Content Reports in Google Analytics

With the Content Reports in Google Analytics, one can find their site’s top content and hidden gems. The content section contains reports designed to help improve the content on a site to meet the needs and expectations of visitors. A great video tutorial can be found here.

The overview component gives a quick overall view of all content. It displays metrics such as page views, unique page views, average time on page and bounce rate. By using the date range option on the top right corner, the date range can be selected and also easily compare to past dates. In the overview, there’s the option to click on page, page title, search term, event category or Adsense page. There’s a summary option of the report and with one click it will display the full report.

Find out how often people visit each page of a site, how long they stay, and how often they convert. The Site Content > Pages report shows how frequently each page on a site was viewed. Look for high bounce rates on the Landing Pages report to identify landing pages that need to be rewritten or redesigned to be more effective. If there is a search box on a site, use the Site Search reports to display how successful visitors are when they search the site. If Flash, Ajax, or other kinds of interactive elements are incorporated on a site, it may be desired to know how users interact with them. The Events report provides a non-page view based approach to tracking interactivity.

The landing pages option, displays which pages are the most popular landing pages for a website and their performance. Each page can be clicked by choosing secondary dimensions. For example, a company may want to know which traffic sources are bringing the most traffic to their homepage, just click on the homepage and select source. Great thing about this report is that E-commerce data is included, so the pages that bring transactions and revenue are displayed.

The Site Speed option in the Goggle Analytics interface measures just that by simply adding the line “_trackPageLoadTime();” to a tracking code. In this report, the average page load time of pages is shown. After all, nobody likes slow loading pages so a company can fix errors or remove content that may be causing people to quickly leave a site. This may affect lead generation and quite possibly e-commerce (if that’s the goal).

If there’s a search engine on a website which visitors can use to search the site, the Site Search category in Google Analytics can measure its usage and effectiveness on a site. In the overview section of Site Search, the percentage of visits with and without site search is displayed for comparison. Also, some other metrics such as percentage of search exits, percentage of search refinements, time after search and search depth. The Search Term component of Site Search gives the search terms people use to search a website. It’s a great way to find out what people are searching for. With this information, top search terms can be analyzed. For example, a company can compare the percentage of search exits for a particular search term to site average. If it’s very high, maybe the search engine is not giving the best results for the query.

With the Events component enabled, one can measure all kinds of activity on a website such as PDF downloads, printing pages, interaction with a slidehow, watching videos and much more. The entire Content category provides so much information about the performance of a website to keep people busy analyzing it for a long time. It’s a great place to find new insights and take action on it.

The Content section is not only a valuable tool for websites, but for blogs as well. This report shows the most popular posts on a blog. The popular content gives insight into why readers visit a blog. The topics of these posts indicate what people like, even when they don't comment. Content reports are important because they can define a blog for both readers and advertisers. A blogger can say, “My readers come to me for great quilting tutorials” or “My readers come to me to discuss the political issues important to parents of disabled children” or “My readers come to me to find out about digital marketing successes and failures.” Content reports will reveal over time that occasionally the posts people think will be extremely popular will flop, and other posts that seem like an afterthought become readers’ favorite content. This is incredibly important feedback that should guide a blog's content strategy.

The Content Report also allow for testing various content styles among various posts or pages of a blog. Testing pictures, graphs and video to see if it spikes site visits and site duration. It can also be compared to other posts or pages without such pictorial content. Every day somebody clicks the dreaded ‘back’ button without exploring a site. This “Bounce Rate” is something bloggers want to minimize. Instead of focusing on why they are leaving, focus on the things that people stay for. Do visitors immediately head to the blog? Do they click on offers or sales notifications? The Content reports can indicate where on a page visitors go, and more importantly how long they stay there. This is content that is already engaging customers, so if it’s not easily accessible to first time visitors then it is time to put it in front of them. By focusing on what is already working and making sure that new visitors can find the most compelling content bloggers will see their Bounce Rate drop and interactions climb.

Google Analytics is an effective way to not only monitor how customers find a site or blog on the internet, but also what keeps them there. Using the insights allows for focusing on efforts to build up parts of a site that need more focus, or strengthen what people are already looking for. Instead of merely maintaining an internet presence with a little work and knowledge, people can make their online businesses and presence thrive.here

Google AdWords vs. Facebook Advertising

When it comes to deciding to choose a social media and online advertising channel, a company must consider their goal. There are a few similarities between Facebook and Google AdWords, such as their massive potential audience, and the fact that both are basically PPC (pay per click) advertising channels. However, The web audience uses Google and Facebook differently – they check their Facebook accounts and they search Google, not the other way around. Depending on what the company wants to achieve in their marketing campaign, one or the other will be a better fit.

Both advertising channels use systems that are mostly self-service for the smaller advertiser, and they both have the ability to target very specific market segments, which is where the major differences lye between the two platforms. Futhermore, Facebook does not allow for mobile advertising options, retargeting options, partner sites, and keyword-based contextual targeting options (Meredith, 2012). If a customer is driving through a town and needs to pick up a prescription or other items, chances are they will use their phone to locate the destination. An effective local SEO campaign and mobile-specific ads can help customers see a particular pharmacy first (Meredith, 2012).

