Finding Valuable Patterns Across Multiple Web Events
| Jason Rushin - Tuesday, March 31, 2009 0 Comments |
Today Quantivo announced an exciting extension to our solution that enables the interactive discovery of behavioral patterns that span multiple web events. With traditional web analytics solutions, this is an extremely difficult and time-consuming endeavor, requiring some serious heavy lifting on the back end – both hardware and query creation. For more details, you can view our quick video overview and product demo, or read our announcement.
With this new ability, you can now quickly understand of how visitors respond over multiple visits, over varied content, and across any time span. Here are just a few examples of where this new value can be applied:
- Understand which combination of online offers increase conversion rates. For example, analysts at an e-commerce website are identifying which offers to present to which customers over one or more visits to make them more likely to purchase.
- Identify content affinities over multiple page views or multiple visits.
- Recognize the sequence of events that lead to and follow the purchase of specific items.
- Quantify both the direct and indirect lift generated by multiple promotions.
Check our video for more details, and be sure to let us know what you think with a comment below or an email to info@quantivo.com.
iPhone: Not a Top 20 Handset - Number #24
| Manoj Jasra - 0 Comments |
According to statistics released yesterday by Bango, when it comes to the most popular phones for browsing and buying content on the mobile web worldwide, the iPhone sits outside the top 20. The Bango Top 20 handset list, based on Bango's February statistics, puts the Nokia 3110c on top, followed by the Samsung M800 in 2nd and the Nokia 6300 in 3rd. The iPhone appears as 24th on the list.
This data represents the activities of major brands and businesses as their consumers browse to mobile websites (measured by Bango Analytics) and buy mobile content and services (as measured by Bango Payment). The Bango's stats will be of interest to businesses that monetize their mobile content and services across a wide demographic as spending by iPhone users is restricted to the Apple App Store.
Bango detected a total of 1,811 different types of handsets accessing the mobile Internet in just one month. The Bango chart shows that smartphones account for 30% of handsets in the Top 20; to view the full list go to http://bango.com/support/top20handsets.aspx
Marketers need to choose their best channel to market and consider sales projections from the leading manufacturers. Based on the number of handsets projected to be sold by the end of 2009, outside of Japan and Korea, Nokia is the leader with sales of the S60 likely to reach 300m, followed by Windows Mobile and iPhone at 40m, RIM at around 25m and Google around 5m..
This data represents the activities of major brands and businesses as their consumers browse to mobile websites (measured by Bango Analytics) and buy mobile content and services (as measured by Bango Payment). The Bango's stats will be of interest to businesses that monetize their mobile content and services across a wide demographic as spending by iPhone users is restricted to the Apple App Store.
Bango detected a total of 1,811 different types of handsets accessing the mobile Internet in just one month. The Bango chart shows that smartphones account for 30% of handsets in the Top 20; to view the full list go to http://bango.com/support/top20handsets.aspx
"The iPhone has done a lot to encourage people to browse the internet on their phones," says Ray Anderson, CEO of Bango. "But to get the most out of their mobile marketing spend, companies who are riding the iPhone wave, attracted by its excellent features and user demographics, need to optimize their mobile websites for all phones - especially those in Bango's Top 20 handset list. Without this, they will be missing out on the mass market"This is particularly true for businesses with a mobile website who want to give their mobile visitors a great user experience optimized for their mobile device, as well as those selling mobile content and services.
Marketers need to choose their best channel to market and consider sales projections from the leading manufacturers. Based on the number of handsets projected to be sold by the end of 2009, outside of Japan and Korea, Nokia is the leader with sales of the S60 likely to reach 300m, followed by Windows Mobile and iPhone at 40m, RIM at around 25m and Google around 5m..
"What is clear is that mobile marketers need to better understand their users," says Anderson. "Our Bango mobile analytics provides analysis of mobile visitors, mobile site activity and marketing campaigns, with detailed metrics including unique visitor count, country, network and handset of each user. This helps brands to make the best decisions about future mobile investments and get closer to their customers.
Fundamentals of Web Analytics Technology - Online Certificate
| Manoj Jasra - Monday, March 30, 2009 0 Comments |
Last week CMS Watch announced they have launched a new web analytics training course called: "Fundamentals of Web Analytics Technology." The 4 module course is taught by CMS Watch founder, Tony Byrne and costs $395. Check out the learning objectives of the Web Analytics Course below:
Module 1: Web Analytics Business Case & Scenarios
- Define Web Analytics and distinguish among the core concepts of Web Data, Web Metrics, Web Analytics, and Web Measurement
- List seven potential business benefits of Web Analytics
- Account for seven potential cost items in any Web Analytics solution
- Identify eight potential internal roles that your team might require for an effective solution
- Articulate twelve use cases for Web Analytics, grouped according to functional requirements, website orientation, and internal resource availability
Module2: Core Architectures & Technical Services
- Distinguish between two core architectural approaches
- Identify the three main types of data collection, as well as the pros and cons of each
- Articulate the value of data verification and sampling
- Identify the tradeoffs among different approaches to tracking individual visitors, including key issues with cookie‐based tracking
- Describe the two common methods for tracking mobile users and their shortcomings
- Distinguish between two competing approaches to tracking video usage, including pros and cons of each
- Identify workarounds for dealing with “Web 2.0” challenges like RSS and user‐generated content
Module 3: Web Analytics Business Services
- List “standard reports” and cite examples
- Articulate the differences among different types of “dashboards”
- Describe the value of more “advanced” reporting services, like segmentation, data mining, and campaign analysis
- Understand the differences among various types of auxiliary services in general, and data integration in particular
- Cite key considerations when assessing the usability of a system and its reports
- Describe your organization’s needs in respect to user management and report distribution services
Module 4: Selecting & Implementing Web Analytics
- Articulate a standard process for documenting Web Analytics requirements
- Identify five key categories of metrics requirements
- Categorize two‐dozen Web Analytics vendors according to four marketplace categories
- Develop a technology selection roadmap, based on organizational objectives, functional requirements, and scenario fits
- Match a Web Analytics development project to a standard technology project methodology
- Contrast three approaches for securing external help
- Articulate at least four implementation best practices
Labels: CMS Watch, Web Analytics
Interview: Errorlytics Co-Creator, Josh Katinger
| Manoj Jasra - Friday, March 27, 2009 0 Comments |
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to catch up with Josh Katinger, Co-Creator of Errorlytics and President of Accession Media. During our chat I was able to get Josh's insight on Errorlytics and importance of monitoring your error pages.[Manoj]: What was your inspiration to design a product like Errorlytics?
[Josh Katinger]: Part of our business model is being a web development shop for various types of clients. In our years of managing websites for our clients we realized that one of the major problems that most webmasters ignore is 404 errors. Most websites get a lot more 404 errors than most webmasters realize, which is bad for website visitors and for search engine rankings.
[Manoj]: Can you briefly describe how Errorlytics works?
[Josh Katinger]: Through a script that you download and install on your server, Errorlytics records all the 404 errors that occur on your site. You can then log into the Errorlytics interface and write rules that will handle those errors going forward. They can be very specific rules for one specific 404 error, or broad matching rules that handle re-direction of one entire directory or group of pages to another.
[Manoj]: How is Errorlytics different than error page reporting found in Web Analytics?
[Josh Katinger]: The largest difference is that analytics tools only report 404s. Errorlytics allows you to actually fix those 404 errors in a search engine friendly way.
[Manoj]: What kind of insight are site owners missing out by not monitoring their 404 pages?
[Josh Katinger]: The thing that always surprises us is all of the strange bots and page requests that are made on a site. Most of the sites we track get requests for pages that never existed on the server in the first place. And if you own a site that depends heavily on ad revenue - which in turn depends on page views - by fixing your 404s you are preserving site visits and page views. Letting pages on your site continue to 404 is like throwing money out the window.
[Manoj]: Can you let us in on any enhancements in future versions?
[Josh Katinger]: We are planning on getting plugins for the IIS web server, ASP and ASP.net. We are also looking at a plugin for the MovableType blogging engine. We are also interested in rolling out functionality that will allow users to export and upload a list of redirects for bulk creation instead of having to create them on a one by one basis.
[Manoj]: How much does Errorlytics cost?
[Josh Katinger]: We have several pricing levels for all types of individual webmaster and large organizations. You can view our pricing on our sign up page http://www.errorlytics.com/sign_ups/plans.
[Manoj]: How much does Errorlytics cost?
[Josh Katinger]: We have several pricing levels for all types of individual webmaster and large organizations. You can view our pricing on our sign up page http://www.errorlytics.com/sign_ups/plans.
Labels: 404 errors, Errorlytics
New White Paper: Mobile Advertising for the Masses
| Manoj Jasra - Thursday, March 26, 2009 0 Comments |
In her new white paper, “Mobile Advertising for the Masses,” Peggy Anne Salz highlights that in the personal world of mobile social networks, advertising that encourages two-way interaction between advertisers and consumers will be more successful than conventional “push” style banner ads. The report suggests that virtual gifting is seen by many as the starting point for cultivating this two-way conversation.
