Earlier this year, a previous post addressed using web analytics
to optimize a paid search campaign.  This drew some attention, as web
analytics (WA) are one of those things that everyone knows they need, but not
always sure exactly what actions are called for in a given set of data. I
suppose some of this can be blamed on the usability of the dashes as it’s pretty
easy for them to get unwieldy…which can lead to a full blown case of
“analysis paralysis.”

It’s time to share some direction on using WA to optimize
natural search campaigns. The following reports can be found in almost every
web analytics package and are fairly consistent, but depending on campaign
goals, the insights and actions taken may vary:

1. Top Referring keywords. Look at the long tail here; 25% of the queries
   performed are ones Google has never seen. The referring keywords to the site will show themes and patterns that
   are otherwise difficult to discern.  More than once we’ve changed
   directions on a campaign because we’re seeing volume around a type of query
   we’ve never seen.  Many times the impetus for a decision like that is born
   here.
2. Referring Domains. This metric is essentially telling you
   who your biggest traffic drivers are.  Search engines and sister sites
   tend to occupy the top of the list.  However, we see some interesting
   things happening in the middle to end of this referral list.  This is a
   great way to: A. Measure the effectiveness of a link building campaign (if
   we’re seeing visitors from sites we built linking relationships with that we
   haven’t before that’s a good thing right?) and B. Find site themes and
   verticals that you may be able to generate buzz with (e.g. if we’ve got a
   particular blogger reviewing a product or service, this can inform the type of
   content on the page which could lead to greater link bait).
3. Click paths. This metric is more or less telling you how
   people navigate through the site.  There are a lot of things to be
   determined here but a big one is the effectiveness of your site layout.
   If we’re seeing a lot of people having to go through a few clicks and all
   ending up on the same page, it would indicate that there’s an opportunity to
   engage people more effectively by improving that click path.
4. Paid vs. Natural. This is an excellent metric for identifying
   gaps.  With paid search, we can quickly target the high volume terms and
   use ROI/conversion rate data to inform our decisions on where we want to
   compete organically.  Likewise, the places where we’re seeing a lot of
   activity in organic terms where we don’t have paid coverage can help us expand
   a paid campaign.
5. Geographic referrals. The more targeted and niche the web becomes,
   the more important geography is (and no, the irony of this isn’t lost on
   me).  Nevertheless, we’ve had instances where a flurry of offline
   promotions leads to a surge in a particular geo-specific market.  Certainly
   the offline team will want to know that the radio blast in Philly led to an $X
   lift in revenue. We’ll use geo data to
   develop new content, launch targeted landing pages, and in some cases, even
   modify service offerings to better target geo revenue sources.
6. Visiting trends. Almost every analytics package puts this
   metric on the forefront of their dashboard so you can see how many visitors you
   have this month verses last month and so on.  Resolution Media uses this to evaluate
   seasonality and optimize accordingly. Correlations between seasonality and
   referring keywords are also helpful in determine where linking opportunities
   could be.
7. Top Landing Pages. Lots of useful action items come from
   here.  This metric essentially tells you where your buzz is.  Keep
   these pages fresh and make sure your users can access them easily.  Seeing
   where human visitors land is a good indicator for what spiders are crawling in
   on as well.  From there, this data can be used to optimize the structure
   and internal linking scheme of the site.   For example, if we note
   that Page A is a much more popular landing page than Page B, C or D, we should
   make sure B, C and D are linking to A with optimal anchor text (based on what
   themes and keywords are on page A).
8. Conversion Rates. This is the million dollar metric right
   here!  When visitors come to the site, are they doing what we want them to
   ultimately do?  How often?  More than they were? Conversions are what
   answer these questions.  From there, we may have a number of action items
   we need to take based on what the data is telling us.   Don’t take
   brash actions if conversions suddenly drop (or spike).  However, KNOWING
   when those spikes or drops occur, and looking at what other things happened
   around it (see almost any other metric listed here) as soon as possible is
   absolutely essential to taking the right actions.  It could lead to
   campaign spending changes, landing page optimization, re-targeting keywords,
   building new link bait and a host of other scenarios.
9. Bounce Rate. This is one of those metrics that I think
   varies quite a bit from project to project.  One bounce rate may be great
   for one kind of site and a total failure for another.  It’s essentially
   telling you how many people happened upon a single page on your site and didn’t
   bother to go elsewhere.  We generally chalk that up to them not finding
   the information they were looking for.  If we’ve got pages targeted
   specifically around one or two keywords, we may be looking for a lower bounce
   rate than a page that casts a wider net.  Measuring bounce rate according
   to page type is essential to evaluating the effectiveness of our content and
   the messaging.
10. Browser type. It’s weird how this was a metric that fell
    out of favor for awhile and is starting to make a comeback.  I’m talking
    about mobile here people!  If we’ve got a project that is a multi-media
    extravaganza with elements that aren’t visible to a spider or a mobile browser,
    and our browser type metrics are telling us a significant amount of traffic
    comes to us from this type of user, then this should absolutely impact how we
    present that information.

