KPI List | Website Optimization Key Performance Indicators

Stickers From Data Liberation Farms - Data Liberation

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:37:00 +0000

Your data can now belong to you. Get it from Google if you so wish. At Data Liberation you can learn how to quickly and easily extract your data from any of Google's long list of products. Including Analytics, Email and Apps.

Also you can get a nice free sticker. Very Nice.

Stickers From Data Liberation Farms - Data Liberation

This is an extremely useful Google Tutorial.

Average Pageviews per Session KPI

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:41:00 +0000

DEFINITION:

Average pageviews per session is one of the most used key performance indicators in the study of web analytics. The pageview per session kpi is a quick indicator of website engagement. This key performance indicator is a ratio of the number of pageviews the average web visitor views per session. This a ratio and not a metric so it can be compared between segments, varying time frames and across multiple sites or sub-domains.

VARIABLES:

m=KPI

x=total number of pageviews

y=total number of sessions

FORMULAS:

m=(x/y)

m=PAGEVIEWS PER SESSION RATIO

NOTES & USES:

A quick measure of visitor website interaction
This ratio is heavily dependent on site scope
Lead Generation sites will have a low pageview per session ratio
Content or Brand sites will have a high pageview per session kpi
This is an excellent segment comparison KPI, where different traffic sources will have varying pageviews per session ratios
Pageviews per Session KPI is preferred to time on site metrics, because the pageviews per session ratio is based off of every pageview recording java script data recording
A high bounce rate will skew this ratio, indicating that those visitors who did stay will have higher than reported actual pageview per session kpi

EXAMPLE:

A website has 5,237 visitors during one month. They view a total of 46,798 pages during that same time period. These visitors constitute a total of 6,486 separate site visits.

m=KPI

x=46,798

y=6,486

m=(x/y)

m=46798/6486

m=7.2

CONCLUSION:

On average each site visitor views roughly 7 pages every time they visit the site. That means that visitors who return to the site and have more than one visit during the month will have seen more than 7 pages. This ratio should rarely be used by itself due to a low level of accuracy resulting from averaging visitor behavior. Please note that this kpi is directly affected by all those site visits where the visitor only viewed one page and did not click anywhere on site (also known as a bounce). These bounced visits record as a visitor session and account for one pageview each but skew the actual pageview per session for those visitors that were engaged. Hence a good way to look at this data is either for trending purposes or directional awareness.

This data and ratio can be made more actionable by refining the way the data is collected and qualified. Simply by only looking at the visits with two or more pageviews it is possible to refine and report on a more accurate pageviews per session key performance ratio.

Flash Navigational Component Functionality KPI Ratio

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Wed, 13 May 2009 23:28:00 +0000

DEFINITION:

If a flash animation/interactive site component is primarily employed for navigation and the custom Flash tags (pageTracker._trackPageview("/example-directory/page1.html");) are rendered among traditional pageviews, then these need to be tracked as part of a click-path ratio of Flash clicks to actual pageviews (Google Analytics - example, but this is also applicable to Coremetrics & SiteCatalyst).

VARIABLES:

m=KPI

f=total number of flash clicks

x=total number of pageviews

y=number of pageviews generated by ._trackPageview Flash Clicks

FORMULAS:

m=f/[f+(x-y)]

m=FLASH NAVIGATION METRIC

NOTES & USES:

Flash navigation use in reference to actual site-wide total pageviews
Metric approaching 1 indicates that Flash Navigational Component is heavily used for site-wide navigation
Metric approaching 0 indicates low or limited use of the Flash Navigational Component for site navigation

EXAMPLE:

An interactive flash navigational component is prominently featured on every page alongside a traditional href hyperlink navigation bar. The interactive flash navigational component has both navigational and descriptive/entertaining animation components. Every flash click is tracked as a generated ._trackPageview pageview (Google Analytics - example, but this is also applicable to Coremetrics & SiteCatalyst).

m=KPI

f=3800

x=10,525

y=8635

m=f/[f+(x-y)]

m=3800/[3800+(10525-8635)]

m=3800/[3800+1890]

m=3800/5690

=0.67

CONCLUSION:

More often than not, the flash navigational component is utilized for site-wide navigation but not exclusively. Thus, even though visitors click on the flash component to navigate the site, many of the pageviews during the reporting time range were generated through traditional hyperlink navigation. These types of KPI metrics are used to evaluate the overall usability and engaging properties of side-wide Flash Animations.

Formatting Spotlight Activity Tag for DART for Advertisers or DoubleClick DFA

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Sat, 09 May 2009 00:12:00 +0000

The DoubleClick DART for Advertisers (DFA) Spotlight Activity Tag is the primary conversion tracking methodology for both DART Display Ad and Paid Search Management. There are two types of Spotlight Activity Tags: Counter (which utilizes the counter type: standard, unique, per session) and Sales. Included are examples of both types of Spotlight Activity Tags in order to illuminate the differences between them. These will be dissected in order to highlight the similarities and differences between the two types of Activity Tags.

