Google Analytics give us a wealth of information about a website’s performance metrics, but very simply put, it shows us the following:

1. How much traffic is coming to your website.

2. Where your traffic is coming from.

3. What visitors are doing once they are on the site.

Analytics works by tracking ‘tags’, which are a small piece of JavaScript code that needs to be installed on every page of your website in order for Analytics to work properly. This data is then collated and shown in a ‘report’ page in the Google Analytics’ admin interface, where you can set up multiple reports for multiple websites within your account.

The Analytics Interface

The main Analytics admin interface is structured into 5 sections: Visitors, Sources, Content, Goals and Ecommerce, plus the main overview page called Dashboard, which is the first page you see once you’ve selected a report.

The date range can be selected in the top right hand corner of the screen wherever you are, and this tool can also be used to compare data between different time ranges by clicking ‘Compare to’ on the date range selection panel.

The Dashboard

Visits: The total number of visits in the selected time range, including both new and returning visitors. A returning visitor would be counted twice or more in this number, and so “visits” is a different measurement to “absoltue unique visits”, which is found under the Vistors tab).

Page Views: The total number of pages viewed in the selected time range.

Pages Per Visit: The average number of pages viewed per visit (i.e. number of page views divided by the number of visits within the selected time range), usually a number is between 4 and 7. Please not – this is quite a tricky metric, as it is not necessarily a good thing if visitors have to look at a lot of pages, nor is it good if they leave the site after only two clicks.

Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors who leave site without viewing a second page, i.e. they click the ‘back’ button, type a new URL, close the window or session time-out (usually 30 minutes). A good bounce rate is below 20%, 30% is pretty standard, and anywhere over 50% would suggest a close look is needed to why so many people are leaving the site.

Avg time on site: Similarly to pages per visit, Longer or shorter times depend on the website’s goals. Expect anywhere between 2 and 10 minutes.

% New Visits: The percentage of visitors who were new in the selected time range; the difference between this and 100% is your percentage of returning visitors.

The Visitors Tab

This tab deals with breaking down how many visitors you have, how many are unique, how many are new and how many are returning. It also gives you an overview of where in the world they are located on the Map Overlay, the main language they use, as well as a breakdown of the software browsers they are using and other technical information.

Traffic Sources Tab

This section deals with where your visitors are coming in from, broken down as follows:

Search Engines: paid and non-paid or natural search traffic, which can be focussed in on by clicking the appropriate sub-tab.

Direct Traffic: the number of people who typed your URL directly into their web browser.

Referring Sites: traffic that has come from websites that link to you, and usually also includes the links in emails.

In each case, you can explore more about this visitor segment by source, and compare where your high value customers are coming in from to influence your traffic strategy.

Content Tab

This tab allows you to look at the navigational routes people take once they are on your site, showing which pages are most popular, and where people go from page to page.

The Site Overlay: a great visualisation tool for usability enhancement, and can really help to influence decisions in the ordering of content and button placement.

Top Landing Pages: allows you see which landing pages work best for conversion of a particular goal

Top Exit Pages: helps to identify pages that are fail to convince, or do not encourage visitors to stay within the site.

The content Tab also has a section to show the searches are being carried out by visitors within the website, which is a great insight into what people are looking for, but even more so, it tells you which content cannot be easily found on the site, and may need additional prominence within the navigation.

Goals Tab

A key concept to understand in Analytics is the ‘Conversion’ process of a website, which means the key actions you want your visitors to take once they are on your site, also referred to in Analytics as a ‘Goal’. In many cases websites will have multiple Goals or Conversion points like buying a product, signing up to a newsletter or creating a user profile.

This section gives us an in-depth look at the various goals / conversion points on your website and helps to identify the pages that may be preventing visitors from converting to customers. A good site conversion rate is said to be 1%, but in truth this varies a great deal depending on the website and the product it is selling.

Funnel visualisation: a very useful tool to look at conversion and form sign-up processes, this tool is very useful for identifying the potential problem pages in a step-by-step process that need tweaking. This in conjunction with AB testing and face to face user testing is the optimum method of improving conversion rates.

