You’re almost certainly running Google Analytics on your website. But have you ever stopped to question why? Most likely it’s down to one of the following: Because it’s free. If so then you might want to question the wisdom of choosing a solution that monitors your website, analyses your online efforts and essentially directs and evaluates all of your digital … Read More
How To Win Customers and Influence Visitors
Every page on your website has the potential to impress or repulse, so why has it become acceptable to only optimise the home page, main page and landing pages? Broadly speaking, every page performs one or more of the following functions: – To inform. – To impress. – To persuade. – To compel. Pages that inform. Passively sharing information is … Read More
Mobile is here and you’re not ready
It’s easy to forget that the PC in your pocket is a mobile phone. It’s easy to forget that it’s even a phone. I rarely use the torch/flashlight app, but it still gets used more than the phone functionality of my device. The figures for mobile web usage are incredible: 56% of American adults are now smartphone owners. Amazon, Wikipedia, and … Read More
How Google Analytics can hurt you
The sampling in your Google Analytics account can be horribly inaccurate, and may dramatically skew the data that you rely on. Does that get your attention? What is data sampling? As defined by Google: “Sampling in Google Analytics (GA) or in any web-analytics software refers to the practise of selecting a subset of data from your website traffic and reporting … Read More
Decrapifying SEO trends in Google Analytics
When it comes to understanding how your website is performing from an SEO perspective, Google Analytics is an excellent quick and dirty tool. It’s also all too often used incorrectly. Important SEO analytics tip #1: Trends are more important than volumes. And they’re easier to spot. Important SEO analytics tip #2: Short term fluctuations don’t matter. I can’t tell … Read More
Misinterpreting Meaningless Metrics Makes Mighty Mistakes
Google Analytics makes it easy to make bad decisions. Really bad decisions. There’s nothing wrong with Analytics as such, aside from some poor design decisions. But it’s a power tool. But unlike many power tools, it doesn’t come with a bright warning sticker, and there are no gleaming blades and loud noises to tap into our common sense and scare … Read More
The dark is getting darker
You probably already know that Google aren’t reporting all your organic keywords, but the problem may be more serious than you realise. The background in brief: In October 2011 Google announced that they would no longer be reporting on the organic keywords used by anyone logged into Google. In other words if someone is logged into Gmail (for example) and … Read More
How to measure the trend in “not provided” data
I’ve spoken to a number of people who found the There’s a war on data post a little worrying, and in particular wanted to know how to how many of their organic visits are being recorded as “not provided”, and how to see the rate of increase in this trend. It’s very simple. Go into your Analytics account, then choose Traffic … Read More
There’s a war on data – and we’re all going to lose
Your website’s data isn’t abstract, academic or a goal in itself. It’s a means of understanding your visitors – where they come from, what they’re looking for, what they do once they arrive and more. If you’re against the concept of analytics, you’re effectively against understanding how people interact with your website and your business. Which is why many businesses … Read More
Still ignoring your mobile users? So are we.
I just looked in the Google Analytics accounts of 25 different companies, to see how many visitors are using a mobile device. The figures ranged from 0.5% to 10.3%, with an average of 4.9%. Most companies, ourselves included, choose to ignore the problem.