We recommend using the Counter Tag format for Lead Generation "Thank You" page tracking and the Sales Tag format on eCommerce receipt pages.

Spotlight Counter Activity Tag:

Spotlight Sales Activity Tag:

Anatomy of a Spotlight Activity Tag:

Elements shared by both Tag Types:

img src: This the typical HTML image tag. The src parameter identifies the URL where the image is located for the Spotlight Tag it is the tracking pixel which is a 1x1 GIF.

ad.co.doubleclick.net: This is the URL of the DART ad server.

co: This is a country code for the ad server tracking the conversion event associated with the Spotlight Tag. DART DFA employs the standard two-letter country codes denoted through the IOS (International Organization for Standardization). For those advertisers in the United States, a country code is not necessary and the server URL is going to be ad.doubleclick.net

activity: the final URL location parameter which specifies this type of tag as a Spotlight Activity Tag.

src=1234567: This is the advertiser to whom to attribute the conversion to. This value will always be your advertiser ID.

type=abcde123: This variable denotes the advertisers activity group for the particular Spotlight Tag. This has to be eight characters. Typically this is the first 5 letters of the activity group with an appended 3-digit random number.

cat=fghij456: This variable denotes the advertisers activity tag string for the particular Spotlight Tag. This has to be eight characters. Typically this is the first 5 letters of the activity name with an appended 3-digit random number.

u1=[friendlyname1];u2=[friendlyname2]: These are Key-values where any data can be passed back to DART. These custom variable have to fall with the brackets.

Here are the elements unique to sales activities:

qty=[Quantity]: This important eCom parameter is used to count sales activity.

* For counting transactions as a whole, regardless the number of items ordered then, the parameter is always qty=1.

* For counting individual items or units sold, then the parameter is always going to be qty=[Quantity], at this point the Quantity has to be dynamically inserting by the back end shopping cart receipt generating logic and is has to be coded by the advertisers IT.

cost=[Revenue]: Same as with Quantity the Revenue figure has to be dynamically inserted by the back end shopping cart receipt generating logic and is has to be coded by the advertisers IT. The Revenue figure is the sale amount once the order or purchase has been processed by the shopping cart and is to be found on the receipt or order confirmation.

ord=[orderID]: As with the previous two variables the Order ID has to be dynamically inserted by the back end shopping cart receipt generating logic and is has to be coded by the advertisers IT. Each order needs to have a trackable unique OrderID.

Flash Animation Interaction Engagement KPI Ratio

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:20:00 +0000

DEFINITION:

Flash animation documents execute interactive components within the same html page, hence there is a need to specifically tag and track measurable visitor engagement clicks. All four major Web Analytics software as a service vendors (Google Analytics, Omniture, Coremetrics & Yahoo Analytics) offer flash tracking solutions, where flash action element clicks will report as pageviews or events. Often times, a page with a highly engaging flash animation will have high bounce rates, this is due to visitors arriving on page, clicking around in the flash animation then leaving the page, causing a false bounce rate, due to actual on-site engagement. Thusly, flash based pageview tracking tags need to be called up when visitors click measurable components.

VARIABLES:

m=KPI

x=number of possible measurable actions

y=total triggered flash actions

n=number of visitor sessions

FORMULAS:

m=(nx)/y

m=FLASH ENGAGEMENT METRIC

NOTES & USES:

Close to 0 indicates very high flash animation engagement.
Metric of 1 indicates an ideal complete engagement.
Over 1 indicates underperforming flash animation document.
Often times there are specific flash component elements that are triggered repeatedly, hence throwing off the one-to-one correlation of the flash engagement metric. It is imperative to report on the ratios of specific flash action elements in relations to one another.

EXAMPLE:

A flash animation component on a site homepage has 10 possible clickable action elements, such as revolving specific data, short video insert, and product details. All these clickable action elements occur in the same flash .swf document and the visitor never leaves the homepage. Out of a total 150 visitor sessions, 75% clicked the flash animation, of those many made multiple measurable action element clicks.

m=KPI

x=10

y=378

n=150

m=(nx)/y

m=(150*10)/378

m=1500/378

m=3.97

CONCLUSION:

As the flash animation component gets clicked on as part of the regular navigation, not all visitors are clicking the animation and neither are all visitors clicking the animation on all the possible action elements. The higher the Flash Engagement Metric the lower the interaction. In an ideal situation where all the visitors are clicking all the possible action elements the Flash Engagement Metric would be 1 or a clean one-to-one correlation between visitors, sessions, and action element clicks. In the situation where this metrics is lower than 1 or approaching 0, then there is an exceptionally high user interaction where, visitors are clicking action elements repeatedly per session.

KPI for New vs. Returning Visitor Ratio

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:18:00 +0000

New vs. Returning Visitor Ratio

Depending on the purpose of the site this KPI range needs to be defined and closely monitored.

-New to Returning Visitor Ratio= {[(number of new visitors) divided by [(new visitors) plus (returning visitors)]}

-if the resulting coefficient is closer to 1 there is a higher ratio of new visitors
-if the resulting coefficient is closer to 0 there is a higher ratio of returning visitors.