The white paper is aimed at marketers who want to understand how to effectively market to mobile communities; it is available for download at http://bango.com/whitepaper2. Both Peggy Anne Salz, chief analyst at MSearchGroove.com, and mobile analytics vendor, Bango, will be discussing this topic at the AIME seminar on Mobile advertising on April 2 in London. More at http://www.aimelink.org/KN/
The need for mobile analytics from an independent vendor such as Bango gives advertisers a more holistic view of their customers, allowing them to answer the critical questions every advertiser needs to know: Who are my customers? What did they look at? Where did they come from? Did community members convert to the campaign goals?
Mobile social networking was selected as the topic of the second white paper on mobile advertising because millions of current users of online social networks are going mobile and there’s increased popularity in mobile-only social networks such as Itsmy, Buzzcity, Peperonity and Mocospace. There will be 140 million users of mobile social networks by 2013, according to ABI Research.
This white paper provides a reality-check, road testing the ad networks offered by three leading mobile social networks, and documents the level of targeting each provides advertisers. It then evaluates how mobile analytics delivers a deeper understanding on how each campaign perform.
The white paper is aimed at marketers who want to understand how to effectively market to mobile communities; it is available for download at http://bango.com/whitepaper2. Both Peggy Anne Salz, chief analyst at MSearchGroove.com, and mobile analytics vendor, Bango, will be discussing this topic at the AIME seminar on Mobile advertising on April 2 in London. More at http://www.aimelink.org/KN/
The need for mobile analytics from an independent vendor such as Bango gives advertisers a more holistic view of their customers, allowing them to answer the critical questions every advertiser needs to know: Who are my customers? What did they look at? Where did they come from? Did community members convert to the campaign goals?
Mobile social networking was selected as the topic of the second white paper on mobile advertising because millions of current users of online social networks are going mobile and there’s increased popularity in mobile-only social networks such as Itsmy, Buzzcity, Peperonity and Mocospace. There will be 140 million users of mobile social networks by 2013, according to ABI Research.
This white paper provides a reality-check, road testing the ad networks offered by three leading mobile social networks, and documents the level of targeting each provides advertisers. It then evaluates how mobile analytics delivers a deeper understanding on how each campaign perform.
Labels: Mobile Advertising
iGoogle Releases Game Themes
| Manoj Jasra - 0 Comments |
If you are a hardcore video gamer then you're going to enjoy the brand new video game iGoogle Themes launched by Google yesterday. Mario, Mega-Man, LOTR, Dungeons & Dragons - they're all available. Read the full news at the Google Blog.
Complimentary Webcast: How to Leverage Social Media for Consumer Insights
| Manoj Jasra - Wednesday, March 25, 2009 0 Comments |
WHAT: Complimentary Webcast
TOPIC: The New Math: How to Leverage Social Media for Consumer Insights
DATE: Thursday, March 26, 2009
TIME: 1:00 pm Eastern
SPEAKERS:
Stephen Baker, senior technology writer, BusinessWeek and author of The Numerati
Janet Eden-Harris, Vice President, J.D. Power Web Intelligence Research
Moderator: Burt Helm, BusinessWeek marketing reporter
Click here to register
OVERVIEW:
How can you take a mountain of social media data and distil it down to actionable insights? Stephen Baker takes up the challenge of understanding the complex technology used to analyze social media and relates it in an entertaining and highly readable way in his popular new book The Numerati. Now hear Stephen as he's joined by Janet Eden-Harris, Vice President, J.D. Power Web Intelligence, who will talk about how the science has been applied to assist companies in market segmentation, campaign effectiveness, new product innovation, and brand monitoring.
The webinar will be moderated by Burt Helm, BusinessWeek marketing reporter. Attendees will be able to ask questions during this interactive webinar.
TOPIC: The New Math: How to Leverage Social Media for Consumer Insights
DATE: Thursday, March 26, 2009
TIME: 1:00 pm Eastern
SPEAKERS:
Stephen Baker, senior technology writer, BusinessWeek and author of The Numerati
Janet Eden-Harris, Vice President, J.D. Power Web Intelligence Research
Moderator: Burt Helm, BusinessWeek marketing reporter
Click here to register
OVERVIEW:
How can you take a mountain of social media data and distil it down to actionable insights? Stephen Baker takes up the challenge of understanding the complex technology used to analyze social media and relates it in an entertaining and highly readable way in his popular new book The Numerati. Now hear Stephen as he's joined by Janet Eden-Harris, Vice President, J.D. Power Web Intelligence, who will talk about how the science has been applied to assist companies in market segmentation, campaign effectiveness, new product innovation, and brand monitoring.
The webinar will be moderated by Burt Helm, BusinessWeek marketing reporter. Attendees will be able to ask questions during this interactive webinar.
Would You Like Free Site Search with that CMS?
| Manoj Jasra - 0 Comments |
In a shift away from recommending 3rd-party website search solutions, Web Content Management (CMS) vendors are increasingly offering site search services, with nearly 40% of major Web CMS vendors now embedding the open source Lucene engine, according to research released today by independent analyst and evaluation firm, CMS Watch.
These conclusions stem from the most recent release of The Web CMS Report 2009, in which CMS Watch interviewed web content management customers around the globe to evaluate forty-two solutions in the marketplace. The report can be purchased online from CMS Watch (http://www.cmswatch.com/).
These conclusions stem from the most recent release of The Web CMS Report 2009, in which CMS Watch interviewed web content management customers around the globe to evaluate forty-two solutions in the marketplace. The report can be purchased online from CMS Watch (http://www.cmswatch.com/).
"When we first covered Web CMS tools a decade ago, vendors typically embedded site search engines, often ones they built themselves," notes CMS Watch Founder Tony Byrne. Then the pendulum swung the other way, as vendors who recognized the limits of their simple search tools encouraged customers to purchase "best of breed" alternatives, such as Google Search Appliance.
"Web CMS vendors are now integrating site search again," notes CMS Watch analyst Kas Thomas, "and the driver is really Lucene." Lucene is an open source Apache project. Of the forty-two Web CMS vendors evaluated by CMS Watch, nearly 40% (sixteen) have OEMed Lucene, and several others are considering it for future versions.
Successfully embedding a search engine like Lucene into a Web CMS package can bring several potential benefits:
- By understanding the structure of the Web CMS repository, the search engine can access more relevant data, and deliver richer results, more easily than a 3rd-party solution
- Direct access to metadata can support faceted search (a typically expensive feature sometimes called "guided navigation"), where users can drill down through results
- If the Web CMS vendor integrates various optional Lucene modules, the search engine can support the kind of advanced features that Google has trained users to expect, such as stemming, spell-checking, and file filters
To be sure, customers may face potential downsides. "There are different flavors of Lucene, some more productized than others," cautions CMS Watch analyst Adriaan Bloem. "Integrating advanced features, like file filters for Office documents, takes work, and not all Web CMS vendors embedding Lucene have taken the necessary steps to put their solution on par with Google's appliance."
Therefore, customers need to test the maturity and integration of any Lucene OEM. "Make sure your Web CMS vendor didn't just slap in Lucene -- or any other search tool -- just because it's free," concludes Byrne.
Funnel Visualization in 60 Seconds
| Manoj Jasra - Tuesday, March 24, 2009 2 Comments |
Use Google Analytics goals and funnels to understand where users are converting. By seeing where customers leave each step, you can refine your website to optimize conversions. Check out the latest post on the Google Analytics Blog regarding "Back to Basics" on monitoring conversion funnels.
You can look at the Funnel Visualization report in Google Analytics to see how many of your prospects move from one step to the next, where they drop out of the conversion process and where they go instead. Once you have this information, you can start fixing the pages that lose would-be customers, just as a good sales person addresses obstacles that prevent customers from closing.
Labels: Google Analytics
Using Behavioral Analytics to Understand Web Traffic
| Jason Rushin - 1 Comments |
Standard web analytic reports provide ample information about past performance: page views, click-throughs, time on site, etc. While this information is critical for reporting on the areas and metrics to which you should paying attention, behavioral analytics can help give you guidance on what to do next.
We've just written a new white paper (download here) explaining how behavioral analytics can dig into your web analytics data to uncover how visitors truly interact with your website.
But, you're probably asking, "What is behavioral analytics and why can't my current web analytics tool deliver the same info?"
Behavioral analytics refers to the ability to uncover patterns of behavior in interaction data, uncovering clusters of people that demonstrate a propensity to go through similar sequences of actions, such as clicks on web pages, online or offline purchases, responses to marketing offers, etc. The payoff from understanding these behavioral patterns is huge: you can use this insight to optimize your site, influence people’s behavior, and ultimately drive actions that you care about - clicks, page views, purchases, etc.
The white paper explains how behavioral analytics helps you identify the content that visitors will look at next, ways to increase transactions, attributes that indicate likely-to-return visitors, factors that make visitors click on ads, and more.
