Archive of Web Analytics Posts

On Sep 30, 2009 Google announced a new AdWords reporting feature that measures conversions for display ads in the Content Network (display ads are image-based or rich media ads only – not text ads).

When I first saw this I was excited because it provides an extra level of measurement that was missing.

Many ad networks have had this metric available to advertisers for some time.  ... Read the full post

Guest Author

CJ Boguszewski Chief Marketing Officer, Hiconversion Twitter: @CJBogus

SEO vs. Conversion Rate Debate Shouldn’t Exist — Three Reasons CRO Complements SEO & SEM

Rand Fishkin, whose SEOmoz.org blog frequently has industry-leading commentary on a wide variety of optimization topics, entitled a post in January 2006 “SEO versus Conversion Rate Debate Shouldn’t Exist.”

In October 2009, the debate is still ongoing.

While the Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) discipline continues to mature alongside the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) categories, most eBusiness organizations frame their understanding of CRO in SEO/SEM terms.  ... Read the full post

Your Master Account in Yahoo functions similarly to the Master Client Center in AdWords.

Whenever you join an account to your Master Account, you gain administrative and editorial control to these accounts.  You then have the option to log in as your master account ID, the original account ID, or you  can create a new user and give this ID access to the joined account.

Once the account is joined you can access their campaigns, data, run reports, and pursue all the functionality of these linked accounts as if you created the account yourself. You can set certain login IDs to “manage” specific accounts and give roles to them related to the account in question.  ... Read the full post

I was recently contacted by Leon Krishnayana, CEO & Founder of iSpionage.com.  Leon asked if I would be willing to review the company’s PPC analytics tool.  I had heard of iSpionage before, and had tested their beta version, so I was very interested in peeking under the hood of the full breadth of the tool’s capabilities.

I did make sure that Leon understood that the review would be completely objective, and that is (obviously) how he wanted it.

So, how does iSpionage pan out as a PPC tool?

Why Use It?
 ... Read the full post

As search engines work to provide better results for the visitor it makes the search marketer’s job more complex. The right web analytics and reporting tools are essential to qualifying the results of a search engine marketing campaign.

Here are 5 ways that a deeper look into traditional web analytics reports provides a more comprehensive view of performance with search engine marketing.

The Value of AdWords PPC Impression Data
Keyword tools are important for providing a comparative look at how often words and phrases may be searched. However they do not an answer the question of how many opportunities a website may be missing when site does not rank well or does not gain traffic from a high ranking term.  ... Read the full post

Wow. I was just sitting down to write this blog post, and did my customary research to see who’s talking about the topic at hand on the Web.

At first, it looked like I might have something unique to say. Then I did a Google blog search and found that Stoney deGeyter published “my” post 35 minutes ago. Stoney’s post, titled An End To Ranking Reports Is An End to Analysis, is a great read!  ... Read the full post

When evaluating web analytics packages for your business, there are a lot of great tools and options out there, regardless of the size of the website or company budget. Even though search engine marketing has become an integral part of most analytics packages, it’s important to make sure specific search engine related needs will be addressed in your selection.

Here is a checklist of valuable questions and details to look for in a web analytics package related to your search engine marketing efforts.  ... Read the full post

My clients’ understanding of the value of PPC might hinge on my ability to lucidly present data. So by flooding them with data I do us both a disservice. I don’t accurately portray the success of the paid search campaign and the client does not necessarily understand what he or she is getting for their paid search investment.

I am going to show how some universally reported paid search metrics can be presented so that someone with little or no experience in paid search would be able to see the value.

Metric 1: Clicks  ... Read the full post

It seems like forever since Google first announced a Sitemaps program for webmasters; allowing the website owner to submit their web addresses to Google for indexing and crawling. Sitemaps has since evolved into a suite of Google services and tools – Google Webmaster Central, which allows webmasters to better understand how their site performs and is viewed by the search engine as well as diagnostic and reporting tools designed to aid the website owner in addressing issues and resolving problems. This post is meant to provide an overview of Google Webmaster Central, highlighting how to use the service and specific functionality many of our clients have found valuable in their search engine marketing efforts.  ... Read the full post