Sites that are building a user base (content sites) need to have a higher ratio of returning visitors. Sites that focus on new consistent traffic need to have a higher New Visitor ratio.

Track PDF Downloads In Google Analytics

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:19:00 +0000

Form completion or submission is very basic in Google Analytics - the confirmation page should be an actual .html page with a name like /thank-you.html or something similar. This page is then set as a conversion goal in the Profile Setting Conversion Goal and Funnel account settings. PDF Downloads or any download can be tracked in a similar manner. Thus, even though there is no java script GATC (Google Analytics Tracking Code) on the target document, a synthetic page view is created via an on-click javascript command. Every time there is a click on the link or button that triggers a PDF download, javascript onClick command calls a pageview in Google Analytics, these pages can be viewed in the Content Report. In addition this pageview can also be set as a Goal for conversion tracking or segmented under an additional filtered profile.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS CODE FORMAT:

onClick javascript pageview call:

EXAMPLE:

The PlasticWater Zine website: http://www.plasticwater.us has a simple PDF download which is the only Conversion Goal on the site. This is tracked with the following custom javascript onClick command:

The resulting pageview is then set as the Conversion Goal.

Google Analytics Advanced Segment SEO Conversions

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 10:42:00 +0000

Google Analytics advanced segmentation is very quick and easy to use. Please note that once you create a custom advanced segment it an be applied to all accounts and profiles under your Google Analytics login. Advanced segments allow you to quickly remove all traffic data from a report that doesn't comply with the Segment Rules & Settings. A quick and very useful segment is to look at all SEO traffic that completed the Goal1 Conversion. Once created you can apply this segment to any report to see what that traffic looked like. For example what content did visitors consume - who completed Goal1 and came to the site off of SEO. Lastly, this advance segment can be used as a template to create further SEO or Goal based segmentation.

1. Once logged into Google Analytics and are viewing Reports, Click “Advanced Segments”
2. Click “Create new custom segment”
3. Click “Traffic Sources” to drop down options
4. Drag “Medium” over from Dimension to Selection Box
5. Set the “Condition” to “Matches exactly” and “Value” to “organic”
6. Click Add “and” statement to add segment component
7. Click “Goals” to drop down Metrics conversion parameter options
8. Scroll down to “Goal1 Completions” and drag over from Metrics to the Selection Box
9. Set the “Condition” to “Greater than” and “Value” to “0”
10. Name the Segment “SEO Goal 1 Conversion”
11. Click “Create Segment” to create the Custom Advanced Segment
12. Navigate to the Search Engine Report under Traffic Services and drop down Advanced Segments All Visits Selection
13. Unselect the default segment “All Visits” and select the newly created Custom Segment
14. The report data will now reflect the Custom Segment Parameter where only traffic that converted from Organic SEO traffic is displayed. Navigate to any Google Analytics report to see how this portion of traffic behaves, such as keywords, pages viewed, click-paths, etc.

Coremetrics Explore Segment Compare Report

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:39:00 +0000

Paid Search Landing Page Performance Segmentation

Use Coremetrics Explore for ad hoc data segmentation. Coremetrics Explore is an extremely versatile and powerful on the fly data segmentation web analytics tool, where the only limits are the number of monthly ad hoc reports alloted to your account. This extremely granular segmentation tool allows the analyst the ability to set all the paramters and intersecting data points.

Of the three Coremetrics Explore data segmentation report types the Segment Compare Report is the best choice for comparing self defined segments against one another for upto 5 metrics or KPIs. This is a very basic, useful & easy to create segment. For this tutorial KPI List will use Coremetrics Explore Segment Comapre Report for the analysis of SEM Paid Search Data in terms of landing page performance vs. more specifically PPC Traffic Website Entry.