Using Analytics in the context of strategy

Analytics allows us to accurately measure the performance of a website, and means that a web strategy should be constantly evolving, tweaking both traffic strategy and our conversion processes to opimitise the returns for the site. Measure, Learn, Refine and Repeat!

We created a new Brand for their company. We also created a fresh dynamic website to showcase their services, as well as success stories. We also created a blog for them to keep their website content fresh… every day. Other services included collateral design such as T-shirts and Hoodies, as well as Online Marketing Strategy and implementation.

We created a blog-style website for them that was fun and interactive, while very informative. It proved to be a great success as they recruited over 20 new athletes and competitors in the first 60 days from the launch of the website. We did also help them with their online marketing and social media strategy.

Think Traffic – This blog by internet entreprenuer Corbett Barr  makes some serious promises: “…teach you the techniques, tools and knowledge you need to build real, sustainable web traffic without a big budget.”  Sounds pretty good to me. Corbett relates his experiences with past projects and growing an audience for Think Traffic to the benefit of readers.  This very new blog offers practical tips and is well designed enough to get our top listing for this week’s review.

Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg – Best selling author of multiple books, Bryan Eisenberg begged me for months to add his new blog to the BIGLIST. I challenged Bryan to write another best selling book, start a new company, become a keynote speaker at several popular industry conferences and lose at least 30 pounds. (Hey, we set the bar high for the BIGLIST).  Of course, I’m kidding about the challenge (and the begging). Bryan has accomplished all of those things and much more while writing an excellent blog on conversion optimization and internet marketing strategy with his brother Jeffrey, who is also a best selling author, keynote speaker and online marketing strategist for major brands.

Jeff Bullas’s Blog – Jeff works as a sales and marketing manager at Infinity Technologies and his self-titled blog flavors towards social media – offering examples, case studies, lists of tips posts and insights from setting aside his traditional marketing roots and current focus on building trust and relationships with customers through social media, permission and inbound marketing.

CanuckSEO – Long time internet marketing veteran Jim Rudnick writes with passion and flair about “Canadian SEO for Google Success!” as well as small business, local SEM and plenty of flavorful opinion posts on a variety of search marketing industry topics. Go for the tips, stay for the story telling and enthusiasm.

Honorable Mention

Lip Service – Laura Lippay is an ex-circus performer, SEO pioneer, very classy woman and currently Director of Technical Marketing for Yahoo! Media. Laura teases us all by occasionally writing about life and search marketing on this blog that just isn’t active enough to be added to the full BIGLIST. But the Feb 2010 posts are certainly worth an Honorable Mention.

by: toprankblog.com

It’s that time of year when even the non-sports people are following tournament brackets just to fit in around the office. Not me. Nobody here gives a rip. Really. HOWEVER, I thought it would be a good opportunity to make a point, and include a pointer. (let the sports talk begin)

Let me spell it out. It’s basketball. Your business is one team. You’re playing against your cross-town rival. The customer is the ball. The net is a sale. Don’t make me draw a diagram.

What if nobody scrambled for a loose ball? What if your competitor drops the ball and you just stand there slack-jawed and let it roll through your legs while another member of your competitor’s team picks it up and scores? What if the rules allowed a third competitor to run onto the court and grab the loose ball with his own portable net?

Reminder: You’re in business, not watching basketball on TV. If you see a loose ball, pick it up. If your opponent dropped it, grab tightly and don’t give it back. In basketball, the ball goes to the team who DIDN’T score (I guess to give them a chance). In business, after you score, the ball stays with you. Don’t drop it. Pick it back up and guard it. Protect it.

Business isn’t basketball. You have permission to run onto the court with your own net and grab a loose ball.

Do I need to draw a diagram?

by: brandingblog.com

Footer design has come a long way in the last few years, as can be seen in the many footer design showcases on various web design-related blogs. Creativity and aesthetics aside, what are the elements that make up a great footer design?

Site Map

Many web site footers contain some level of site map. Often this is a duplication or expansion of the main navigation in order to aid the visitor as they move around the site.

With more options for where visitors may want to go, e-commerce sites can have a much more detailed site map.

Site Map Link

It’s probably a good idea for a site of any significant size to have a site map. And if you do have a site map, your users will expect to find a link to it in the footer.