Google still dominates the search game with nearly two-thirds market share, according to Experian HitWise while Facebook is The Social Network--it seems just a matter of time before they announce 1 billion accounts (Meredith, 2012). However, one can assume that Facebook sessions lasts much longer than a typical Google Search, so Facebook Ads are perhaps better if companies want to build brand awareness or get a specific message across. Facebook Ads may also be better if the said message is targeted towards a certain audience, such as fans of a specific movie or TV show, or an alumni group. It’s not impossible to achieve the same targeted people-centric campaigns through Google’s AdWords, but it would be more difficult to do. With Facebook ads, companies can target their ads by age range. Offering a special on make-up or hair products? They can create campaigns by gender. There are a number of demographic categories that can be combined to reach a specifically targeted audience.

However, when it comes to pure web searches, Google is the clear leader. Google Adwords is more suited to driving actual clicks and conversions around specific services and products. It all comes down to intent – while Facebook users are only checking up on status updates and posting photos, Google searches are specifically searching for keywords and have a clear goal.

Basically, Facebook Ads are better suited to building brands or delivering a message to a target group over a longer period of time, while Google AdWords provides an easier way to capture consumers that are dead set on buying specific products or services. Let’s check out this brief video of how one local real estate agent use Facebook Ads to grow her business (Elias, 2012).

In summary, if the question is which channel to use, think of Google and Facebook as venues. Either venue is capable of achieving your objective whether that be awareness building or driving purchase, a company just has to be sure it’s advertising in the right spot and in the right way. Companies should advertise for awareness at the entrance (generic keywords on AdWords or unaffiliated users on Facebook) and for purchase in the back (specific keywords on AdWords or existing fans on Facebook) (Elias, 2012).

References

Elias, H. (2012). YouTube Video: Better Than Google AdWords - Why Facebook Ads Are All You Need. Retrieved on November 12, 2012 from, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Zub5MRGx4

Meredith, A. (2012). Show Me the Money – Google AdWords and Facebook Advertising. Retrieved on November 12, 2012 from, http://scalablesocialmedia.com/2012/10/google-adwords-facebook-ads/

Content Marketing vs Starting the "Conversation"

Marketers can argue that there are many pros and cons deeming content marketing or conversational marketing as the better choice to implement. Truth is, they work together.  However, companies have stopped (and more should) thinking only in terms of “creating content” and started thinking about having conversations. The ultimate focus should be putting messages in motion—helping clients become meaningful members of relevant communities and creating content those audiences will find compelling, useful—and spreadable.

Why? What do I want to achieve by writing this bit of content? Who? With whom am I conversing? What brings those people to my site or app? What are their top tasks? Top questions? Conversations they want to start? Companies should start by surrounding their customers with thought provoking content that is buzzworthy, posting content at the right times, making content useful and easy to find, targeting influencers and structuring content with brand advocates in mind (Fay, 2012). Good storytelling is less about “telling” and more about starting a conversation in your audience’s head.

Content without conversation is just broadcasting, or just advertising because it goes to the listener/reader/viewer/visitor and stops there. It’s one way. A well thought out content strategy is two-way and may result in a message getting lodged in a person’s consciousness and becomes something they want to talk about and share. That message then gets a whole new burst of energy.  The energy behind the message is what gives it meaning, and a life of its own.  Thus the conversation begins. In order to decide which conversations are right, brands need to understand how conversations can be used to achieve a wide range of goals.

As content is shared to start a conversation, companies should then work to stimulate soft conversions, which includes viewing a video, reading a blog or magazine article, or subscribing to a blog or magazine. To trigger hard conversions -- when customers go through a registration page to obtain content – a company should offer white papers and e-books. Drawings at trade shows also drive hard conversions. It’s also important to have an in-house semantic search engine that crawls the network on a regular basis and categorizes every single piece of content against scores of different conversation tags. Basically, that will identifies what a piece of content is talking about and what the comments attached to that content are talking about.

Fostering conversations help humanize brands. Consumers want to have a conversation with a company. They don’t want to be told just how awesome the brand is or that if they don’t drink your Kool-Aid they won’t get to play with the cool kids. Your clients and customers want to feel like they are important. They want to feel engaged.

In summary, as a company moves ahead with the conversation marketing tactics, they should keep in mind their marketing fundamentals:

• What are the campaign goals?
• What segments do customers naturally collect into?
• Which segments will be targeted for marketing success?
• What message content will best resonate with target customers?

References

Fay, B. (2012). How Online Marketing Can Fuel Offline Conversations. Mashable. Retrieved on November 12, 2012 from, http://mashable.com/2012/07/18/online-marketing-offline-marketing/.

Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why conversation, not content, is king. SocialMediaToday.com. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http://socialmediatoday.com/wordspring/152636/why-conversation-not-content-king

Making the Most of Web Analysis

Understanding metrics can help enable companies identify big problems such as poor timing, inconsistent search phrases, incorrect prospect definitions and flawed audiences. Most importantly, it can help avoid wasting time and money due to poorly executed websites or marketing campaigns.