Log into Coremetrics Explore
Select Build
Select Segment Compare Report: Build
Segment Category Dropdown: Select a Category if available or build a new segment catagory for this Ad Hoc Report we will create a category called "PPC Performance"
Click New under Available Segments
For time range use "Same Session" to analyze only those instances where the conversion event occurred during a direct click path from the time the user clicked the PPC Ad, arrived at the site and either converted or didn't within the same session/visit.
We are going to select "Cross Session" and select a Start and End date in order to analyze all those visitors who were cookied during the desired time range, looking at the broader effect of paid search traffic and landing page performance.
Enter a new Segment Category: PPC Performance
Name the Segment (use an easy to remember and very descriptive name): PPC Traffic to Homepage
Add Active Segmentation Query Criteria: 2 segment components PPC Traffic & Visit Entry Page equals Homepage
Select Marketing
Select Marketing Vendor
Click "Add Criteria"
IS: "google-ppc" for tagged Google Paid Search (use the vendor MMC tag see Coremetrics MMC Formatting)
Click the Plus Sign
IS: "yahoo-ppc" for tagged Yahoo Paid Search
Click Apply
This covers the Traffic Source Component of the Segment
Create a second Criteria for Entry Page
Select Content and Entry Page(s) then click Add Criteria
IS: "Homepage" use the cmCreatePageviewTag tag name (if unsure view page source - the page name is the first variable cmCreatePageviewTag ('page-name','content-category');
Click Apply
The first Segment is Compete, Click Save Segment to activate
Create the second segment in the same way, except for the second criteria select "NOT" IS: "Homepage"
Click Apply and Save Segment
Drag the newly created segments from Available Segments (make sure the segment category drop down is set to PPC Performance) to Drag and Drop Segments
Select Metrics for the segments just created (can select up to 5 metrics/KPIs)
For this analysis drag and drop: Bounce Rate, Conversion Rate, Average Session Length, Abandonment Rate, Page Views / Session
Select Dates & Data Set* Tab
For the Report Frequency use the same date ranges as the Segment Ranges and Select "One-Time (Overall)" Report Frequency
For Data Set Use Run Against Sample Data Set if your PPC Campaign is very large or Run Against All Data if your PPC Campaign is not very large (warning: your account has a set / limited number of reports per month, typically you have more Sample Data Set Reports than Run Against All Data Reports)
Click Name & Distribution* Tab
Name the Report
Select the Report Category, use PPC Performance same as the with the segments
Fill in the Comments section even though this is optional it comes in handy to quickly remind yourself or other account user what the Ad Hoc Report covers.
Choose Distribution Method this is also Optional, you can either recieve the report via email or receive an email notification letting you know the report is ready to view online once it has finished processing.
On average depending on the size of you data and how busy Coremetrics' data warehouse is, please allow 15 minutes to a few hours to be on the safe side, but overall this is a very fast and accurate report.
Click Submit and the Ad Hoc Report is ready to be processed.

Coremetrics URL Query Strings MMC Tags for Marketing Programs Tracking Code

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:07:00 +0000

Coremetrics® is one of the most powerful and easy to configure Enterprise Level Web Analytics Solutions in today's marketplace. One of the key features that set's this web analytics tool apart from its closest competitor Omniture®, is the ease of use in creating and Tracking Marketing Campaigns. Similar to the use of UTM tags in Google Analytics. Coremetrics® uses MMC Parameters. These URL Query Strings quickly and easily triage your incoming click based traffic in the predetermined campaign, which is all specified by the way the URL Query string is structured and formatted. Incoming traffic data is reported under the Marketing Programs Report. There is a maximum of 4 variables or campaign meta-data that can be captured. Coremetrics® is pre-configured to capture Vendor, Category, Placement and Item. But you can use these parameters how-ever you wish, just know that your data is will be found under that corresponding Marketing Program attribute. Generating Tracking Code is very simple and easy. This can either be done by hand coding the mmc parameters into each link leading back to your site or supplying the URL Query strings to your Display media Vendor such as Atlas, Dart, Query Strings should be appended to all Paid Search or PPC ads for Yahoo! Search Marketing or Google AdWords or for all Affiliate Marketing like Link Share or Commission Junction.

FORMATTING URL QUERY STRING TRACKING CODE
There are two ways of formatting Coremetrics Marketing Programs Tracking Code. The 4 parameter format (old) or the 1 parameter format (new).
- Use a question mark at the very end of your URL destination, whether that is the top level domain or the targeted landing page. Use "?" to designate that the URL Query string is starting.
- Always separate Parameters by using an ampersand "&"
- If you have to use other Query String Parameters in conjunction with Coremetrics Marketing Programs Tracking Codes, such as a promo code or page specific code, make sure that the Coremetrics Tracking Codes are placed last.

4 PARAMETER FORMAT
cm_ven=Vendor
cm_cat=Category
cm_pla=Placement
cm_ite=Item

Paid Search
http://www.domain.com?cm_ven=SEM&cm_cat=Google&cm_pla=AdGroup&cm_ite=Keyword
http://www.domain.com/landing-page.html?cm_ven=SEM&cm_cat=Yahoo&cm_pla=AdGroup&cm_ite=Keyword

Banner Ad
http://www.domain.com?cm_ven=Display&cm_cat=ValueClick&cm_pla=Messaging&cm_ite=728x90-Leaderboard-Creative-One

Affiliate Link
http://www.domain.com?cm_ven=Affiliate&cm_cat=LinkShare&cm_pla=Affiliate-Website&cm_ite=Product-Offer

1 PARAMETER FORMAT (variables are separate by a dash underscore dash "-_-")
cm_mmc=Vendor-_-Category-_-Placement-_-Item

Paid Search
http://www.domain.com?cm_mmc=SEM-_-Google-_-AdGroup-_-Keyword
http://www.domain.com/landing-page.html?cm_mmc=SEM-_-Yahoo-_-AdGroup-_-Keyword

Banner Ad
http://www.domain.com?cm_mmc=Display-_-ValueClick-_-Messaging-_-728x90-Leaderboard-Creative-One

Affiliate Link
http://www.domain.com?cm_mmc=Affiliate-_-LinkShare-_-Affiliate-Website-_-Product-Offer

ATTENTION TO DETAIL
There are several illegal characters that are not to be when creating URL Query String Parameters. Remember to never use a "space" to separate words or data points within a parameter, use a dash "-" instead, do not use an underscore "_". If a special character has to be coded with the Coremetrics Query String Tracking Code please use the appropriate html designated URL Query String Parameter Code.