You can download the paper here. Once you do, we'd like to know what you think. Comment on this blog posting, or email us at info@quantivo.com, and let us know!
We've just written a new white paper (download here) explaining how behavioral analytics can dig into your web analytics data to uncover how visitors truly interact with your website.
But, you're probably asking, "What is behavioral analytics and why can't my current web analytics tool deliver the same info?"
Behavioral analytics refers to the ability to uncover patterns of behavior in interaction data, uncovering clusters of people that demonstrate a propensity to go through similar sequences of actions, such as clicks on web pages, online or offline purchases, responses to marketing offers, etc. The payoff from understanding these behavioral patterns is huge: you can use this insight to optimize your site, influence people’s behavior, and ultimately drive actions that you care about - clicks, page views, purchases, etc.
The white paper explains how behavioral analytics helps you identify the content that visitors will look at next, ways to increase transactions, attributes that indicate likely-to-return visitors, factors that make visitors click on ads, and more.
You can download the paper here. Once you do, we'd like to know what you think. Comment on this blog posting, or email us at info@quantivo.com, and let us know!
Labels: analytics, behavioral targeting, Quantivo, web analytics tools
Marketing Sherpa Presents Social Media Training - March 26th Only $99
| Manoj Jasra - Monday, March 23, 2009 0 Comments |
This Thursday, Marketing Sherpa is offering a training webinar focusing in on Social Media. MarketingSherpa’s Social Media Online Training ‘Engaging Bloggers, Journalists and Customers’ (March 26, 2 – 3:00 p.m. EDT) will give you the practical information and tools to effectively engage bloggers and journalists, as well as your customers in relationship–building conversations. During this one hour webinar B–to–B and Consumer marketers will learn:
- How social media is changing the way organizations communicate
- How journalists are using social media in the practice of their craft
- Which social media tactics B2B and B2C marketers are finding most effective
- Why marketers are using social media to boost search rankings
- 5 principles of Social Media Releases
Bonus Report: Social Media and the Changing Face of Public Relations
All registrants will receive the report ‘Social Media and the Changing Face of Public Relations’, with marketer insights and case studies including 8 steps to becoming a social media release convert.
All registrants will receive the report ‘Social Media and the Changing Face of Public Relations’, with marketer insights and case studies including 8 steps to becoming a social media release convert.
Labels: marketing sherpa
VQmetrics: Social Media Metrics from Vquence
| Manoj Jasra - 0 Comments |
Social video technology and consulting company Vquence launched a new social video metrics product called VQmetrics with an event in Sydney last week.The online SaaS (Software as a Service) product is used by Vquence’s customers as a tracking tool for viral video marketing campaigns and to undertake deep data analysis on online video statistics.
Dr Silvia Pfeiffer, Vquence’s CEO and former CSIRO research scientist, reported in her launch speech: “A video is 50 times more likely to rank on the first page of Google search results than any other content. It is therefore imperative for every product, brand, and marketing campaign to have a social video element.”
In addition, other social video networks such as MySpace.TV, Dailymotion, or Vimeo should also be included in marketing campaigns since their audiences are more focused and a video can thus reach its target more easily.
Vquence’s new VQmetrics product can collect and analyse usage and engagement statistics from a large set of social video networks and provide near-realtime reporting, which allows marketers to continuously improve on their strategies.
Vquence also offers consulting for agencies rolling out viral video campaigns making sure the videos are exposed to a sizeable number of eyeballs through social networking approaches.
“We have developed the backend crawling and data management infrastructure for VQmetrics during the last two years. It runs on Linux in the Amazon compute cloud which makes it highly scalable so we can manage the millions of data points that we deal with daily”, says John Ferlito, Vquence’s CTO.
“We have funded the recent developments through technology consulting, since the current financial markets are not favourable for acquiring investment. We are very proud to be able to offer this product to the Australian market now”, says Dr Pfeiffer.
Labels: social media, Web Analytics
Are you Attending Adspace 2009 in San Francisco?
| Manoj Jasra - Friday, March 20, 2009 1 Comments |
ADSPACE is the first and only conference and expo dedicated to AdSense and contextual advertising. ADSPACE is targeted towards small to mid-sized publishers looking for insider tips on how to maximize AdSense revenue. And advertisers wanting to learn how top marketers drive huge investment returns from Google’s content network and other contextual advertising.
Who will be Speaking at Adspace?
- Keynote: Brad Bender, Product Management Director, Google
- Will Martin-GillSenior Manager, Internet Marketing
- Tim Kendall Director of Monetization Facebook
- Jared Friedman, Founder and CTO, Scribd
- Darrin Shamo, Senior SEM Manager, Zappos.com
- Kevin McCabe, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft
About the Sessions
- One of a kind AdSense Publisher Forum – your chance to share your ideas and suggestions directly with the AdSense team.
- Measurement and Metrics – top advertisers tell you how they manage their contextual advertising accounts on Google and elsewhere – learn how they make content consistently profitable!
- The Secrets to Success: Tips and Tricks from Leading Publishers – Stop dreaming of building a site with 150 million page views a month – find out how it’s done from successful publishers.
- Social Media Strategies – Experts from FaceBook, RockU, and SocialMedia.com tell you why you need to make social media part of your media budget now.
Labels: SEM Conferences
SES NY: Interview of Ankur Choksi, Director of Search Technology at Ask.com
| Manoj Jasra - Thursday, March 19, 2009 0 Comments |
Search Engine Strategies New York is next week! Are you attending? If so, I recommend you check out "Discover the Power of Linking" on Day 2 featuring Ankur Choksi, Director, Search Technology, Ask.com. Earlier this week I had the opportunity to catch up with Ankur to get his thoughts on link building strategies, read more below...[Manoj]: If you were to compile a list of the top factors in terms of search engine rankings - would link quality be in the top 3?
[Ankur Choksi]: Link Quality is one of the important signals amongst various other signals that we use in ranking pages for a given query. We look at relevancy of the page for the query and then use various signals including link to determine the authority of the page. Links are referral from one page to another and it is valuable source of information, as a higher referral indicates higher quality of the page - provided the links are good quality. It is similar to referrals used as one of the factors in the evaluation of a candidate for a job position when the candidate has good skills required for the job position. People have used various ways to artificially boost the link signal for their sites, and we strongly discourage people from doing it.
[Manoj]: How in-depth does the Ask.com algorithm go to factor-in quality of links vs. quantity?
[Ankur Choksi]: Quality of links is much more important to us than quantity. Ask.com uses the ExpertRank algorithm that goes beyond mere link popularity. We rely on the “opinion of the experts” for a given topic of the query to find the best results. This requires many additional calculations at the time the query is executed, as there are different experts for different topics. When your car breaks down would you go to a person who knows about car repairs - or any random person you know? In 2001, Ask.com acquired Teoma, which was the very first search engine to use ExpertRank (it actually means "expert" in Gaelic).
[Manoj]: Why is it important to use theme-related anchor text for inbound/outbound links?
[Ankur Choksi]: Since anchor text is considered an important signal in ranking, it helps to use theme-related anchor text for both inbound and outbound links. Essentially, it strengthens the link signal. Conversely, irrelevant anchor text will devalue the link signal, and reduce the weight of that link on the page.
[Manoj]: How much value are reciprocal links given by engines at this time?
[Ankur Choksi]: Reciprocal link value typically changes with the value of that reciprocal link. When we deem these links to be artificial, then it hurts overall ranking. But if we deem the link to be of value, based on good content within the site, then it adds value to the page. Sites should also consider the quality of the site when they are creating reciprocal links - especially when the other site is low quality. Overlinking between sites should be avoided as general rule of thumb.
[Manoj]: Can you discuss the importance of developing a good external link structure on your website?
[Ankur Choksi]: External Linking is a signal that external sites recognize the content quality of a web page. But if an external link structure does not serve this purpose, it can also hurt. Again, we encourage people to rely on building good content on their sites, by organically having people link to these pages based on quality in certain subjects.
[Manoj]: What kind of role does Social Media sites play in link building?
[Ankur Choksi]: If people like the site's content, then they will spread the word to other people through social media sites, and – organically - people will link to the site. However, there are a large amount of links in social media pages which are often questionable, and at times difficult to assess their value.
[Manoj]: Why is it important to use theme-related anchor text for inbound/outbound links?
[Ankur Choksi]: Since anchor text is considered an important signal in ranking, it helps to use theme-related anchor text for both inbound and outbound links. Essentially, it strengthens the link signal. Conversely, irrelevant anchor text will devalue the link signal, and reduce the weight of that link on the page.
[Manoj]: How much value are reciprocal links given by engines at this time?
[Ankur Choksi]: Reciprocal link value typically changes with the value of that reciprocal link. When we deem these links to be artificial, then it hurts overall ranking. But if we deem the link to be of value, based on good content within the site, then it adds value to the page. Sites should also consider the quality of the site when they are creating reciprocal links - especially when the other site is low quality. Overlinking between sites should be avoided as general rule of thumb.