The tricky part is knowing the different types of metrics and how they can affect a business. There are four basic ways to break down web metrics: Traffic, Conversion, Performance, and Maintenance.

As it pertains to traffic, “visitors” tracks the overall traffic to a website. It’s important to know who the repeat visitors are and who they unique visitors are. “Page Views” refers to the number of pages requested from a site. Pageviews are used to convey the popularity of a website or page. They are usually what someone means when they say their site gets "a lot of hits" (Kyrnin, 2012). The “length of time” a visitor stays on site may determine the level of interest in a company. The busiest or slowest times can help figure out if certain campaigns or times of day tend to bring about more traffic. Most popular pages are reported also to what visitors to a website are interested in finding (Kyrnin, 2012). Search engine rankings, referrals, and Keywords show how a company ranks within top search engines, the traffic coming from search engines, and the keywords used to find the website. Traffic is just the first step in understanding and using web metrics.

Goals should help to separate valuable visits from less valuable ones and should reflect an organization’s goals and reason for having a website. A goal is worthless if a visitor can accomplish it accidentally. Conversion rates are based on how many times the desired goal was reached. What are you asking in return from your visitors as they move toward the goal? Do you ask for an email address? A credit-card number? Are visitors filling out a form or watching a video?

Regular maintenance to a website can have a positive impact on web metrics. A sites needs updating with fresh, accurate content. As this is done, companies improve their search engine rankings, increase the number of visitors to the site, and strengthen their online presence. If the site is not updated regularly, visitors will assume there’s nothing new to share and they will not bother to return. Without occasional new information or resources, visitors will not have a reason to come back.  What's worse, companies may lose them as a potential customer.  No matter how well designed and well publicized a site is, if it’s not maintained, it will decline in popularity and eventually in search engine rankings.

This ties hand in hand with performance. Tracking a websites performance can make companies aware of possible errors, long download times, problematic data, broken links, etc. Errors can drive visitors away from the website. A company would  also want to know if their website is functional across many platforms. A non-optimized website can have a low conversion rate because the customer was unable to complete their desired function due to poor mobile functionality.

References

Kyrnin, J. (2012). Web Analytics Basics: Learn to Measure Your Web Site. About.com. Retrieved on November 5, 2012 from,http://webdesign.about.com/od/loganalysis/a/aa092605.htm.  

Understanding Web Metrics

If you haven’t been paying attention to how your website is performing, you are losing valuable information. Paying attention to your web metrics can help you figure out exactly what is and isn’t working on your website. Who should be using web metrics (P.I. Reed School of Journalism: Lesson 1, 2012)?

·      Marketers who recognize the relevancy of electronic trading and the importance of applying Internet marketing tools but have no measuring instruments available to calculate their campaigns’ return on investment.

·      Marketers who are dissatisfied with their number of online user registrations and order placements.

·      Marketers who notice a satisfactory response to their ad campaigns but don't see a lot of follow-through on the part of the customers.

If you want web analytics to actually make a profitable impact on your business, you need to start from the beginning with business objectives. Business objectives are a way for a company to define its goals and direction. Good objectives will tell a company how to allocate its resources based on its strengths, weaknesses and opportunities at every level, including the website. A company can't really start using web analytics until they have determined business objectives. Otherwise, they are just shooting in the dark. 

This decision about business objectives for the website should come from the top. What is the business purpose of the website? It could be to generate leads or build awareness. How do you know which tool to use? Well, Google Analytics is a free analytics program provided by Google. All you have to do is add a small snippet of code to every page of the Website and in less than 24 hours you will be able to your Websites statistics.

Pulling the information from web analytics software is less than 10% of the work, with an overwhelming 90% of the time being dedicated to deriving insights that your organization to use to drive change (Przyklenk, 2012). Such change includes (Przyklenk, 2012): 

·      Comparing Trends

·      Analyzing the Significance of Data

·      Digging Deeper with Segmentation

·      Correlate Trends with Business Objectives/Impact

·      Make Insights Actionable

Web analytics can also assist in developing a highly effective marketing strategy based on the captured user data. Your marketing plan can precisely reflect what your customers want, targeting the exact keywords they use when looking for it, and build landing pages that convert visitors into customers, subscribers or repeat visitors.

Popular Tools that can be used for web/online (or social media) analytics include:

·      Google Analytics

·      Compete.com

·      Alexa.com

·      Webalizer

·      Facebook Insights 

References

P.I. Reed School of Journalism. Lesson 2: Basic Web Analytics. Retrieved on November 5, 2012 from, https://ecampus.wvu.edu/webct/urw/tp0.lc5116001/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct.

Przyklenk, G. (2012). 5 Ways To Make Web Analytics Data More Insightful. Search Engine Watch. Retrieved on November 5, 2012 from, http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2217270/5-Ways-to-Make-Web-Analytics-Data-More-Insightful