Posted on December 4, 2011 by Hans Riemer
For Google's eyes only!
One of the most important things a Web Analytics tool can tell you is the keywords people are typing to find your website on the search engines. Lately, however, Google has been blocking significant portions of that data, ostensibly for privacy reasons.
To see what we mean, here’s an example of keywords as a traffic source. You can do this yourself in your own Web Analytics account. These instructions are for the new user interface in Google Analytics but instructions for the old user interface are also provided in parentheses, if appropriate.
- Log in to your account (and then click View Report).
- Select Traffic Sources > Sources > Search > Organic (Select Traffic Sources > Keywords and then select “non-paid” just below the graph).
- Scan down the list of keywords that brought non-paid traffic to your website. You may need to expand past the first 10 that are shown by default. You are looking for a keyword called “not provided” or “not set”.
In the actual example shown below, Organic Search brought 4,810 visits over a 30-day period. Of those 4,810 visits, the #1 keyword was “not provided” which brought 1,110 visits.
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Posted on January 6, 2011 by Hans Riemer
Who's clicking your PPC ads?
There are various types of click fraud in online advertising. One form involves competitors clicking on your Pay Per Click ads. They do this to waste your budget on worthless clicks, discouraging you from continuing to advertise online. With typical per-click charges ranging from a few dollars to tens of dollars, it doesn’t take long to burn someone’s daily budget and take their ads off the air.
While both Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter claim to refund charges for “suspicious” clicks, we have seen instances where consistent clicking by competitors has required manual requests for refunds. Both platforms allow IP address blocking of ads. Let’s review how this works to understand what can (and can’t) be accomplished with IP address blocking.
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Web Analytics Tools – Which Tool Should You Use?
Posted on December 2, 2010 by Hans Riemer
In the first part of this series, Your Website is Talking to You – Are You Listening? Part 1 , we gave a brief introduction, history and description of different web analytics tools and explained the two main mechanisms by which they gather data from your website. In the second installment, we reviewed the main metrics and key features that various web analytics tools can provide. If you missed those articles, it might be wise to spend a few minutes reviewing them to come up to speed on the terminology before you dive into this analysis.
In this third and final article, we’re going to help you decide which web analytics tool is best for your needs. We will focus on three inexpensive (or free) tools: Google Analytics, IVA, and PhoneTracker.
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Web Analytics Tools – What Statistics are Important to You?
Posted on November 18, 2010 by Hans Riemer
In Part 1 of this article, we gave a brief history of web analytics tools and explained the two main mechanisms by which they gather data from your website. Now, let’s look at the main features you should be aware of when you select the tool that’s best for your needs.
Google Analytics has become the dominant web analytics tool on the Internet today with a reputed market share of over 70%. Why? First, because it is free. Second, it carries the powerful Google brand. It also happens to be one of the easiest tools to setup and use – not surprisingly, it is a page-tagging type of tool (see Part 1 of this article for an explanation if the term is unfamiliar).
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Web Analytics Tools – Brief Introduction, History and Description
Posted on November 4, 2010 by Hans Riemer
The following is the first of a three-part series to be published over the next few weeks to help you make sure you have the best web analytics tool to effectively meet your needs.
Here at Market Vantage, we are big fans of web analytics. In fact, one of the reasons we enjoy our work in the field of Internet marketing is that on the Web, so many things can be tracked and measured. This allows us to see the results of campaigns or changes to a website and understand how the market responds. Because of this, Internet marketing can be a lot more scientific and technical than traditional marketing, advertising and public relations. It’s no surprise that Market Vantage’s team members have former careers in engineering, science and accounting.
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