[Manoj]: Can you discuss the importance of developing a good external link structure on your website?
[Ankur Choksi]: External Linking is a signal that external sites recognize the content quality of a web page. But if an external link structure does not serve this purpose, it can also hurt. Again, we encourage people to rely on building good content on their sites, by organically having people link to these pages based on quality in certain subjects.
[Manoj]: What kind of role does Social Media sites play in link building?
[Ankur Choksi]: If people like the site's content, then they will spread the word to other people through social media sites, and – organically - people will link to the site. However, there are a large amount of links in social media pages which are often questionable, and at times difficult to assess their value.
Labels: ASK, Search Engine Strategies
Using Open Source BI (Business Intelligence)
| SH - Wednesday, March 18, 2009 0 Comments |
Using open source BI in your business is similar to using any other type of business intelligence: find the right fit for you, initiate the project, and allow time for adoption. One of the many benefits of open source software is that other users are constantly improving it and that you can find support from the community at a moment’s notice. Here you will learn how to get your open source business intelligence initiative started.
Find the Right Fit
Finding the right open source BI for you business takes a bit of research. This requires someone in your company who is knowledge about both the needs of your company and the intricacies of open source software to start scouring the web for all of the options available. Most BI companies have their own specialization in the business intelligence realm, so a search for “reporting” or “data warehousing” will yield different results for the person doing your research. Usually the person best suited to conducting this research will be the head of your IT department. This individual will be able to recognize what will help your company achieve its goals and what won’t. He or she will also want to look at upgrade options and how these options will affect the open source business intelligence software if your company needs to upgrade. Occasionally, companies will need more than open source has to offer and will need to purchase a commercial business intelligence package or upgrades to open source offerings. The person doing your research should make sure that if your company ever reaches that point the transition would be a smooth one.
Initiate Your Business Intelligence Project
Once you find the best open source BI software for your company, you’ll need to start implementing it. Depending on what you’re looking at and how large or new your company is, this could be a relatively quick painless process or it could be a bit more complicated. In either case, it will behoove you to set one person as the point person for the entire project. This person will be able to help you track the benefits of the project, keep the data going into the system clean, and help you decide when and if you might need support for your business intelligence software outside of the open source community. The person can also help with adoption within the company to ensure that the project is a success.
Adoption
Most companies struggle with adoption for their business intelligence initiatives, whether their software is open source or not. Resistance to the project occurs when employees aren’t properly trained on how to use the new system and are left to their own devices. More often than not, they eventually return to old, unreliable systems, simply because they are familiar and provide expected, although error-ridden, results. Your business intelligence point person will be able to train employees on how to use the new system correctly and serve as a go-to person who can answer any questions and deal with any issues as they arise. By having someone well versed in the software available, you will increase the likelihood that your program will be adopted both quickly and correctly.
Once your business intelligence program has been initiated you will start see benefits for your company both short-term and over the long haul. By following these simple steps, you’ll be able to complete the process without any major roadblocks or issues.
Labels: BI, business intelligence, business intelligence software, open source BI
Growing enterprise demand to measure mobile-based web traffic and video usage has spawned a promising new set of tools and methods which nonetheless remain fairly immature, according to new research by independent analyst firm, CMS Watch.Traditional web analytics firms can typically analyze video starts, but cannot perform more advanced tracking -- such as capturing pauses, stops, rewinds, and duration of view -- without a significant amount of invasive coding within the videos themselves. New vendors, including Visible Measures and GlanceGuide, have developed systems to capture these events at the video player.
New analytics vendors focused on mobile metrics include AdMob, Amethon, Bango, and Mobilytics. However, established vendors such as Omniture, Coremetrics, and WebTrends all jumped into the mobile fray in the past year.
These suppliers can provide useful reports such as percentage of mobile visitors by screen size, handset manufacturer, and browser type.
However, like video, mobile metrics remains a very young and inexact practice. The biggest challenges revolve around data collection, since JavaScript and cookies (used heavily to measure web traffic today) are not accepted by a high percentage of existing phones.
Mobile device header data can provide useful information, but will vary according to manufacturer, device, carrier, personal preferences, and national regulations. "In particular, 'unique' visitor behavior remains an uncertain exercise," notes Kemelor.
The Web Analytics Report 2009 is available for purchase online from CMS Watch (http://www.cmswatch.com/Analytics/). Next week, CMS Watch will debut a four-hour online certificate course in Web Analytics Technology, including a section on mobile and video tracking.
Labels: CMS Watch, Mobile Analytics, Web Analytics
Interview of Michel Leconte of SEO Samba
| Manoj Jasra - Tuesday, March 17, 2009 1 Comments |
Last week I had the opportunity to catch up with Michel Leconte, CEO of SEO Samba. During our chat I was able to get Michel's insight into SEO Samba's Organic Search Management platform - check out our conversation below:
[Manoj]: Can you provide us with a quick background on your Organic search management platform, SEO Samba?
[Michel Leconte]: SEO Samba maximizes web site performance with search engines and other "free-to-play" digital marketing channels. SEO Samba is a SEO Software provided As A Service (SAAS). Web marketers and SEO professionals deploy and enforce best practices from a single point rather than manually coding these evolving best practices into each of these sites while hoping that end-users will not gradually undo these practices. SEO Samba facilitates execution and maintains the integrity of best practices while letting expert users adapt their best practices to changes in algorithms. In addition, SEO Samba provides an optimized distribution framework for information along with automation and alignment rules to make it very cost effective to successfully market through search engines starting with Google, but also social applications, news, blogs, video, all "free" but crowded channels.
[Manoj]: What type of user is your platform targeted towards?
[Michel Leconte]: Our target end-user is the business to business, or service to consumer oriented websites. Thanks to our unique cloud-based architecture, and ability to leverage and truly take advantage of end-users business scale, it is also particularly well-suited to large network of websites such as franchises or affiliates networks. In addition, SEO Samba’s expert levels features which enable dissemination & execution of best practices across an entire client pool, and look & feel plus URL customization capability, makes it very friendly for SEO services firms, and SEO experts to use. We have also seen traditional advertising agencies & web designers use SEO Samba to develop a credible expertise in SEO and a new or improved service offering in the process. Last, thanks to its Google news optimized module which integrates with email marketing, RSS, and other channels, I think that SEO Samba is a must for online PR firms and online reputation management companies.
[Manoj]: If you could only mention the top 3 benefits of SEO Samba's platform, what would they be?
[Michel Leconte]: Scale, Scale and Scale.
Right now, there is no sizeable economy of scale; marketers and SEO consultants have to expand a similar amount of time every time they optimize a site. Then they have to define a strategy and optimize linking across these properties..
On the other hand with SEO Samba, the more websites you have, the easier it is to rank them high with search engines: Define best practices once, execute across any number of clients, projects and websites, and leverage automatically linking and marketing opportunities all over. And as SEO is a process and not a one time shot, anytime you refine positioning and content of pages and websites, SEO Samba re-construct titles, headers, deep-links, to align all your factors.
[Manoj]: How important is it for organizations to add some focus to SEO at this time in order to save money on other online mediums?
[Michel Leconte]: Generally speaking, SEO has the best measurable ROI I have seen of all offline/online marketing channels I came across. However, it is a process, an investment for the future, not an endeavor that brings instant gratification like PPC does. If you oppose it to other online medium, first you need to have all ducks in the row measuring specific channel’s ROI for both online and offline conversions. In doing so, you’re setting the foundation for your business case, how much investment now vs. how much in future savings am I targeting? If you correlate these numbers to your rankings, traffic potential and your actual traffic per keyword you then can evaluate how much a concentrated effort on SEO is worth to you.
[Manoj]: What is the cost of SEO Samba's organic platform?
[Michel Leconte]: SEO Samba is priced at $99/month/domain/unlimited users with a month-to-month contract. Digressive pricing is available for professionals based on volume, and a free unlimited trial is offered. We also offer discounted professional services through our partners and directly to professionals. You can find all details here in our signup page, and by contacting our sales team in the EU or US. More information available here: http://www.seosamba.com/pricing--sign-up.html
Check out SEO Samba at SES NY 2009.
[Manoj]: Can you provide us with a quick background on your Organic search management platform, SEO Samba?
[Michel Leconte]: SEO Samba maximizes web site performance with search engines and other "free-to-play" digital marketing channels. SEO Samba is a SEO Software provided As A Service (SAAS). Web marketers and SEO professionals deploy and enforce best practices from a single point rather than manually coding these evolving best practices into each of these sites while hoping that end-users will not gradually undo these practices. SEO Samba facilitates execution and maintains the integrity of best practices while letting expert users adapt their best practices to changes in algorithms. In addition, SEO Samba provides an optimized distribution framework for information along with automation and alignment rules to make it very cost effective to successfully market through search engines starting with Google, but also social applications, news, blogs, video, all "free" but crowded channels.
[Manoj]: What type of user is your platform targeted towards?
