Great Reasons to Use Google Analytics

Analytics is Google’s very own visitor tracking utility; it makes it easy to improve your results online. Write better ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives, and create higher-converting websites. Google Analytics is free to all advertisers, publishers, and site owners.

The new Google Analytics allows webmasters to keep tabs on traffic to their site, including visitor numbers, traffic sources, visitor behavior & trends, times spent on the site and a host of other information gathered via two pieces of JavaScript embedded in the source-code. It runs quietly in the background, gathering the necessary information without any visible signs of its presence, unlike other free visitor trackers.

Although Analytics boasts all the features and statistical data to be expected from a top-class keyword analysis and statistics tracker, it also features a number of additional tools which put it ahead of the most of the pack where ease-of-use and depth-of-information is concerned. Let us have a look of those 4 great reasons that could compel anybody to use Google Analytics!

• The Map Overlay: Essentially, this feature brings up a map of the world, highlighting the countries a site’s visitors stem from. Clicking on a country produces a close-up view, along with a geographical breakdown according to the region and/or city from which visitors accessed the site. This tool in itself is invaluable for all those webmasters with geo-specific sites, concentrating on a particular catchments area.
• The Site Overlay: This is conceivably Google Analytics’ single most important feature from a webmaster’s or online business owner’s perspective, as it provides a hands-on view of visitor behavior. When clicked, ‘Site Overlay’ opens the tracked web site in a new window and, after a moment’s loading time, overlays each link on the screen with a bar, containing information about clicks to the target page and goal values reached. Since it allows the webmaster or site owner to navigate his or her site and see exactly how visitors flow through it, it is difficult to imagine a more effective tool than this as far as raising a site’s conversion rates is concerned.
• Goals and Funnels: Unless the site being tracked is an information site which does not rely on generating sales or enquiries, conversion rates are as important as sheer visitor numbers. The ‘Goals & Funnels’ feature allows users to set up specific goals for their site. It also allows the user to set up specific monetary values for each goal, and thus track the site’s financial performance and profitability during any given period of time. The term ‘Funnels’ refers to the specific path a visitor takes to reach the goal’s target page and allows the tracking of each individual path with a minimum of fuss.
• Graphical Representations: A great many visitor trackers out there will present the collected information in a certain way, be it a list, graph, pie chart, flow-chart or whatever. Whilst all these methods of presentation are of course valid, it is nevertheless a fact that most users are different, and a pie-chart is not necessarily ideal for those users preferring to work with graphs or vice versa. Google Analytics however, allows users to choose between views on many of its reports. Although this may seem like a relatively minor point, it nevertheless makes things easier, as it allows the user to work with the view he or she is most comfortable with.

Which free keyword research tool to use?

Below are some Keyword Research Tools; apart from manual tactics:

1. Overture: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

2. Word tracker: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
3. Rushmore’s Keyword RT: http://www.keywordenchanter.com/
4. Adwords Keyword Tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
5. Keyword Spy: http://www.keywordspy.com/

Key metrics that reveal Site Performance!

Top 4 metrics to track Web Site Performance:

Average number of page views per user: More is usually better, but high average page views combined with a low conversion rate could mean a poor shopping cart design or the wrong product mix.

Average amount of time visitors spend on the site: If visitors are staying longer than 20 seconds (the minimum threshold you want) but still not buying, you are failing to provide enough information or incentive to make a decision.

Shopping cart abandonment rate: A high abandonment rate could mean your checkout process is too complicated or you charge too much for shipping.

Conversion Rate: Conversion rates for e-commerce sites generally fall anywhere between 0.75 and 7 percent, depending on the price point and the market.

Free Advice for Search Engine Marketers!

I read a Blog post recently that gives advice to advertisers looking for an SEM. The Blogger insists that in today’s world an SEM firm must have a solid background in global equity markets and hedge funds.Before you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars; consider the following free advice:

• Know your advertiser’s objectives. Does the advertiser want to increase brand awareness? Does the advertiser have an ROI objective? Does the advertiser have a set budget, or is the sky the limit as long as the ROI target is being reached? Finding clarity regarding goals and objectives with your client is essential to building a successful online marketing program.
• Break campaigns into focused Ad Groups. Make sure that the ads in each Ad Group are appropriately paired with the keywords. Start with the advice provided by your search engine representatives, and adjust from there, based on performance and ingenuity.
• Develop and maintain relevant ad copy and landing pages. Bid management is only one factor among several which affect ad ranking. Build compelling, relevant copy that attracts consumers to click on your ads. Keep the content up-to-date. Test copy variations in distinct Ad Groups and compare performance. Make sure that the landing pages are relevant to the copy and to the keywords.
• Use the Geo-Targeting tools provided by the search engines. Make sure the ads are appropriately targeted towards geographic regions. Don’t waste budget targeting ads towards geographic regions which don’t match your target audience.
• Use match types intelligently. Explore broad, phrase, and exact match types. For each keyword, test the various match type options. Some keyword/match type combinations may result in too many clicks that don’t convert well for you — identify these combinations and eliminate them from your program. Also use negative keywords to filter out irrelevant matches.
• Study the interaction between keywords and conversions. Just because a consumer searches for “flight to Vegas” doesn’t mean he or she will book a flight to Las Vegas. The consumer may end up purchasing a bus ticket to Yonkers. Know the profit margins associated with the various conversion types so that you can set CPA or ROAS goals accordingly. If there are wide variances in profit margin in your product mix, make sure you are using a bid management system that allows you to assign goals based on the conversions as well as the keywords.
• Make sure you are using a tracking, reporting, and bid management tool with a data accuracy policy. You need good data to make good decisions. Your technology provider should give you timely and accurate click and cost data, taken directly from the search engines. Make sure your technology provider does not use unreliable referrer data for bid management calculations.

It could go on and on, but I think you get the point. Search marketing is complex, but that’s not a good excuse to abandon common sense.