Web Analytics Report surfing? well yeah right now that's a interesting term coined by "Dennis R. Mortensen"
what does it mean?
it's the unfortunate behavior in the usage of Web Analytics tools and one of the greatest sins one as a Web Analytics practitioner can do.
In my early days and probably every analyst experiences this, all the major web analytics tool offer gig/tera bytes of data and an analyst keeps surfing from one to another to look for the "right" reports. Dennis addresses this problem with some great tips which no doubt will save lot of time and get what you wanted!
Here's the link to the article!
VisualRevenue | Web Analytics Report Surfing and how to avoid it
Thank you Dennis :-)Technocrati Tags:
Showing posts with label getting started. Show all posts
Showing posts with label getting started. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Web Analytics Report surfing
Friday, July 27, 2007
Web Analytics Terminology - Back to Basic Series
The first in the Back to basic series is all about Web Analytics terminology. The common terms used on a day to day basis is the foundation of any web analyst. Web analytics terms can be sometimes tricky, understanding this will help you measure the right aspect of your site. This might not be the "entire" list but i have tried to list in the important terms which might be handy. Listed below are also related terms which is encountered in web analyst profession.
While most of these terms/definitions come from my experience with Omniture Site Catalyst and Google Analytics. I would like to emphasize that it's always a good practice to look into glossary of terms provided by the analytical solution one uses. TRAFFIC RELATED Page Views:A page view occurs when a visitor accesses a page on your web site. CPA Cost per Acquisition: The cost for acquiring a new customer. Other Important Terminology: Cookie: A cookie is a text file that uniquely identifies and is stored in the user's browser. Cookies are most commonly used to identify individuals and remember general user preferences. Bread Crumb: In a web page, a link-based navigation tool that displays your location in the Search Engine: A program that searches documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found, ranked according to relevance (or at least that's the intent). Search Engine Marketing: The process of driving highly targeted visitors to your web site.Search Engine Optimization The process of analyzing your web site and modifying it to enable search engines to read it, understand it, and index (or catalog) it correctly. Next in the back to basic series Methods of tracking Creation of KPI's
Feel free to leave your feedback/comment in case there's something i missed out!
Visits:A visit occurs when a visitor comes to and navigates around your web site. A visit may consist of multiple page views. The visit persists until 30 minutes
Visitors:A visitor is a person that comes to your web site. Does not require a persistent cookie.
Daily Unique Visitors: Unique visitor that accesses your site for a single day. Multiple visits in one day count for a one daily unique visitor.
Weekly Unique Visitors: Unique visitor that accesses your site for a single week. Multiple visits in one week count for a one weekly unique visitor.
Monthly Unique visitors: Unique visitor that accesses your site for a single month. Multiple visits in one month count for a one monthly unique visitor.
Instances:The number of times a specific value is captured.
Single Access:The number of times a page or value is captured as the only value; i.e. page A is the only page visited, and then the visitor left your site.
Entries: The number of times a page is captured as the first page of a visit.
Exits: The number of times a page is captured as the last page of a visit.
Avg Page depth: Calculation of page views divided by visits. Shows how far or “deep” an
average person navigates into the site.
Avg Time spent/Visit Length: The amount of time (in minutes) that a visitor spends on a page. Also can show the amount of time a visitor spent on a site; also called visit length.
Reloads:Counted when the same pageName is loaded twice; i.e., page is refreshed.
pathviews: Not an entire visit length; usually a collection of paths, each of which is usually 3-4 pages long. Shows the frequency of visits on that particular path.
Referrer: A domain or URL used outside of your defined domain to access your site.The Referring Domains Report and the Referrers Report break referrer data into domains and URLs so that you can view the instances that visitors access your site from a particular domain or URL. For example, if a visitor clicks a link from Site A and arrives at your site, Site A is the referrer if it is not defined as part of your domain
Referring Domain: The domain your visitors came from before they were on your site.
Return Frequency:The number of days between repeat visits from your visitors.
Return Visits/Recency: Shows how many individuals have visited more than once.These visits are not for a specified time, but are all those that have viewed your site once and have
then returned.
Segmentation: The process of dividing data and putting it into categories for easy analysis.
COMMERCE RELATED:
e-Business: e-business is a term used to describe businesses running on the Internet, or
utilizing Internet technologies to improve the productivity or profitability of a
business.
Conversions: The successful completion of any specified event, as determined by the end
user.
Conversion Rate: The successful completion of specific activities by visitors to your web site
that somehow contributes positively to your online business.
Campaign: A marketing effort used to bring visitors to a specific web site.
Banner Ad: A web advertisement that is used to drive visitors from one location on the web to another in order to promote conversion.
Revenue: Revenue is captured on the purchase event, and is defined as the total dollar amount for the sum of the order and each product.
Order: Order is the number of times the purchase event is set.