[Michel Leconte]: Our target end-user is the business to business, or service to consumer oriented websites. Thanks to our unique cloud-based architecture, and ability to leverage and truly take advantage of end-users business scale, it is also particularly well-suited to large network of websites such as franchises or affiliates networks. In addition, SEO Samba’s expert levels features which enable dissemination & execution of best practices across an entire client pool, and look & feel plus URL customization capability, makes it very friendly for SEO services firms, and SEO experts to use. We have also seen traditional advertising agencies & web designers use SEO Samba to develop a credible expertise in SEO and a new or improved service offering in the process. Last, thanks to its Google news optimized module which integrates with email marketing, RSS, and other channels, I think that SEO Samba is a must for online PR firms and online reputation management companies.
[Manoj]: If you could only mention the top 3 benefits of SEO Samba's platform, what would they be?
[Michel Leconte]: Scale, Scale and Scale.
Right now, there is no sizeable economy of scale; marketers and SEO consultants have to expand a similar amount of time every time they optimize a site. Then they have to define a strategy and optimize linking across these properties..
On the other hand with SEO Samba, the more websites you have, the easier it is to rank them high with search engines: Define best practices once, execute across any number of clients, projects and websites, and leverage automatically linking and marketing opportunities all over. And as SEO is a process and not a one time shot, anytime you refine positioning and content of pages and websites, SEO Samba re-construct titles, headers, deep-links, to align all your factors.
[Manoj]: How important is it for organizations to add some focus to SEO at this time in order to save money on other online mediums?
[Michel Leconte]: Generally speaking, SEO has the best measurable ROI I have seen of all offline/online marketing channels I came across. However, it is a process, an investment for the future, not an endeavor that brings instant gratification like PPC does. If you oppose it to other online medium, first you need to have all ducks in the row measuring specific channel’s ROI for both online and offline conversions. In doing so, you’re setting the foundation for your business case, how much investment now vs. how much in future savings am I targeting? If you correlate these numbers to your rankings, traffic potential and your actual traffic per keyword you then can evaluate how much a concentrated effort on SEO is worth to you.
[Manoj]: What is the cost of SEO Samba's organic platform?
[Michel Leconte]: SEO Samba is priced at $99/month/domain/unlimited users with a month-to-month contract. Digressive pricing is available for professionals based on volume, and a free unlimited trial is offered. We also offer discounted professional services through our partners and directly to professionals. You can find all details here in our signup page, and by contacting our sales team in the EU or US. More information available here: http://www.seosamba.com/pricing--sign-up.html
Check out SEO Samba at SES NY 2009.
Labels: Search Engine Strategies, SES
Complete Survey and Enter Chance to Win $25
| Jason Rushin - Monday, March 16, 2009 0 Comments |
We’d like to introduce you to Quantivo and ask you to help us with a quick survey. Since stimulus packages are the name of the game these days, we’re offering a chance to win one of five $25 Amazon.com gift cards, which will be sent to randomly selected respondents. Plus, we'll send a summary of the results to ALL respondents. Hopefully that will both incent you to respond and help the economy!
First, the survey: Are you getting all that you need from your web analytics?
We’d like to get the pulse of the web analytics market, as well as what is important in your analysis of online data and if your current tools are giving you all that you need. We’ve posted ten questions that give you the opportunity to share any comments or thoughts that you have on the market overall. The survey should take less than five minutes to complete, and can be accessed by clicking here.
Second, who we are...
Quantivo is a software-as-a-service focused on customer behavior analytics. Although our technology has been in development for nearly five years, we have just recently emerged from “stealth” mode and are helping companies uncover the diamonds in their mountains of customer data – whether that data is from transactional, marketing, sales, or online analytics systems. Our solution complements your existing analytics systems by focusing on patterns, affinities, and trends within customer behaviors to – in the online world – help you identify opportunities to better respond to new visitors, increase repeat visits and page views, and serve and suggest the right content. If you’d like more information, feel free to check out our site: www.quantivo.com
We hope to hear from the Web Analytics World community with your thoughts and comments as we share some of our conversations through this site.
Interview of Jim Sterne on eMetrics London 2009
| Manoj Jasra - 1 Comments |
Last week I had the opportunity to speak with the founder of the eMetrics Optimization Summit, Jim Sterne. During our chat, I was able to capture some of Jim's insight on the upcoming eMetrics Conference in London (which is scheduled right after eMetrics Toronto).[Manoj]: What is the interest level of Web Analytics conferences in Europe compared to North America?
[Jim Sterne]: Right now everybody is interested in how to get more with less, working smarter with fewer resources and leveraging technology. The per capita interest is the same although the overall numbers are different in each country. But companies see that this is a tool that can help them survive and be in a stronger position when the market picks up.
[Manoj]: What are some of the hot topics in terms of Analytics in Europe at this time?
[Jim Sterne]: The hot topic of the moment is still Social Media. What is it? How do you determine if it's worth the effort? We're still in the early stages of figuring that out, but the same questions and the same metrics we used on the Web in 1995 apply to Social Media today. How much reach? What's the frequency? Is it raising awareness? Is it improving opinion? And, of course, finally, is it driving sales?
[Manoj]: If you only had 3 sessions you could attend in London, which ones would they be?
[Jim Sterne]: Oooo, I just HATE that question because I'm face with it every time. I personally see fewer sessions at my own conferences because I'm in so many hallway meetings and fascinating discussions and I just can't get enough. But if I must... so I'm going to cheat a little and assume that I get to see all the keynotes. Now it's a matter of which breakouts are top of mind for me.
I am intrigued by Angela Hill's session on The Art of Analysis. So much so in fact, that I'm putting on an eMetrics Analysis Symposium in San Jose as well. Given the tools and the data and the mathematical models - what is the nature of analysis? How does one become a creative analyst? Matthew Tod does a brilliant job of laying out the groundwork and the high end detail of Conversion Optimization but I as I am not a hands-on practitioner, I am more interested in the philosophy of analysis at the moment.
Next., I'd want to see Vicky Brock champion her favorite topic, Understanding Visitor Behaviour when your Visitors are not Shoppers. I'm quite familiar with multivariate testing and as deeply engaging and knowledgeable as Craig Sullivan is, I'm draw to the subject I know less about in order to learn more.
The next struggle is between finding out what Ask.com is up to or learning about multinational websites from Rene Dechamps Otamendi, Steve Jackson and Oliver Schiffers who are absolutely tops in their field.
Manoj - you've given me an impossible task! I have a headache...
[Manoj]: How has the global recession affected the attendances of eMetrics conferences?
[Jim Sterne]: The economic climate has people focused on the practical and tactical. The theory is nice and will help me explain it to my boss, but we need to know - specifically - how we can raise revenue, lower costs and increase customer satisfaction.
[Manoj]: Is it me or has the buzz word "enagement" died down since we last spoke at WebTrends Engage '07?
[Jim Sterne]: It's died down a bit, but with the advent of books like Martin Lindstrom's Buy-ology, it will be back!
The eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit London takes place at The New Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden, London on 18-19 May. See http://www.emetrics.org/london/
Labels: emetrics, SEM Conferences, Web Analytics
SEMPO Institute Launches New Graduate Mentoring Program
| Manoj Jasra - Saturday, March 14, 2009 0 Comments |
Effective job seekers know a good education is the first step in competing for positions in a tight economy. Then, contacts and networking must follow in order to get ahead of the pack. To give its graduates added help along a career path, SEMPO Institute, the online distance learning division of SEMPO, (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization), www.sempoinstitute.com, today announced it is launching a mentoring program whereby industry professionals help guide recent SEMPO Institute graduates through the competitive process of landing an online marketing job.
The mentoring program will be offered to SEMPO Institute students who have individually paid for an Institute course and earned a certificate of completion. “By working with a mentor, our graduates can gain further knowledge of the online marketing profession, design a career path that personally works for them, and obtain new contacts to help them secure a job,” says Katie Donovan, SEMPO Institute Business Development Manager.
SEMPO Institute’s first group of mentors are Niki Fielding, president and CEO, and Marc Engelsman, vice president, client programs and services, for Digital Brand Expressions (a SEMPO Circle member). “I always wished there was somebody who could help me find my way when I first got started in marketing,” says Engelsman, “so I signed up for this the minute I saw it.”
Says Fielding, “The mentoring program is a great opportunity to give SEMPO Institute graduates some added value while gaining perspective from the next generation of search marketers in the process.”
To qualify as a SEMPO Institute mentor, an individual must have three or more years industry experience, three references and consent to a phone interview. They need to commit to a minimum six-month relationship with their mentee. Mentoring is expected to take about two hours a month.
Graduate mentees need to have passed at least one SEMPO Institute course, have less than two years industry experience, three references and consent to a phone interview. The Institute will assign mentees on a first come, first served basis. Those interested in becoming a mentor or mentee can contact sales@sempoinstitute.com.
Among the activities mentors and mentees can engage in are further examining concepts covered in the courses; information on other resources such as blogs and conferences, discussions on the overall job picture, and introductions to others working in the industry.
