you haven't started doing it, check how the emails you are about to send look like on mobile devices before they get sent. If you find out or are already aware that are not readable on smart phones, spend the money to upgrade the system that sends them automatically or notify the person or company responsible to send these so that they can act upon immediately to improve the performance of your marketing efforts.

It doesn't have to be a fancy display, all that matters is that the text and links for conversion get displayed.

Install Windows 7 using Parallels on your Mac

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 09:23:00 +0000

Here is a link to a must read for anyone trying to figure out how easy is it to install Windows 7 as a virtual machine on Mac OS X using Parallels:

How to install Windows 7 in OS X using Parallels Desktop – a complete walk-through

There is no need for a partition and Bootcamp using the instructions above.

Note: If you are like me and stops reading instructions once you think you have it all figured out, I recommend you go through these steps until you reach the last one. You have to install Parallels on the Windows virtual machine so that the system can detect your Ethernet adapter (or at least that is what I had to do on my 2 year old Macbook Pro).

Google Analytics Qualified Individual in Vancouver

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 09:03:00 +0000

I just became a Google Analytics Qualified Individual. You can see my name listed on the Google Testing Center website. Go to bottom-right and click on the link that says 'Search for individuals who have passed a Google Test'.
I learned a lot from the Conversion University presentations and if you are a web analytics enthusiast I encourage you to learn more by going through these presentations. It is time well spent.

Why to invest on a web analyst for your site?

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:30:00 +0000

Web Analytics helps to put into context data that has been gathered from traffic generated on your site and on occasion combined with digital data from other systems such as CRMs. This data can help you ask the right questions that can lead you to the right course of action to improve your marketing campaings and business overall.

The right course of action might be enhancing the user experience by improving the site navigation or fixing bugs or glitches within your website, web application or online form. As well as, to focus on certain online campaigns and site content resources that can help with online advertising.

Where to find the Google Analytics Tracking Code?

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:48:00 +0000

Go to Analytics Settings
Click on the Edit link, to the right of appropriate profile
Click "Check Status", found on the top-right corner
The tracking code and instructions on how to add it will be displayed
Install the code snippet from the ga.js tab to take advantage of the latest features

If you are using urchin.js and would like to switch to ga.js, there is a Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC) Migration Guide you can follow.

And just in case you were wondering, you can have some pages using the new tracking code (ga.js) while the legacy code (urchin.js) can remain on other pages. But be aware that no single page should have both tracking code snippets as that may result in inaccurate data on your reports.

Broken Scent Trail

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:28:00 +0000

The Broken Scent Trail for the Web Analytics for Site Optimization course was an interesting assignment to work on.

While working on it I learned the importance of identifying personas and their scents to provide visitors with a great user experience which in return will lead to more conversions and satisfied customers.

The main idea behind it was to learn that it is of uttermost importance to identify your audience to optimize your website for their needs. So if you are selling something, make sure that you have a clear call to action to improve the conversion rate.

Some things to take into consideration:

What is the purpose of your website
How do you measure online conversions?
Is it clear to the visitors where to go or what to do next once they arrived to the landing page?

Site Optimization Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (laura) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:35:00 +0000

Here is a Site Optimization Strategy I worked on as an assignment for the Web Analytics for Site Optimization course at UBC.

As a web developer, I really enjoyed this course as it taught me about the potential that the field of analytics has to help us create better online experiences.