CPC Cost per Click :An advertising model in which the advertiser (sponsor) pays the publisher a certain amount each time the sponsor's ad is clicked. Also sometimes referred to as PPC (pay-per-click).
CPL Cost per Lead :The cost for gaining a lead to a new customer.
CPM Cost per thousand :Pertains to instances in which the code on the client’s web page generates a server call.
CPMM Cost per million Pertains to instances in which the code on the client’s web page generates a server call.
Cache: A temporary storage area that a web browser or service provider uses to store common pages and graphics that have been recently opened. The cache enables the browser to quickly reload pages and images that were recently viewed.
content hierarchy of a site.
Spiders: An automated program that "crawls" the web, generally for the purpose of indexing web pages for use by search engines. Since most web pages contain links to other pages, a spider can start almost anywhere. Large search engines have many spiders working at the same time.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Web Analytics educational oppurtunities review
For every aspiring web analyst, here's a review of educational oppurtunites done by the aberdeen group,The review also has list of blogs which are great info source. Iam glad to see most of the web analytics experts/guru i follow listed in there, including Dennis R. Mortensen VisualRevenue | Web Analytics educational opportunities (...and prophetic blogs).
The Review is available for free to download in two parts here.
Part 1
Part 2
Certainly a great resource atleast which would help one to keep a track of latest in web analytics happening on a daily basis.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Using Bounce Rate Metric effectively
Avinash kaushik has written a great post about bounce rate on mpdailyfix. It's a great insight on how bounce rate metric can be used effectively for Analysis.
Avinash speaks about
what Bounce rate is ?
how can it be used to
#1: Measure the bounce rate for your traffic sources.
#2: Measure bounce rate of your AdWords, AdCenter, YSM (PPC) campaigns.
#3: Measure bounce rate of your top trafficked pages.
In my experience i've understood how important bounce rate can be when looking for effectiveness of your referrers. it's a great metric to keep an eye month on month to understand where your quality visitors are coming from.
Bounce rate is also a key metric you want to look into during landing page optimization, Factors like
Headline
Call to action
Call to action Copy
look and feel
Color combinations
page load time
Misleading keywords
are just to list few important ones.
Do you measure Bounce Rate metric? if yes Great, if not Get Started now!
Related Post
1.) Bounce Rate, A metric which cant be ignored! Read more to understand what is bounce rate, industry standard and indepth factors effecting bounce rate!
2.)Improve page performance
Thursday, June 21, 2007
3 Key Skills for Web Analysts Stéphane Hamel
Stéphane Hamel wrote about the role of web analyst for a successful internet presence and maybe even the success of entire organizations.
The article explains the 3 skills for web analyst
This article provides the results of my study of web analysts and answers two primary objectives:
1. Quantify how web analysts spend their time on various tasks, andmore importantly, what type of cognitive process they engage in whiledoing those activities.
2. Help web analysts understand their own job characteristics andexplain it to their managers and fellow workers
iMedia Connection: 3 Key Skills for Web Analysts
What do you feel about the article, was it great ?is there something missing?
Do post your views here!
Saturday, June 09, 2007
what makes a good analyst - industry experts view
Well certainly a interesting question! and this is exactly what was discussed in the web Analytics forum recently. It sure was a great thread, reading views from various industry specialist was amazing. Everybody had their views, what i learn t and also thought i should share is a collaborative data or rather prerequisites for being a good web analytics analyst.
I tried to combine all of the email threads to get this list up and running, thanks to all those who participated in the discussion. This sure is a great source for those who are getting started in web analytics.
here's one of the response!
That brings up an interesting point. What does a web analyst really
need to know? I am unaware of any certification program for
analysts. I know that WAA has some courses available. Perhaps
someone will clarify this for us. At a minimum, I would think an
analyst should be familiar with:
1) Terminology
2) Methods of tracking
3) Creation of KPIs
4) Conversion analysis
5) Referer Analysis
6) Path Analysis / Dropoff points
7) Familiarity with Analytics tools
8) Auditing an implementation
9) Multivariate Testing
10) Usability Testing
11) Communicating Results
12) "Common Sense"
Frankly, there's a lot to learn. Reading books. I would add the conferences such as e-
metrics, WAA courses.
Refer to my earlier blog to understand which books, conference and webinars to attend.
Web Analytics Getting Started Step 1
Web Analytics Getting Started Step 2
A Combination of above and a great article below makes the picture more clear!
Here's another great article from the Clickz.com team by Neil Mason.
What makes a good analyst
For those who would like to read the Entire thread here's the link
View Complete Discussion here
Web Analytics getting started step 2
web analytics getting started step 2
Continuing from "Getting Started in Web Analytics step 1"
Step Two: Read.. Read.. and Read and listen (podcasts/webinars)
Yes! you read that right, from my experience the more i read posts, articles, whitepapers, podcast and interviews the more insight and more information i get regarding web analytics.