The mentoring program will be offered to SEMPO Institute students who have individually paid for an Institute course and earned a certificate of completion. “By working with a mentor, our graduates can gain further knowledge of the online marketing profession, design a career path that personally works for them, and obtain new contacts to help them secure a job,” says Katie Donovan, SEMPO Institute Business Development Manager.
SEMPO Institute’s first group of mentors are Niki Fielding, president and CEO, and Marc Engelsman, vice president, client programs and services, for Digital Brand Expressions (a SEMPO Circle member). “I always wished there was somebody who could help me find my way when I first got started in marketing,” says Engelsman, “so I signed up for this the minute I saw it.”
Says Fielding, “The mentoring program is a great opportunity to give SEMPO Institute graduates some added value while gaining perspective from the next generation of search marketers in the process.”
To qualify as a SEMPO Institute mentor, an individual must have three or more years industry experience, three references and consent to a phone interview. They need to commit to a minimum six-month relationship with their mentee. Mentoring is expected to take about two hours a month.
Graduate mentees need to have passed at least one SEMPO Institute course, have less than two years industry experience, three references and consent to a phone interview. The Institute will assign mentees on a first come, first served basis. Those interested in becoming a mentor or mentee can contact sales@sempoinstitute.com.
Among the activities mentors and mentees can engage in are further examining concepts covered in the courses; information on other resources such as blogs and conferences, discussions on the overall job picture, and introductions to others working in the industry.
Labels: sempo
Can Optimizing My 404 Error Page Make Me Money?
| Mary Peng - Friday, March 13, 2009 1 Comments |
No matter what type of site you may have, 404 errors may cost you something. It might not be money, but it's costing you something. Retail sites could be losing money. Other types of sites, however, may be losing something just as valuable...pageviews...return visitors...things like that.
On your site, what do you use as a measure of site performance? How have you been doing lately? Maybe you've been enjoying high numbers for a while, or maybe you've been getting used to steady KPI growth. How much would your website performance improve if your traffic and/or pageviews grew by another 10-25% percent?
The truth is, your site could potentially do that extra 10-25%, you just don't benefit from it because your visitors are encountering 404 page not found errors. These visitors can be potential browsers and buyers, but once they hit that 404 page, they'll leave and bring their money to another site.
How do you keep these people on your site? There are two paths you can take: 1. Optimize your 404 page WITHOUT trying to ID and eliminate the errors from occurring or 2. Optimize your 404 page while attempting to ID and eliminate the 404 errors from occurring on your site.
Option #1: Optimize 404 Page ONLY
This can be done through a great custom 404 page. There are certain guidelines for an awesome 404 page to follow when working on your custom 404 page. Some of these guidelines are:
On your site, what do you use as a measure of site performance? How have you been doing lately? Maybe you've been enjoying high numbers for a while, or maybe you've been getting used to steady KPI growth. How much would your website performance improve if your traffic and/or pageviews grew by another 10-25% percent?
The truth is, your site could potentially do that extra 10-25%, you just don't benefit from it because your visitors are encountering 404 page not found errors. These visitors can be potential browsers and buyers, but once they hit that 404 page, they'll leave and bring their money to another site.
How do you keep these people on your site? There are two paths you can take: 1. Optimize your 404 page WITHOUT trying to ID and eliminate the errors from occurring or 2. Optimize your 404 page while attempting to ID and eliminate the 404 errors from occurring on your site.
Option #1: Optimize 404 Page ONLY
This can be done through a great custom 404 page. There are certain guidelines for an awesome 404 page to follow when working on your custom 404 page. Some of these guidelines are:
- Have links to possible pages that the user could possibly have been looking for.
- Keep the page copy in a "It's not your fault" or "We're going to help you" tone. Unless you're trying for a comedic edge, don't make the user feel like they're wrong or doomed.
- Give them a way to contact someone directly, to talk about the 404 error they experienced. An email address or phone number would be best.
Optimizing your 404 error page will definitely help keep some visitors on your site. There are some downfalls, however, to only optimizing your 404 page. First, 404 errors will keep occurring on your page, which is bad from an SEO standpoint. Search engine spiders don't like 404 error pages and question the importance of an error filled website. Also, even if you have a great 404 page, not all of your visitors will make a second attempt to find what they were looking for. Some of them will still just leave. For a way to keep some of those visitors, read Option #2.
Option #2: Optimize 404 Page WITH ID & Elimination Process
If you decide that you want to keep more users than an optimized 404 page could keep on its own, then do this option after completing option #1 successfully. Get a system in place to track your 404 errors. Google Analytics has the capability to track your 404 errors. Simply tracking your 404 errors, however, is just the first step. You'll need a tool that will tell you where the 404 errors are being generated, and then create SEO-friendly 301 redirects to send visitors and search engine robots to a functional page. Tools, like Errorlytics, help identify 404s, the source of the 404s and then gives you the opportunity to create rules to automatically redirect these 404s to the proper working web page. Taking the couple extra steps is a small investment of time, that may have huge returns in preserving and/or improve site performance.
In conclusion, don't forget about the 404 error page. If you give it the same attention you give your other pages, it will return the love and bring in some visitors that you've been missing out on.
Option #2: Optimize 404 Page WITH ID & Elimination Process
If you decide that you want to keep more users than an optimized 404 page could keep on its own, then do this option after completing option #1 successfully. Get a system in place to track your 404 errors. Google Analytics has the capability to track your 404 errors. Simply tracking your 404 errors, however, is just the first step. You'll need a tool that will tell you where the 404 errors are being generated, and then create SEO-friendly 301 redirects to send visitors and search engine robots to a functional page. Tools, like Errorlytics, help identify 404s, the source of the 404s and then gives you the opportunity to create rules to automatically redirect these 404s to the proper working web page. Taking the couple extra steps is a small investment of time, that may have huge returns in preserving and/or improve site performance.
In conclusion, don't forget about the 404 error page. If you give it the same attention you give your other pages, it will return the love and bring in some visitors that you've been missing out on.
Labels: 404 errors, custom 404 error pages, Errorlytics, Google Analytics, Usability
US Tops Worldwide Charts for Mobile
| Manoj Jasra - Thursday, March 12, 2009 0 Comments |
The USA has knocked the UK off the top slot for mobile web browsing with 29% of the worldwide traffic, according to data released today by Bango. And the good news for content providers is that the growth in traffic is being matched by the growth in users paying for content on the mobile web.
“With 245 million subscribers, it was only a matter of time before the US became the number 1 country in the world for mobile web browsing,” said Anil Malhotra, SVP of Marketing at Bango. “When it comes to payments though, the US is accelerating faster than any other country and now accounts for 57% of payments worldwide.”
Bango has made operator billing much more efficient by enabling people to simply single-click to buy and download content straight to their mobile handsets. This optimized user experience has increased conversion rates to such an extent that mobile advertising and search marketing is now a profitable way of generating leads for Bango's customers.
The publicity behind the Apple iPhone has encouraged more people to browse the mobile web in countries such as the US and UK. But this increase in mobile browsing has taken businesses by surprise as many don’t have mobile websites.
The February Bango statistics identified mobile web browsers from a total of 208 different countries and using 1,811 different handsets. View a sample of the mobile traffic going through the Bango system at http://bango.com/live/
The statistics also show that while some countries such as India and Indonesia have a good appetite for browsing on their mobiles, it doesn’t always convert into purchases. In fact, only five countries in the Top 10 browsing chart are also in the Top 10 payments chart – USA, UK, Portugal, South Africa and Spain.
No matter how high the browsing rate, it is only converted into a high purchase rate where people have a good disposable income and can pay for content on their phone bills. In regions such as India, South Africa, Indonesia and Egypt the driver for mobile browsing is a lack of fixed-line broadband and PCs for accessing the internet which means that the mobile device is the only way people can get onto the internet.
The publicity behind the Apple iPhone has encouraged more people to browse the mobile web in countries such as the US and UK. But this increase in mobile browsing has taken businesses by surprise as many don’t have mobile websites.
The February Bango statistics identified mobile web browsers from a total of 208 different countries and using 1,811 different handsets. View a sample of the mobile traffic going through the Bango system at http://bango.com/live/
The statistics also show that while some countries such as India and Indonesia have a good appetite for browsing on their mobiles, it doesn’t always convert into purchases. In fact, only five countries in the Top 10 browsing chart are also in the Top 10 payments chart – USA, UK, Portugal, South Africa and Spain.
No matter how high the browsing rate, it is only converted into a high purchase rate where people have a good disposable income and can pay for content on their phone bills. In regions such as India, South Africa, Indonesia and Egypt the driver for mobile browsing is a lack of fixed-line broadband and PCs for accessing the internet which means that the mobile device is the only way people can get onto the internet.
Labels: bango, Mobile Analytics, Mobile Marketing
Things That Google Knows About You
| Manoj Jasra - 3 Comments |
Obviously if you use are a user of Google services you are sharing a lot of your search behavior among other things with Google as well. The E-Justice blog has published an interesting post on 25 Surprising Things That Google Knows About You. Below is a sample from the complete list of 25.