Legal Links and Copyright Information

Despite the expanded use of the footer, it’s still regarded as the place to go for copyright information and legal-related links such as your privacy policy and terms of use.

Contact Information

It makes sense for commercial websites to have their contact information easily available. Where better than in the footer?

In addition, for businesses with a physical location, a link to a map and driving directions can be a great help for visitors.

Contact Form

Some sites have taken it a step further than simply providing contact information by including a contact form in the footer as well.

If space is tight, a call-to-action button makes a good alternative to encourage prospective customers to get in touch.

Newsletter Signup Form

Many online stores provide a convenient email signup form in the footer. Signing up for (yet) another email is often an impulse action for customers, so it’s sensible to make this as easy as possible.

Search Form

If a site design does not allow for a search form in the header or if search is an action of secondary importance, the footer provides a viable alternative location. It’s unlikely, however, that visitors will know to look for search in the footer without discovering it first through browsing.

Social Media Buttons

The footer makes a great place to place your social media links in an easily accessible place on every page.

Recent News / Twitter Feed

By breaking a footer up into columns, it’s easy to include lists of recent news, blog posts, tweets, etc. These can give visitors a quick insight into what is going on with your organization and encourage them to venture further into your site.

Region / Language Selector

It’s common to place country/language selectors in a ‘utility’ navigation in the header. However, if a site design does not support such a layout then the footer is a good alternative location.

Methods of Payment Accepted

It’s a good idea for online stores to let customers know upfront what methods of payment are accepted. Putting this information in the footer makes it readily available to visitors.

The footer is a good location for other e-commerce related information, such as security badges, guarantees and offers, as well as customer support information.

Archives / Categories / Tag Cloud

The footer makes a good place for blogs to list post archives or categories. Tag clouds seem to be less popular these days, but can fit within the navigational context of the footer well.

Company / Personal Overview

Since almost any page on a website can be the first one that a visitor encounters, a quick summary of the company or person can help orient new visitors. This overview can also help to add a little personality to pages that would otherwise be dry and factual.

Featured Content or Work

Footers make a great location to showcase your best content or work so that you can do your best to ensure that visitors don’t miss it, even when they reach the bottom of the page.

Awards and Accolades

Similar to displaying featured work, listing awards and accolades in the footer allows you to show off your success and expertise without being too upfront.

Links to Site Network

If your site is one of a number in a network, it makes sense to link out to your partner sites. The footer is an ideal place for these links.

A Personal Touch

While the footer can contain features that aid usability and drive visitor interaction, it can also be a great place to add a touch of personality and have a little fun. After all, we’re all people.

Netflix recently overhauled their movie details pages, ostensibly (according to the official blog post) to pull important information to the top of the page, better support episodic content like TV shows, and to make it easier to find similar content.

However, what seems to have many in the community up in arms (see comments, here, here, and here) is what’s been taken away — namely social features such as friend reviews and top 10 lists.

It certainly seems like an odd move in this era of social everything, especially given how strongly many users clearly feel about the usefulness of these features. I didn’t use the friends feature very much myself, but I certainly didn’t find that it got in the way of my browsing experience.

If you compare the new page with a couple of older versions that I found online you can see the differences. The new page is certainly much cleaner in terms of having been stripped away of the features that Netflix had been adding over the years.

Whether that’s a good thing is clearly up for debate.

New Netflix movie details page (click to view larger)

Old Netflix movie details page (click to view larger)

Older Netflix movie details page (click to view larger)

One significant change I did find surprising is moving the “Add to Queue” button from beneath the movie box shot to the top right of the page. To me it makes a lot more sense to have the button along with the product image and the ratings.

I’m not sure what prompted Netflix to change this particular design element which has been working fine for years. The new position does not help the overall layout of the page at all and seems disassociated with the other information on the page.

Another change that stood out to me in the redesign is that the page now feels rather bland. There is an awful lot of gray and metallic gradients in the new design. This style feels somewhat dated to me and in need of a refresh.

If you’re a Netflix user, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the new design and the change of features. Is this an overall improvement or have they ruined the experience of choosing a movie?