For a Percent "%" Use "%25"
For a Space " " Use "%20"
For a Open Bracket "{" Use "%7b"
For a Closed Bracket "}" Use "%7d"
For a Pipe "|" Use "%7c"
For a Backslash "\" Use "%5c"
For a Carrot "^" Use "%5e"
For a Open Bracket "[" Use "%5b"
For a Closed Bracket "]" Use "%5d"
For a Accent "`" Use "%60"
For a Less Than "<" Use "%3c" For a Greater Than ">" Use "%3e"
For a Number Sign "#" Use "%23"
For a Semi-colon ";" Use "%3b"
For a Forward slash "/" Use "%2f"
For a Question Mark "?" Use "%3f"
For a Colon ":" Use "%3a"
For a At "@" Use "%40"
For a Equals "=" Use "%3d"
For a Ampersand "&" Use "%26"
For a Plus "+" Use "%2b"
For a Single Quote "'" Use "%22"

eCommerce KPI to Track ROI and Conversion Rates

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:36:00 +0000

There are 10 mandatory KPIs used to track performance, return on investment and conversion rates for ecommerce websites. Known as eCommerce KPI – these ratios and percentages are used in addition to traditional conversion rates and return on investment calculations. These KPI need to be trended over time ideally month after month, but can be as granular as weekly measurements. Once there is a year’s worth of data, seasonal fluctuations will become apparent, as well as site performance measurement indicators. When analyzing performance and overall ecommerce health, these KPI need to be compared against the same time last year. This takes seasonality out of the equation and factors for sustainability.

AVERAGE ORDER VALUE (AOV) = total revenue divided by orders

BUYING SESSIONS = visitor sessions with a purchase divided by total sessions

NEW VS RETURNING VISITOR % = new visitors divided by all unique visitors

RATIO NEW to RETURNING VISITORS = new visitors divided by returning visitors

CUSTOMER RETENTION RATE = previous unique buyers divided by previous unique visitors

ORDER CONVERSION RATE = orders divided by visitors

BUYER CONVERSION RATE = buyers divided by visitors

SHOPPING CART ABANDONMENT RATE = percent of sessions where item was added to cart but the order was not completed

ORDERS PER SESSION = orders divided by sessions

ITEMS PER ORDER = items divided by orders

The ratios and measurements for these KPI vary from site to site, and are highly dependent on the industry and online business model. The ideal way to set these markers, is to either select a time range where the site was performing at optimal capacity, measure the ecommerce KPI and use the ratios as targets. A secondary option is to back into these ecommerce KPI ratios. This can be achieved by setting the ideal or needed web revenue, identify all the segments that make up traffic (such as direct load, search engines, email marketing, etc), identify the conversion rates for each traffic segment, project the volume of traffic it would take to generate the desired revenue based off of known conversion rates, and then work out each Targeted eCommerce KPI based on this ideal traffic projection. When making projections, it is better to sandbag results, rather than being overtly optimistic. Set realistic goals, that can then be matched under known conversion rates. Thus the focus shifts to increasing traffic for the known segments, while potentially adding new tactics to the online marketing mix.

MAIN TAKEAWAY: eCommerce KPI are goals/markers for optimal revenue generating website traffic measurement.

eVar SiteCatalyst Custom Conversion s.eVar1 setup and configuration

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:38:00 +0000

When using Omniture SiteCatalyst™ to capture custom traffic data the eVar is one of the most effective and easy to use variables. This field in the SiteCatalyst™ tracking code needs to be set once a prospect has completed a form, entered some data into the website or performed some conversion event that has some specific attributes.

Example: eVar1 to capture Lead State

eVars are custom commerce variables used to capture & track user data
only similarity to s.props is that they pass custom data
used to segment visitors on how they complete success events
coded as s.eVar1="your-data";
can have upto 50 custom eVars in a Omniture SiteCatalyst™ implementation
captured data is visible in Omniture SiteCatalyst™ Report Suite under Conversions then Custom eVars 1-10 etc depending on how many eVars are utilized

Set-up: Report Suite Manager -> Edit Settings -> Conversions -> Conversion Variables -> Add New eVar

Log into Omniture SiteCatalyst™ Admin Console and select Report Suites.

Select the appropriate Report Suite, then click on Edit Settings, then on Conversion, then select Conversion Variables.

If there are no current eVars available select Add New eVar.

eVars are assigned in the order they are created. Need to set the user friendly name (which will later be used as the report name in SiteCatalyst™), set the Allocation or how the data will be captured, set when the cookie will expire, set the type of data (numer, text etc), and set the Relation Status.
For this example we are using Lead State for eVar1 to capture the prospects State upon form completion.

Omniture SiteCatalyst™ implementation can have upto 50 eVars.
The captured data can be viewed in the Omniture SiteCatalyst™ report suite under Custom Conversion, eVars are broken down in sets of ten depending on how many are created.