- The web pages you visit: Google AdSense is used by many web pages for online advertising, and Google’s cookies record your visits to web pages with their ad program on them.
- The blogs you read: If you use Google Reader, Google knows the blogs you subscribe to. Even if you’re not on Google Reader, Google knows all of the Blogger pages you visit.
- Who and what you’re emailing: GMail users, and those who send mail to GMail users share a variety of personal and business information with Google.
- What’s on your PC: If you’re using Google Desktop, Google knows everything that you keep on your computer.
- Your schedule: Google Calendar opens your personal and business schedule up to the prying eyes of Google.
- Your social network and interests: Google indexes sites like Orkut, Facebook, and Digg, and as such, has access to information about what you’re interested in online.
- Where you and your friends are: Using Google Latitude, cell phone users can share their location with others. Even if you’re not using Latitude, Google Maps for mobile can approximate your location.
- Your medical issues: Do you use Google Health? If so, you’re sharing your entire medical history with Google.
- Mobile number: On SMS, Google Mobile, and Gmail, you can reveal your mobile number to Google.
- What you, your friends and family look like and do: With the photo editor Picasa, you’re revealing your photographs, friends, and moments to Google.
Labels: Google
Gmail Surpasses YouTube in Visits - Hitwise
| Manoj Jasra - Wednesday, March 11, 2009 0 Comments |
According to the Hitwise Blog, Gmail has surpassed YouTube in terms of the market share of US Internet visits. Here's the summary:
- Previously, YouTube consistently ranked 10th among all websites by market share of visits until the week ending Jan. 10, 2009, where Gmail moved up one rank to reach #10. The websites have been swapping positions regularly ever since.
- Among a custom category of all Google properties, Gmail ranked 2nd behind Google for the week ending Mar. 7th, 2009.
- Both websites are receiving more visits than one year ago, with a bigger increase in the growth of visits to Gmail. The market share of visits to Gmail has increased 70% for the week ending March 7, 2009 as compared to the same week last year. Visits to YouTube also increased 16% during the same time frame.
DDX has implemented a turn-key, non-technical solution for Google Analytics Event and Pageview tracking in Adobe Flash Action Script (AS) 3.0 projects with GLU, their component based rich media management platform.
Simply enter your Google Analytics Web Property ID into GLU's management system at a project level, or set parameters within the Component Inspector in the Flash IDE for more specific control, and you're done!
It will of course take some time for reporting to show in Google Analytics, but this implementation means Google Analytics Event and Pageview tracking can be integrated in a matter of minutes without having to worry about Google's AS 3.0 API for Analytics.
Only GLU's AS 3.0 Components are Google Analytics Event Tracking ready, however these are free to download from the GLU website and can be used free within your projects under the public beta.
The following steps are abbreviated and presume you've already signed up for a free account and have access to the platform.
Process screenshots
Step 1: Login to GLU's Rich Media Management System
Step 2: Enter your Google Analytics ID into your GLU project
Step 3: For finer control set a tracking prefix or disable individual GLU components through the Flash IDE Component Inspector:
More information
GLU Platform Features:
http://www.glu.com.au/features/
GLU Google Analytics Pageview Tracking:
http://www.glu.com.au/developers/tutorials/google-analytics-page-view-tracking.htm
GLU Google Analytics Event Tracking:
http://www.glu.com.au/developers/tutorials/google-analytics-event-tracking.htm
GLU Homepage:
http://www.glu.com.au/
Labels: Google Analytics, Web Analytics
Getting Started Guide from Google Analytics
| Manoj Jasra - Tuesday, March 10, 2009 0 Comments |
The Google Analytics team have gone back to the basics and released a new guide titled the "Getting Started Guide." Below is what you can find inside the new Google Analytics Getting Started Guide:
Benefits of using Analytics
Top five ways to make Google Analytics benefit you
Signing up
What is Google Analytics and how do I sign up?
Getting to know Analytics
What does the Analytics interface look like?
What's the difference between a profile and an account?
What is a goal and funnel?
Installing Analytics
How do I add tracking code to my website?
How do I set up goals and funnels?
Advanced customizations to your code
I've installed the tracking code correctly. Now what?
Other resources
What other helpful resources are available to me?
Benefits of using Analytics
Top five ways to make Google Analytics benefit you
Signing up
What is Google Analytics and how do I sign up?
Getting to know Analytics
What does the Analytics interface look like?
What's the difference between a profile and an account?
What is a goal and funnel?
Installing Analytics
How do I add tracking code to my website?
How do I set up goals and funnels?
Advanced customizations to your code
I've installed the tracking code correctly. Now what?
Other resources
What other helpful resources are available to me?
Labels: Google Analytics, Web Analytics
StatCounter Launches GlobalStats
| Manoj Jasra - Monday, March 09, 2009 1 Comments |
Last week StatCounter launched a new service called GlobalStats which allows uers to take a look at 7 different metrics at an aggregate level across all StatCounter users. The different metrics include: Web Browsers, Browser Version, Search Engines, Operating System, Mobile Search, Mobile OS and Mobile Browsers.
Data Sample
Stats are based on aggregate data collected by StatCounter on a sample exceeding 4 billion pageviews per month collected from across the StatCounter network of more than 3 million websites. Stats are updated and made available every 4 hours, however are subject to quality assurance testing and revision for 7 days from publication.
Here are few sample charts detailing Mobile OS' and Browsers
Labels: statcounter, Web Analytics
Take the WAA Public Sector Group Web Analytics Survey
| Manoj Jasra - Sunday, March 08, 2009 0 Comments |
The Web Analytics Association (WAA) Public Sector Group is conducting a survey to understand on how public sector and non-profit organizations use Web analytics improve Web site performance. If you work on a .gov, .mil, .org, or .edu Web site, please take the survey...
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=QWRWnODN1hbqLUaNyy52Lg_3d_3d
The survey results will be used to determine:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=QWRWnODN1hbqLUaNyy52Lg_3d_3d
The survey results will be used to determine:
- Common metrics used in the public sector to measure the impact, effectiveness, and contributions of Web sites
- Benchmarks that are used to measure visitor online interactions
- Challenges that organizations face when creating, building awareness, and gauging performance with Web metrics and key performance indicators (KPI)?
If you work in a public sector (including military), non-profit or educational organization, please take the survey now! (You do not need to be a member of WAA to take the survey.)
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=QWRWnODN1hbqLUaNyy52Lg_3d_3d
Labels: Web Analytics
Adding Your 404 Page to Your SEO Strategy
| Mary Peng - Friday, March 06, 2009 1 Comments |
SEO campaign strategy can be an exciting stage in the website building process. As a lot of websites are looking to optimize their page, however, finding a creative edge is becoming more and more of a challenge. One way to add an extra creative aspect to your site is to make an awesome 404 error page. 404 error pages are often forgotten and get no attention, but what people fail to realize, is that it's a page just like any other page on a site. It has the potential to be seen by visitors and it can generate traffic and awareness for your site.First, a funny, interactive, and or unique 404 page can generate a buzz for your site. Some sites make it onto blog posts about creative custom 404 error pages simply because they have a 404 page that the blog writer found interesting. People may find a 404 error page they like and send the link to their friends, family members and co-workers. The viral marketing opportunity in a good 404 page can bring in traffic otherwise not seen by a website. 404 error pages are also important vehicles to carry a site's branding strategy. An effective 404 error page should have the same look & feel of the rest of the site, following through on the branding strategy. What's more, the 404 error page has a lot of freedom to have it's own "voice". If your company is fun loving, for example, a funny and interactive 404 page can strengthen that trait. Make your 404 error page work for you.
In conclusion, when a lot of work is put into building a functional and aesthetically pleasing site, don't forget to unlock the power of the 404 error page.
This post is brought to you by the SEO team at Errorlytics/Accession Media.
Labels: 404 errors, custom 404 error pages, Errorlytics
Whether or not you need open source business intelligence software depends largely on the needs of your company. Larger companies usually have enough IT professionals to deal with the complexities of business intelligence software, but smaller companies with smaller budgets and fewer employees don’t have that luxury. However, those smaller companies can still enjoy the benefits of BI tools by taking advantage of the flexibility of open source BI.
The Reason for Using Open Source Business Intelligence
What attracts many businesses to open source business intelligence software is that flexibility. It allows a company’s developers to embed business intelligence tools into the application being developed. That flexibility also allows a variety of users from the company, not just IT personnel or developers, to use the reporting tools that come with open source BI. The most advanced open source platforms utilize rich internet applications to increase the level of interactivity for all business users who need to be involved in the report creation process.
Other Reasons to Use Open Source BI
Open source BI can provide you with the tools you need to integrate business intelligence into your company’s day-to-day activities without going over your budget. Open source business intelligence software often comes at a lower cost, partly due to decreased licensing fees. While many companies who offer open source BI tools don’t always offer technical support, there’s no need to worry. A support program can often be purchased at minimal cost. In addition, many open source tools have a variety of users who participate in online forums that can also be a form of technical support without any cost to you at all.
