Lately I’ve seen SEM and Web Analytics grow even closer together with WebTrends Inc. purchasing SEO firm ClickShift and WebSideStory partnering with SEMDirector.

So it was a perfect time for Avenue A | Razorfish to release a report tying those same 2 concepts together titled “Actionable Analytics”

This report demystifies the world of web analytics by answering 14 questions every marketer should ask to apply analytics for better business results. We provide several break-through ideas in the report, such as how to use analytics to find the right mix of advertising dollars for direct reponse and brand marketing campaigns.

Download a free version of the study here.

Yesterday Web Analytics giant, WebTrends Inc. announced the purchase of online marketing company ClickShift. This move should be very beneficial for WebTrends because they will be able to leverage ClickShift’s expertise in online marketing. WebTrends will also be able to offer products and services which are part of a total online marketing solution. I find it very interesting that this move is so close to WebSideStory’s partnership with SEMDirector. I wonder if Omniture will follow suit.

“As WebTrends evaluated its strategic options to offer our customers a leading online marketing optimization solution, it quickly became clear that marketers have many unmet needs in this area,” said Greg Drew, CEO and president, WebTrends. “With ClickShift, we’ve found a perfect blend of deep online advertising expertise and innovative technology that solves fundamental challenges facing marketers. We’re extremely pleased to welcome such a talented team to the WebTrends family.”

According to Information Week MySpace shut down hundreds of profiles over the weekend that were infected by a worm that directed victims to a phishing site.

People logged into MySpace could have their profiles infected by simply visiting an infected profile. The malicious code was able to find visitors’ profiles through cookies in the victims’ browsers, said Dan Hubbard, VP for security research at Websense. Besides changing links, the worm also embedded the infected video in victims’ profiles.

Personally, I am not surprised. Hackers are always trying to take down the biggest sites. According to HitWise, I believe MySpace was the top site on the internet last month.

Read the full story here: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196601356&subSection=Breaking+News

The GA Experts Blog posted about a very useful report developed by Akamai and Jupiter Research which reports that the average load time that an online shopper will wait for a site to load is down to 4 seconds (down from 8 last year).

The GA Experts Blog mentions the following key findings from the report:

- One-third of shoppers with a poor experience abandoned the site
- 75% were unlikely to shop on that site again
- 30% of dissatisfied customers will develop a negative perception of the company or tell their friends and family about the experience
- 65% indicated they are likely to return to a site that is easy to navigate, particularly during the registration, log-in and checkout processes

The blog also mentions how Google Analytics can help add insight in finding website issues:

Of course, Google Analytics has a role to play as well. There are several reports under Content Optimisation -> Web Design Parameters that can tell you what technologies and connection speeds your users have, thereby allowing your web designers to build the site that is best for your market. Configuring tracking on your transaction process and adding this to your reports as a funnel can also highlight any bottlenecks in your purchasing process (Content Optimisation -> Goals & Funnel Process) that are driving customers away.

A great user experience is mandatory in order to compete in the online market today because with so many people on high speed connections, a fast loading site is not a “nice to have” anymore it’s a necessity. If a user abandons your site because of slow load times it’s as if they have walked up to the front of the store and just before they got to the doors, they turned around and left. This equates to a very poor and short-lived user experience. So make sure you analyze your server load times, debug your code thoroughly, test and re-test.

Source: http://www.ga-experts.co.uk/contact.php

I watched a very interesting webinar this morning focused on Social Networking put on by HitWise’s LeeAnn Prescot. Her presentation was geared towards the topics of Social Networking, Photo Hosting and Video. Here are some of the key takeaways (Note all information is based on US Traffic):

Social Networking

- The Top 20 Social networking sites account for 1 of every 20 Internet visits
- MySpace has an 82% Share of these Top 20 Social Network Sites
- MySpace is the leader in Social Networking and has had a growth of rate of 50% from Mar-Sept 2006

Here are the Top 5 Social Networking Sites (with their percentage of share and average visit duration)

1) MySpace – 82% – 30:22
2) FaceBook – 7.24% – 8:17
3) Xanga – 1.86% – 12:00
4) Yahoo 360 – 1.21% – 11:42
5) Black Planet - 1.12% – 20:19

- The Average Social Networking user belongs to at least 3 networking sites
- Upcoming Social Networking sites include: iMeem, FaceBox, 43 Things, Multiply and Vox
- Categorical sites such as Music, Ticketing, Apparel, Video Games and Auctions are receiving the most benefit from MySpace in terms of upstream traffic.

Photo Hosting

- PhotoBucket is the top photo hosting site and has an 8X greater share than 2nd place ImageShack
- The average user session is > 10 min
- Photo sites received 30% of their upstream traffic from MySpace

- Flickr’s visits are up 49% from Mar-Sept 2006
- 35% of traffic is from Search (majority of it is non branded traffic)
- Flickr actually has a much older demographic than PhotoBucket

Video

- YouTube has grown 500% this year
- According to HitWise, YouTube is the 17th most popular site last week
- YouTube has a greater share in online video than MySpace’s Video, Google Video, Yahoo Video and MetaCafe
- MetaCafe has grown 133% in the last year
- 3.6% of YouTube’s downstream traffic goes to television sites such as Cartoons, News, Sports and Music

Check out the HitWise Blog at: http://www.ilovedata.com