The code on page should look similar to the following. With your own data populated in the appropriated eVar upon form completion or at any time that user data can be captured on infered.

s.pageName="Homepage"

s.server="The-big-server"

s.channel="Home"

s.pageType=""

s.prop1="highest-level"

s.prop2="sitemagnify"

s.prop3="lead"

s.prop4="landing-page-experts"

s.prop5="webanalytics"

/* Conversion Variables */

s.campaign=""

s.events="event4"

s.products="KPI-package"

s.purchaseID="888-528-8688"

s.eVar1="Munich"

s.eVar2="KPI"

s.eVar3="Lead-gen"

s.eVar4="Omniture"

s.eVar5="Web-analytics"

How to create a htaccess file - simple URL cannonicalization

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:37:00 +0000

The htaccess file provides directions to the web servers on how to serve URL addresses based on rules you define. This file can only work on Apache Servers other options are available for NT Servers. The file needs to be called .htaccess - please note the period prior to the name. This name is both the extension and the file name itself. This file can only be coded in ASCII mode and can be done in any Text File Editor.

Once the .htaccess file is coded - the file needs to be saved in the top level root directory along with the main index homepage top level domain URL address. That is it. Very simple. Please review the perfect htaccess file.

301 htaccess 404 custom redirect example: Complete .htaccess URL Cannonicalization template

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:46:00 +0000

The perfect 301 htaccess 404 redirect template. This custom .htaccess file will re-direct domain.com to www.domain.com it will also create a custom 404 error page it will create a redirect for domain.com/index.html to www.domain.com and will create custom redirects for old pages to new pages. Create a file called .htaccess and paste in the code bellow. This all encompassing .htaccess file will:

Redirecting domain.com to www.domain.com will conform to website Cannonicalization Standards by focusing all traffic to a single website domain URL, by having both forms of a website domain URL available you are essentially splitting traffic in the SERPs between them.
Redirecting the homepage /index.html back to the top level website domain URL will also aid with Cannonicalization by focusing both types of homepage backlinks to the same URL.
A custom 404 Error page will help with lowering the website bounce rate by salvaging broken backlink traffic and refocusing it to a targeted lost traffic landing page (can use either the homepage or a custom 404 page, but the latter is preferred for targeted traffic management).
Using 301 Redirects help preserve backlink juice off of old links that have changed to a new page but you do not want loose traffic.

Please paste this code into your .htaccess file:

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [L,R=301]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /([^/]+/)*index\.html\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^(([^/]+/)*)index\.html$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
ErrorDocument 404 http://www.domain.com/custom-error-page.html
Redirect 301 /oldpage1.html http://www.domain.com/newpage1.html
Redirect 301 /oldpage2.html http://www.domain.com/newpage2.html
Redirect 301 /oldpage3.html http://www.domain.com/newpage3.html
Redirect 301 /oldpage4.html http://www.domain.com/newpage4.html
Redirect 301 /oldpage5.html http://www.domain.com/newpage5.html
Redirect 301 /oldpage6.html http://www.domain.com/newpage6.html
Redirect 301 /oldpage7.html http://www.domain.com/newpage7.html
Redirect 301 /oldpage8.html http://www.domain.com/newpage8.html
Redirect 301 /oldpage9.html http://www.domain.com/newpage9.html

Entrance Page KPI - Ratio of Top Entrances on Site & Percent of Page Sessions Entries

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:56:00 +0000

DEFINITION:

Entrance page ratios are used to gage and quickly identify the location on your site where most of your visitors enter. Use this metric to identify the places on your website other than the homepage where visitors enter.

VARIABLES:

m=KPI

x=number of entries to that page

y=total number of sessions

FORMULAS:

m=(x/y)(100)

m=% OF PAGE SESSION ENTRIES

NOTES & USES:

Can the pages through which the majority of traffic is entering the site.
For a landing page identify the search engine terms that match the page goals and purpose - to maximize conversions and navigation.
For index page or homepage identify referral vs. direct load traffic and investigate how search fits into established traffic sources.
Due to search engine referrals every page is now a homepage or entry point into the site - look at the top 10 entry pages and match up the source of traffic to the goal of the page - in order to identify the effectiveness of the page at appropriately matching content to traffic source.
For sites that are a continuation of off-line business and are the equivalent of an on-line business card the index or Homepage will have the highest percentage of site entries.
Match up your PPC or Paid Search landing pages in terms of site entries against other entry pages - compare the volume and ratio of site entries from PPC to these targeted landing pages in relation to other non-targeted pages on your site and their percentage of site entries.
If the pages with the highest percentage of site entries are geared toward SEO or Natural Search traffic - then identify that those pages appropriately match up the page content to the search terms leading the inflow of traffic to those pages.
Page entry should be proportional to campaign spend and goals in terms of overall traffic - compare site entry and traffic to various targeted landing pages by campaign type and source.