If you’re interested in bringing business intelligence tools to your company, but are concerned about both the cost and the complexity of it, consider open source BI. It will provide you with the flexibility you need and won’t bust your budget. Make your life a little easier, and your company more successful, with open source business intelligence software.
Labels: BI, business intelligence, business intelligence software
Photobucket Losing Market Share - Hitwise
| Manoj Jasra - 0 Comments |
Heather Dougherty, Director of Research at Hitwise, recently shared some interesting stats regarding Photobucket's recent decline in market share. Check out a summary of her post below.
- Among the photo sharing websites, the market share of visits for the top ranked Photobucket, declined 24% to reach 27% in February 2009 from 36% the same month one year ago.
- The decline in visits to Photobucket is most likely tied to the decline in visits to MySpace, which has been a major source of traffic for the website. In July 2008, the share of traffic referred to Photobucket from MySpace was 54%, but has since decreased to 38% in February 2009.
Labels: HitWise
Omniture Integrates with Twitter
| Manoj Jasra - Thursday, March 05, 2009 0 Comments |
Omniture, Inc. (NASDAQ: OMTR), today announced a new feature for SiteCatalyst customers that allows online marketers to measure brand activity on the popular microblogging site Twitter. This new service offering, developed by Omniture Consulting, is available to all SiteCatalyst customers and is the first online analytics solution providing actionable insight based on Twitter data.Omniture customers can import Twitter data into SiteCatalyst, allowing them to answer important questions about their business, such as “who is talking about my brand and who are we reaching?” Furthermore, online marketers will be able to identify brand advocates and brand detractors. Product managers can also identify important features requests and recommendations from their most loyal users as they plan their product roadmaps. The SiteCatalyst integration with Twitter data also enables marketers to take advantage of the SiteCatalyst real-time alert feature, which can be used to send e-mails and SMS messages to mobile devices based on pre-determined criteria, such as a spike in mentions of brand-related terms. The integration can also be used to classify Twitter users into marketing segments such as customers, vendors, employees, and more.
In the quickly-evolving environment of Twitter, marketers need actionable insight into what people are saying about their brands. In addition to general brand-related alerts, this solution allows marketers to create an unlimited number of “keyword” reports that will scan full “tweet” text and route relevant “tweets” to corporate employees based upon specific keywords of interest to them. For example, product managers can specify the specific terms they are interested in and receive reports containing all “tweets” mentioning their brand and those keywords without having to manually monitor the Twitter service. This automation saves marketers time and allows them to receive relevant information as needed. Marketers can also use this functionality to monitor competition in a similar manner.
Baynote, Inc., today announced continued significant growth in adoption of its Collective Intelligence Platform (CIP) as part of the larger growth trend in the overall recommendations space. Counter to an overall decrease in spending on software, companies continue to adopt Baynote because it can rapidly lead to higher revenue and lower costs. Over 130 organizations and 200 websites now leverage the Baynote CIP.One indication of Baynote’s growth in particular is an analysis of the traffic (user visits) to its datacenter (baynote.net) which has seen a 1200% growth year over year according to Compete.com. Even during the difficult time between November 2008 and January 2009, the traffic grew an additional 80% an indication of continued adoption of the platform. This “recommendation served” increase not only indicates the overall growth of the recommendations space, it also shows that Baynote’s growth significantly exceeds any other recommendation provider, a testament to the superiority of Baynote’s social and cognitive science approach.
Another indication of the continued importance of the overall space and why this growth continues despite the deep recession can be found in a recent Forrester report entitled The Impact of The Economic Crisis On eCommerce Technology Investment. The report says “Combined with the positive impact on business metrics and the customer experience, we expect SaaS offerings in the reviews, recommendations, marketing, customer service, and analytics spaces to continue to see strong momentum.” Recommendations technology was one of three technologies described as “quick wins” in the Forrester piece. The analyst responsible for the report will be speaking on a joint Baynote-BazaarVoice webcast on April 8th at 11:00 pst. (will link to reg page)
Labels: Usability
10 Must Track Google Analytics Goals
| Ran - Wednesday, March 04, 2009 14 Comments |
The definition of Google Analytics goals has always been clear to me - a means to measure business objectives, reports and improve on them. As a London based Google Analytics consultant, I've had the privilege to work with many of the UK leading brands and seen some fantastic implementations of goals, together and quite surprisingly the lack of goals. Google Analytics has transformed itself over the years from a 'nice to have' analytics software to a 'must have' analytics software so providing you agree with my definition of Google analytics goals, you'll understand that they go way beyond tracking a sales funnel.
Before you start tracking, you'll notice that Google Analytics allows tracking of up to four goals. Therefore to track more goals, you'll need to set a duplicate profile and you might also find it useful to add a date next to the goal name.
10 Must Track Google Analytics Goals:
Track Comments - This neat analytics goal is great for websites offering blog functionality and gets more users engaged in the conversation. You'll need to track two main actions, 'submit your comment' and 'post your comment'. In order to set the goal, you'll need to track onclick events by setting up a virtual page view (a page that doesn't actually exist - such as the 'post your comment' button) and link this virtual page view to a goal in Analytics. For more technical information on how to configure this goal, check out TD Creative 'tracking comments in google analytics'
Track Social Bookmarking Actions - If you're offering some sort of social bookmarking buttons on your site, wouldn't be great to know if it's working and whether users are actually clicking on the widget. Using Google Analytics tracking clicks on outbound links is quite easy to achieve this goal. First you'll need to tag the link itself by tweaking the GA tracking code and adding /outgoing/ then set the goal page as /outgoing/.* using regex match)
If you're using Addtoany.com for example, you'll need to set the goal to head match /addtoany.com/services/ (or regex match goal as /addtoany.com/services/.*). If you're offering an internal email this page's functionality, simply add the email sent confirmation message URL as the goal.
Track Newsletter Subscriptions - I know, you're not supposed to have favourites, however this one is one of mine because its easy to place a goal value next to each successful subscription. The first stage is to start tagging your email campaigns using Google URL builder to get a better understanding of how much revenue this channel brings in and what its conversion rate is. Once you have this information (which is optional of course) you can set up the goal together with its value.
Track Catalogue Request - Similar to tracking newsletter subscriptions, catalogue request has been known to convert 10 times better than PPC traffic for some of my clients so you'll understand why tracking and optimising the catalogue request funnel is imperative for your business.
Track New Account Openings - Use this goal to understand how many users go from opening an account to completing their order and to see how difficult you are making it to open an account. You'll find by analyzing the account opening funnel that removing some of the requirements fields (i.e. do you really need my phone number now?) will help improve the goal conversion rate. Another classic mistake is having a captcha form which is too difficult to complete.
Track Feed Subscriptions - Using the very handy trackPageview tag again, you'll need to create a 'goal' page and update the feed link on the blog or website. The goal page should look something like onclick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(’/page/rss.html’);” Once the tag is up to date and assigned to the RSS link create a goal using head match.
Track File Downloads - Google Analytics offers an easy way to track clicks on links that lead to file downloads. Great for tracking PDF, MP3 etc using . For more information visit Google help resource for tracking downloads.
Track Call Back Requests - In most call back widgets I've seen there are two pages, 'request a call' and 'confirmation'. Using head match it's straight forward to set a goal. If your business tracks revenue by phone orders, you can add a goal value as well. I like this goal because it really illustrates the link between call centres and website sales and how they are all connected.
Track Leads - Perhaps my second favourite, if you are selling online or making a living from the online world you simply have to track and improve on your lead tracking. I use lead tracking on my site to track free website health check reports and working with the goal funnel I've made countless changes.
Track Sales - Despite leaving this goal until the end, it is by far the most important goal for any online retailer. My recommendation when setting this goal is to include every step a user might take to better understand where to improve. If you're asking what conversion rate you should be looking to achieve, Amazon are converting at 17%+ and some of my clients exceed this however granted the issue is more complicated and would probably need couple of blog posts to explain ;)
Bonus: track website user reviews - I am a big fan of user generated content and reviews in particular. I have seen reviews helping to increase a product conversion and these days online retailers are starting to accept reviews whether negative or positive as helping their business.
One of the best features in Google Analytics is the ability to set up goals and analysing the goal funnel understand how to improve the user experience and website offer. The first goal website owners seem to create is a sales conversion goal, though there are many other important website engagements you might want to track, understand and optimise.
Which goals do you track?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran Nir is the founder of Conversion Counts a London based online marketing agency specializing in Google Analytics training and consultancy. Image by Flickr under CC
Labels: Google Analytics
Coldwell Banker became the first national real estate brand to develop a home search application for the revolutionary Microsoft Surface. The Coldwell Banker Home Search application allows you to search for properties, browse neighborhoods, amenities and more through the touchscreen interfaceLabels: Microsoft