There are a host of additional web analytics reports that
lead to the optimization of a natural search campaign.  Reading back over
the list, much emphasis was put on site usability, which supports that driving
traffic to the website is half the battle, and having a website that drives the
traffic to take a desired action can be just as important.

22-May-08 2:00 PM
Continued here:
Using Web Analytics for SEO

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NEW YORK, NY, May 15, 2008 - FutureNow, Inc. (FUTR.OB) and IMC (Internet Marketing Conference) will offer three seminar-style training events for professionals involved in the planning, execution and optimization of new media campaigns. The events will take place over three days, from June 2nd through June 4th, in New York City. The first event, FutureNow’s popular Persuasive Online Copywriting seminar, takes place on Monday, June 2. Participants will learn how to write for different customer segments, format for maximum readability, ensure that sales and marketing copy is easy to find via search engines, and write in a voice and tone that persuades visitors to take action. On Tuesday, June 3, FutureNow’s Call to Action seminar, led by Bryan Eisenberg, best-selling author and co-founder of FutureNow, is based on Eisenberg’s bestselling book, Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results. This seminar is a crash course on the synergies between web analytics, web…
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Leading Marketers Announce Three Days of Seminars on Copywriting, Website Optimization, and Mobile Web Marketing, This June in New York City

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Over the past few years GX and Nedstat have worked together to deliver website implementations for various customers such as Schiphol Group, SBS Broadcasting, Nationale Nederlanden, Ajax and Radio 538. During this time both company’s noticed a rising demand for a generic solution that both new and existing customers could profit from. The introduction of open API’s in the Sitestat platform and the GX WebManager 9 has allowed for a close integration based on open standards. GX WebManager 9 offers a component-based architecture, enabling it to add and instantly use components on a website. Therefore, installation and configuration of the solution is very easy.

The integrated solution consists of a WebManager Component Bundle (WCB) that makes it possible to show Nedstat’s Sitestat application on a website that is developed in the GX WebManager. The component also has several complementary tools to configure the integration between GX WebManager and Sitestat.

The following data are now instantly measurable:

• All pages and other content items
• Click-outs that register what documents have been downloaded and what external links have been clicked on
• Loading time of pages
• All standard Sitestat characteristics regarding visitors (IP-address, location, browser, OS)

You can download the GX Sitestat WCB for free at www.wcmexchange.com, the GX online marketplace for WebManager Component Bundles.

Continued here: 
Nedstat and GX join forces

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San Francisco, CA – May 5, 2008 – The Web Analytics Association (WAA), the global advocate for the online marketing analytics profession, today announced the newly elected directors for 2008-2009. Comprised of individuals from across the US, Canada and Europe, the Board reflects the wide range of industry experience and expertise that make up the growing marketing analytics profession. WAA Chairman Jim Sterne said, The WAA is growing and maturing, and this new Board is a wonderful mix of talent and geography. The cumulative experience of these people is exceeded only by their cumulative IQ. We have a great team for tackling our objectives for the coming year. The following members will serve the Board for the coming year: Vicky Brock, Highland Business Research, Inverness Highlands, Scotland June Dershewitz, Semphonic, San Francisco, CA Andrea Hadley, NetSetGo Marketing, Vancouver, BC Canada Avinash Kaushik, Author, Analytics Evangelist - Google, Mountain View, CA …
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Web Analytics Association Announces New Board Of Directors