EXAMPLES:

Your "About Us" page has 23,141 entries. The site overall had 78,734 visitor sessions.

m=KPI

x=23,141

y=78,734

m=% of SESSION PAGE ENTRIES

m=(23,141 / 78,734)(100)

m=29%

CONCLUSION:

The "About Us" page accounted for 29% of all site entries. Investigate further and review the consistency of that 29% of traffic. You might find that the majority of that traffic is coming from Search Engines. Digging further you realize that of that Search Engine traffic the vast majority is from Keyword combinations that revolve around your company name - this indicates some real world event (off-line or on-line) that increased the demand of searches or an awareness increase on your company name.

IndexTools Preview offered Free by Yahoo!

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:55:00 +0000

Yahoo! will change the web analytics industry and the entire web metrics landscape through their acquisition of IndexTools. Dennis Mortensen (COO of IndextTools) is owed the highest level of admiration and praise for championing Web Analytics insight rather than mere reporting as is often the case with Google Analytics. IndexTools is a former enterprise level tool which was incredibly affordable yet exponentially easier to implement than SiteCatalyst. It has just been announced by Yahoo! that IndexTools will be made available for FREE this fall. Following this autumn release the world of web analytics will become slightly more democratized. Imagine competing on this level. Here is a preview of what you can expect. As Dennis said, IndexTools Yahoo! has 80% of Omniture's capabilities with 0% of the cost. Enjoy.

Google Analytics Client Access Account Set-up

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Sat, 10 May 2008 09:05:00 +0000

This is a brief tutorial on quickly creating and setting up a Google Analytics User Account.

Once you tagged your client's website with Google Analytics and are collecting data, you want to grant access to your clients or office staff to view web traffic data. Granting access to a user to view web analytics in Google Analytics is a fairly simple process. The main specification to keep in mind is granting access to viewing data but not have administrative rights (so they cannot change or delete settings or view other client's data). Set-up should only take 5 minutes and is a simple 5 step process.

Step 1.
Log into your Google Analytics account and select the client specific account to which you wish to add a user account. Select Analytics Settings and click on User Manager.

Step 2.
On the Existing Access Bar click on the + Add User link.

Step 3.
In the Create New User For Access window add the user's email address, their last name, their first name and set the Access Type to View Reports Only.

Step 4.
Select the Available Website Profile and click Add to the Selected Website Profile.

Step 5.
Click Finish and you are done, the user can now use their gmail account to log into Google Analytics and they will see all the website profiles that you have given them access to.

Exit Page KPI - Top Exit Pages on Site & Exit Page Ratios

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:00:00 +0000

DEFINITION:

Exit page ratios are used to gage and quickly identify the pages on your site that were the last pages viewed by a visitor in a sessions. Use this metric to identify the most frequent point of exit off of your website.

VARIABLES:

m=KPI

x=number of exits from that page

n=number of pageviews for that page

y=total number of exits site wide

FORMULAS:

m=(x/y)(100)

m=EXIT PAGE %

m=(x/n)(100)

m=PAGE TRAFFIC EXIT RATE %

NOTES & USES:

Use the EXIT PAGE % KPI to calculate the percentage of all site exits a particular page accounts for.
Use the PAGE TRAFFIC EXIT RATE % KPI to calculate the percentage of traffic leaking off of a particular page. Establish a site-wide page traffic-loss average then examine all pages that fall above that average.
The PAGE TRAFFIC EXIT RATE % is an excellent KPI to measure if the number of exits off of a page is good or bad. This KPI will pivot the particular page in question against its own volume of traffic. For example if a Page accounts for 35% of all site exits (it might seem high) but within the framework of traffic to that page it only accounts for 15% of all traffic which saw the page in question. Please view example below.
If traffic is exiting or leaving the site at a desired location then that page will have a high % of exits.
Do not confuse this metric with Bounce Rate (instance where the visitor came to the site, only viewed one page and did not click on any link, but rather left).
All sessions must end with an exit. The location of that exit is what is important. If exits are occurring on a page that is part of a conversion funnel then that page needs to be inspected, tested & optimized.
The total number of exits will be lower than the total number of visits or session, because some session end when the visitor closes their browser hence no exit page or the session simply times-out when the visitor left the browser open while viewing the site for over 30 minutes without navigating.

EXAMPLES:

Your Contact Us page has 245,000 pageviews and 163,000 exits. The site overall had 958,000 exits and the average PAGE TRAFFIC EXIT RATE was 48%

m=KPI

x=163,000

n=245,000

y=958,000

m=EXIT PAGE %

m=(163,000/958,000)(100)

m=17%

m=PAGE TRAFFIC EXIT RATE %

m=(163,000/245,000)(100)

m=67%

CONCLUSION:

The Contact Us page accounts for 17% of all site exits but of traffic that makes it to the Contact Us page 67% of it leaves the site. As the site average is 48% the 67% PAGE TRAFFIC EXIT RATE KPI rating for the Contact Us page indicates that there is a problem with the page and testing & optimization is required.

Last note: the Site Average PAGE TRAFFIC EXIT RATE is an average of all PAGE TRAFFIC EXIT RATES.