The source is huge and good enough.
1.) Web Analytics Industry leaders and their "blogs"
Leading Web Analytics ASP's have their own blogs which is very informative.
Omniture - Matt Belkin's blog
lunametrics - Robbin Steif
ROI Revolution
Epikone - Justin Cutroni
Commerce360 blog
Read Industry Experts blog, subscribe to feeds. Add to your yahoo/aol/google pages to
keep reading industry updates. x
2.) Attend Webinars,webcast/listen to podcasts (archieved or latest)
WebTrends Webcasts
Omniture Webinars
3.) Webcast/Webinars Calendar
UK Events Calendar (Web Analytics and Measurements)
Web Analytics Association Calendar
4.) Finally blog list of all the noted industry experts, whose feed you should subscribe
knowing different perspective in industry. Here's the list again.. and growing
- Inside Web Analytics (M Belkin)
- Web Analytics & Affiliate Marketing (D Mortensen)
- Braden Hoeppner
- WebAnalytics.be (Aurélie Pols)
- LunaMetrics (Robbin Steif)
- Web Analysis (Anil Batra)
- WebAnalyticsDemystified (Judah)
- Aaron Shear on SEO
- WebAnalyticsDemystified (Eric P)
- ROI Revolution (T Seward)
- GrokDotCom (Bryan Eisenberg)
- Web Analytic Matt (M Hopkins)
- Web Analytics Graph Collection
- Instant Cognition (Clint Ivy)
- Web Analytics World (M Jasra)
- Inside Analytics (Eric Butler)
The second part/step is probably the best way to expose yourself to various analytical solution providers and reading new and different perspective in web analytics.
*The methodologies and concept of learning specified above is solely as per my experience, and may vary from person to person, i have used the best of my knowledge to plot best way to learn web analytics.
*This source of this blog is combination of information from many articles, blogs and personal experience, thanks to yahoo analytics group and fellow expert bloggers.
Click Here to continue reading...
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Web Analytics - Getting Started - Step one
It sure is been a "wonderful" experience so far in the field of web analytics, here's how i feel is the best approach to web analytics learning. Here's a great post from Avinash i followed to get started, a great way to look at data for someone starting in web analytics.
To begin with defining web analytics..
Web Analytics:It’s a collection of data elements that reveal the mind – set of your marketplace. Web analytics gives you a front row look into hearts and minds of your customers and prospects.
I also remember one of the member from the webanalytics groups defined web analytics
"as the dashboard of your car, shows how your car is performing" based on which you decide how you need to ride and maintain the car! (atleast a good way to explain what web analytics means)
So as it's defined in laymans term, it's Understading the mind, heart of your customers and prospects.
Step 1.) Books and Practical Basic Hands on Experience.
Books: There are few but amazing books on Web Analytics, here are few to start with. Get a copy usually available as a PDF version also. A must have book is Eric Peterson's Web Analytics book and also book on Key Performance Indicator.
Web Analytics Demystified: Eric Peterson, learn more here
Site: Webanalyticsdemystified
Web Site Measurement Hacks: Tips & Tools to Help Optimize Your Online Business - Eric Peterson
Coming Soon (*must buy)
Web Analytics: An Hour a Day
Pre-order from Amazon:
Avinash Kaushik's Web Analytics An Hour a Day
Right now that you have a fair understanding of what web analytics is, in case you do have access to any of the analytical tool at your office, it sure is a added advantage to go ahead and play around to learn more about the tools. you need not be disapointed if incase you dont have access to any of such tools, all you need is a gmail id :-).
Step a.) Google Analytics is a free analytics software, which can be implemented into any site,blogs to track visitors, now before you login to google analytics, you sure need to have a blog or a site (if you can afford,domain and hosting is much cheaper than earlier) which you will track to start learning analytics in a practical way.
Step b.) Using the same gmail id i created a blog on blogspot (google everywhere huh), so pick up a topic or choose a subject your passionate about and create a blog! (example: In case of blog on bollywood or celebrities, go to any of the top bollywood or celebrity site to get info)
Step c.) So now you have a blog ready, login to google analytics and enter the blog address and follow the small JS file implementation in your blog and your done!
Step d.) Create a account on Technorati.com, and simultaneously pass on your blog address to your friends have them check it, include it in your signature in your yahoo or gmail id. Let it be on your gmail accout and show up in your friends list as a msg in the chat column. Spread the word (of course dont force them too much), but more the people come to your site, the better, meanwhile frequent post on your blog will be good and searches on technorati would also be a good source of refferals to your site (remember to claim your site on technorati)
Great now may be week down the line you might have got some hits or rather visits to your page, it's time to put what you've read in the books to practical use and understand what reports say (time to be curious and play around ). Before you start doing here are few things you need know and follow.
*This source of this blog is combination of information from many articles, blogs and personal experience, thanks to yahoo analytics group and fellow bloggers.
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