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Many times, statistics from web analysis can be misleading. It is all too easy to end up doing the wrong thing based on analysis of website statistic. Here are some pitfalls for the following metrics:

1. Number of Leads by Keyword

   It is very important to measure conversions by keyword. This lets you know where to focus your marketing efforts. However, many B2B sites and especially those with high cost items have a relatively small number of conversions. In addition, the conversion may occur:

   • During the 2nd, or later visits when the original keyword used is now lost (due to cookie erasing, subsequent search using product name, etc)
   • By a coworker of the original searcher who lands directly on site since the URL is now known

   Since the numbers are small and may not be traceable to the original search, in many cases it is statistically invalid to decide on actionable items based on the number of leads by keyword. In those cases it is best to find proxies for conversions. Possible proxy candidates are time-on-site or engaging actions.

2. Percentage of Leads

   The percentage of leads from total visitors or any other segment is not always relevant. In many cases the profit from a B2B sale is big enough so that a good lead can justify the cost of a campaign even though the percentage of leads is small. The absolute number of leads is more important in this case. If you see that the percentage of leads from traffic is going down but the absolute number is going up–you can should go out and celebrate your success.

3. Absolute Number of Leads

   Measuring the absolute number of leads can mislead you. Yes, I know I just contradicted the previous point. Unfortunately you may sometimes notice the number of leads is decreasing. Before you panic, it is useful to measure the percentage of conversions. This is because there are many times when seasonal or other time-based factors impact total traffic.

   If we just measure absolute numbers and we see a 50% drop in leads we start to panic. But if you see that the percentage of leads is consistent over the last few months you know that the reduction in number of leads is due to a drop in traffic.

   You should then analyze to see if the reason is seasonal or other factors we have no control over. If it is seasonal, we can relax–although we should still try and improve the percentages. If it is a factor we do have control over, we can then start to panic and work to rectify the situation.

   It is useful to measure percentage of conversions to use as an early warning sign, however our main goal should be to increase absolute conversions until the expense of increasing them outweighs the profit.

4. ROI

   This important metric has great PR but it is undeserved. As long as you are profiting from a campaign, the return on investment should not be use to eliminate ad campaigns. You can use it:

   • If you need to reduce your advertising budget this metric then becomes necessary in order to guide you to which areas it is best to reduce the budget.
   • To measure your optimization efforts

   If you are selling on your web site, make sure to measure the revenue for each conversion and not just the number of leads. Not all conversions are created equal.

5. Number of Downloads

   Not all downloads are created equal. Whitepapers are typically downloaded earlier in the sales cycle. In addition, you may get many non-qualified people downloading the white paper who are interested in the subject.

   Data sheets, on the other hand are usually downloaded by people later in the sales process and who want to see detailed specifications of your product. By measuring downloads you are lumping these and other different segments together. Best to measure whitepaper downloads separately from data sheet downloads.

   An upsurge in white paper downloads in October may be because students are studying the subject described in your white paper. On the other hand, an upsurge in data sheet downloads is usually great news–unless you find out that it is your competitors doing all the downloading.

6. Using Numbers that are Statistically Valid

   In many cases metrics do not have enough information to be statistically valid. Unfortunately there is a tendency to want to come to conclusions fast. This could be because:

   • You want to prove something and are over eager to bring the testing (with the results you wanted) to a conclusion
   • There is pressure to present actionable items to others

   Avoid the pressure. I have seen many tests where the results flip flop once or twice before the numbers are valid.

7. Experience and Knowledge.

   Numbers are great and no one loves them more than me. However, they are just numbers and have many disadvantages:

   • There is still a lot of information they don’t include. For example they don’t explain why people do things
   • There may be mistakes in the data
   • The conclusions may not make sense and by being stubborn and digging deeper you can usually find the reason
   • In addition, they can be manipulated to prove preconceived ideas-sometimes uncounsiously. As my seventh grade math teacher said: Figures don’t lie, but liars figure

These are some of the web analytics pitfalls and mistakes we have come across. I am sure there are many more. If you have any, I would love to hear from you.

1-May-08 5:00 AM
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7 Web Analytics B2B Metrics Mistakes

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