End of the Month PPC Spend: This month eat your competitor's lunch

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:15:00 +0000

Sponsored search campaigns and accounts revolve around allocated monthly spending limits or ceilings. Thus, as the month winds down there is room to compete against the industry leaders for their particular targeted keywords. As campaigns shut off for a few days at the end of the month as PPC budgets are met those who haven't blown their entire budget or have special end on the month allocated funds can raise their minimum bids in order to take advantage of the void in sponsored search. This month be ready to increase your ROI on the last three days. For an extra lift try the Cheeseburger Model. Have a good lunch!

SEO Friendly Domain Transfer for Web 2.0

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 06:28:00 +0000

a. Move only part of your site to the new domain as to avoid duplicate
content and competing URLs - not the homepage but try some not as
often travelled sub-directories. Do all the testing with these.
b. Use a 301 hard re-direct in the htaccess off of your old domain
that you are transferring over.
c. If new pages and directories are being used that do not match your
old structure, hierarchy and layout - then use your judgement and map
them to the closest page or concept available - do not just waste
traffic and send them to a 404 error page.
d. Verify that all internal absolute links are pointing to the new domain.
e. Register the new domain with Google's Webmaster Tools.
f. Submit a new sitemap to all the search engines.
g. Review crawl errors for both the old and new domains using Webmaster Tools.
h. Retain control of the old domain for at least a year to ensure no
lost traffic while all new traffic gets redirected. You can hold on to
it indefinitely if the monthly reg fee is not an issue.
i. Attempt to contact your top 100 referrers and have the backlinked
domain changed to the new domain.

In order to be found easily online there are 5 basic principles to employ in creating a quality web space.

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:03:00 +0000

The top kpi list for web developers who measure their visitor success rates.

Your web site must conform to the best practices recognized by search engines like Google and Yahoo as well as your search audience. Part of this requires a very clean and simple website, easy to navigate that offers great information to a human viewer.

Do a thorough search of all the keywords that pertain to your particular market. Looking at search word volumes and all of your immediate competitors sites, this will help to identify the right set of words for your site to focus on. Sometimes the best yielding key wrords are longtail (3 or more words), like "kpi+website optimization"
You must employ code on your website which makes it dynamic while making the site a much smaller file for the web to handle (optimal 1-5 Megs) By using CSS to code your site you achieve a faster load on a computer screen and also glean hundreds of lines of code from your site.
Distribute the most strategic keywords you are vying for in weighted places Placed in your web site's code it will increase relevancy, making it easier for a computer to serve up your site to a targeted audience.
Work with your copy to implement the proper content and utilize increased keyword placement on your website without sounding redundant to your customer or over doing it in the eyes of the search engines.
Submit your website to the 5 major search engines with the proper sitemaps, robots.txt, canonicalization, and redirects that are required for a guaranteed quick upload.

By programming your website with the best practices SEO experts employ today, you may be able to achieve stunning first page search results in many business sectors within months of turning the lights on.

Monthly Reporting Vs. Web Analytics

sitemagnify@gmail.com (KPI LIST) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 06:01:00 +0000

Monthly reporting needs to be as automated and streamlined as much as possible. Whichever metrics or web analytics reporting software is employed, the data capture/retrieval process needs to be standardized and simplified. A tool with automated data pulls such as HBX or Omniture (any tool with a data retrieval api for that matter) is most efficient. Once a report builder has been created - subsequent reports become automated. In conjunction with top reported metrics - KPIs are utilized to quickly track site performance within the predetermined metric ranges. These ranges are defined in order to maximize performance and compare rates between varying time frames. In addition as the web landscape changes these KPI benchmarks need to change and adapt to the traffic performance needs.

If you aren't doing testing, you aren't doing analytics.

Analysis is the explaining of "why" in traffic patterns. Web traffic reporting is the collecting & presenting of clickstream data, while web analysis focuses on delivering actionable insight. Reporting is the after product of tools such as Google Analytics, while analysis centers on action & decision making based on trends and reported metrics. Web analysis insight is derived from proactively testing website components against observed results and leveraging past outcomes to predict or direct best practices.

REPORTING
-Reporting is for taking a quick glance to check where site traffic is at.
-Automate using Dashboards & Auto Email Reports (checking the usual top 10 pages and KPIs)
-Use KPIs to gauge traffic/performance and alert to positive/peak performance or negative/under performance.
-Use reporting to monetize on-site activity in order to calculate Return On Investment.

ANALYSIS
-Analysis is the answering of questions posed by site activity
-Identify what is working in order to emulate success
-Identify why something is not working
-Format & specify KPIs in order to monitor website goal specific markers
-Identify all aspects of a metric or site component (make a list - assign goal or work against benchmark - postulate what would increase performance/output)
-Once identified figure out why it isn't working.
example: Campaign (Banner, PPC or Affiliate) not yielding results
(check all aspects of campaign - identify the variable at blame - make a positive change - observe change/measure and compare against benchmark)
-Constantly measure all key aspects & identify the weakest contributing factor - work on improving performance
-Compare the factors or campaigns against one another identify top return per work effort and price then identify the factors in the resulting coefficient and work on improving them.