Omar Kattan

Archive for the ‘Site Side Analytics’ Category

Google has been experimenting with AJAX search results meaning that referal strings from Google will no longer show the keywords typed by a user to find a website. What does this mean for Analytics programmes such as Omniuture, WebTrends et al?

If Google’s experiment becomes reality, Analytics programms mentioned above will no longer be able to provide accurate and/or insightful data to users. 

Why would Google introduce AJAX results?  Three reasons..

1. Better user experience.  AJAX technology allows users to load pages without clicking on a link or refreshing a page. This means that Google users will now be able to view a website without actually visiting it. 

2. If Google manages to maintain users on its site, they are more likely to click on sponsored ads meaning more dosh in G’s pockets.

3. If traditional analytics packages such as Omniture or WebTrends are no longer able to provide accurate data to users, these users will most likely migrate to Google Analytics for this data (unless Google provides an API foir these companies to use)

It is not known whether or not Google will launch AJAX search results and given webmasters’ fury about this news, who knows if they will ever, but it is defenitely one to watch…

Google Webmaster Tools is a free service provided by Google which allows webmasters to have an insider’s view on how Google views a website.   Google Webmaster Tools also provides webmasters with a commnication channel with Google to provide them with info such as reporting spam in the Google index, reporting paid links (eg by competitiors ) and most crucially,  submitting a site reconsideration request  (if your site has been penalised by Google!)

Setting up a Google webmaster tools account is very easy, follow these simple steps: 

• Go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

• If you don’t have a Google account, sign up for one, if you do, login

• In the dashboard, add your site’s URL

• Next, verify your site. You can do this by uploading an empty HTML file (name of file provided by Google),  you need to upload the file to the root of your site (where the home index page lies). Another way to verify your site with Google is by adding a meta tag into your site’s homepage (tag provided by Google). 

• Once you’ve uploaded the verification file, go back to Google and click “Verify”

Using the Data provided by Google Webmaster Tools

Now that you’re recieving this valuable data, you will need to analyse it and use it to improve your site’s performance in Google’s search index.  Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Tell Google about your XML file.  This will allow Google to find all the pages within your site.  If you don’t know how to create an xml file, Google provides tutorial as well as software suggestions for XML file creation.

• Setup Robots.txt. Go to Tools (left hand nav) and analyse your robots.txt file.  If you don’t have one, you can create an empty one by opening up an empty notepad page and saving it as “robots.txt” and then upload it to the root of your site (where home index lies).  Google allows you to test various instructions in your robots.txt.

• Analyse your meta data.  Go to “Diagnostics” >> “Content Analysis” and check for duplicate title and meta descriptions tags.  Also check for long and short tags.

• In the same section, check to see if Google had problems crawling your site (web/mobile crawl).

• Under “Tools” you can remove URLs from the Google index as well as enhance your custom 404 (page not found) code.

Other valuable data in Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster tools provides you with lots of valuable data and insights within the interface includes:

• Top keywords on your site

• Top linked pages (internal and external)

• Sitelinks (If your site has “site links, the expanded listing in Google results) you are able to control what pages show up by removing the ones your don’t want appearing.

• Top search queries (by impression and click through rate)

• Web Crawl stats

• RSS feed subscriber stats (you need to a have a Feedburner account for this to work)

That’s about it folks.  Its worth noting that both Yahoo ad MSN also offer similar services for webmasters.  Let me know if you have any questions…

Google Analytics is by far the most robust free site side analytics program out there.  Now owned by Google, Google Analytics started out its life as a small analytics company called Urchin.

Google Analytics is used by millions of sites (hobby as well as ecommerce) to measure the amount and quality of traffic to a website. 

Moreover, if configured properly, Google Analytics can also measure predefined KPIs and Goals such as purchases, downloads, subscriptions, thereby showing you which keywords convert to business.

Here are a few Google Analytics tips that I’ve gathered to help you get the most out of the package:

1. Use the filter at the bottom of the keywords list to include and exclude certain keywords.  For instance, you can exclude your own brand name thereby allowing you to see which generic keywords are driving traffic to your site.

2. Use the compare two dates/metrics at the top to be able to see trends across the same variable on two different dates.

3. Exclude your IP address so that your figures are not skewed

4. Configure site search measurement  in order to get valuable data on how users  search  within your site. 

5. Under “Content” use site overlay to see what links on you site are most popular.  This will give you a better idea of what content on your site is appealing to your users and  gives you the confidence to remove or  place “Nofollows” on non popular links.

The above are a few tips for using Google Analytics.  There are many more fantastic features including the ability to export and email reports as well as integrate with Adwords in order to measure the performance of your paid ads.

In a nutshell, if you haven’t used Google Analytics yet, you’re completely missing out on a fantastic free Analytics resource. 

Do you know what’s your website’s bounce rate? Do you know what bounce rate is?  If you don’t then you should learn what bounce rate is as soon as possible and this is the best place to start.

Let me begin by giving you a quick explanation of what bounce rate is. 

Bounce rate is defined as the number of web site visitors who visit only a single page of your site per session divided by the total number of website visitors.

Reasons for a high bounce rate could include:

1. Your page doesn’t load fast enough so visitors click the back button on their browser.

2. They don’t like what they see so they click the back button on their browser.

3. They feel that your site’s navigation is too confusing so they (yup, you guessed it) click the back button on their browser.

In all the above cases, your visitors were lost before they even gave you a chance to present to them your information/product/service or whatever else they were searching for and you didn’t provide.

Google Analytics (previously Urchin) is a web analytics tool that provides you with many statistics about your website including the dreaded bounce rate. 

With a simple piece of code provided by Google you’ll be able to monitor many aspects of your site’s statistics and you’d be in a better position to optimise your site to reduce (among other things) the bounce rate of your visitors.

Read more about bounce rate at the Official Google Analytics Blog.