Archive for the ‘Site Analytics’ Category

Top 3 Tips for Improving Your Display Ad CTR

Posted by Josh on February 29, 2012 - 4:12 pm
CTR Analytics

Make sure your graphs are going in the right direction.

We’ve stated in past posts that the difference between success and failure often times comes down to being able to squeeze every last drop of performance out of your campaigns. This means knowing how to read your analytics and then adjusting accordingly. One analytic that we are all familiar with is the Click Through Rate (CTR). Your CTR is the first indication of whether you have a winner or a dud of a campaign on your hands. Here are a couple of tips to getting all you can out of you Display Ads.

Picking the Right Placement

To start, there is a chance you could improve your CTR by 50% by just moving your ad above the fold. Heat Map Analytics studies have shown that as much as half of the visitors of a website don’t scroll past the fold. So, if you aren’t experiencing the CTR you would like, first look at where it’s found on the page.

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Know Where Your Customers Are Coming From

Posted by Josh on January 05, 2012 - 10:46 am
The Basics of Traffic Sources
Traffic Sources in Google Analytics

Knowing how people get to your website is a fundamental factor in fine-tuning your online presence.  It can do wonders when it comes to squeezing more out of your advertising budget or becoming more educated about the tendencies of your users. Fortunately for you, any web analytics tool worth its salt will have a breakdown of all the sources of traffic that lands on your site. So now that you that you know, let’s cover the basics:

Under “Traffic Sources” in your analytics you’ll find the following:

Direct Traffic – These are people who didn’t search to find you. They either typed in your URL directly or have your site bookmarked. Either way, they already knew who you were, either through an offline marketing campaign or through word of mouth.

Referring Sites – When an individual arrives at your site from clicking a link located on another site, they fall under this category. This could include banner ads or directory listings as well as blogs or partner sites. These are important to know since it can tell you a lot about what else your visitors are interested in or what they are searching for online.

Search Engines – This tells you which search engine an individual saw your search result in. This includes paid listings along with organic ones.

There are some subtleties to analytics that are worth knowing, but that is the meat and potatoes. One important thing to look for is the percentage of visitors coming from direct traffic as opposed to search engine traffic. Since 80% of web traffic comes from search engines, you know that you need to focus on your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) if you see the majority coming from direct traffic. That will tell you people aren’t finding you by your keywords and you’re missing out on a lot of very valuable (and cheap) organic traffic.

(photo by DavidErickson)

5 Traits That Will Turn You Into A Web Analytics Samurai

Posted by Chris on December 15, 2011 - 3:52 pm

According to Wikipedia, the word trait is defined as a distinguishing characteristic or quality, especially of one’s personal nature. At SeeVolution we have come up with five analytics superior analytics traits. If you can master any one of these you will be well on your way to increasing your conversion rates and maximizing your bottom line.

1. Curiosity

Curiousity

“Why are more people clicking here? Will I get more sign ups if I move this button there?” Measuring analytics is an ongoing process that will never end. Those who are compelled to play around with their layout, colors, buttons, and product offerings will do much better than those who are content with just throwing a website up and hoping people click buy. If you are someone who enjoyed high school science classes than you will probably enjoy tinkering with your website.

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How to Zero in on Your Site’s Visitors Like Pujols

Posted by Chris on October 24, 2011 - 11:16 am
Measure Analytics Like Pujols

Measure Analytics Like Pujols Measures a Pitch

Albert Pujols recently hit three homeruns in a Word Series game. To those of you not familiar with baseball, only two other people in history have accomplished such a feat: Reggie Jackson and Babe Ruth.

Pujols is known for his ability to block out distractions and zero in on a pitch. It is this ability that has made him arguably the best player in baseball for the past 5 years.

The world’s best site operators, like Pujols, are known for their ability to focus on traffic bouncing all over their site and harnessing it to help increase conversions and better optimize their site.

You can do this on your own site by focusing on the key measurements to start. The words analyze and measure sound confusing but they don’t have to be. If you think of your traffic as having a collective voice, it will be easier to make small changes to your site to give that voice more of what they want and less of what they don’t care about.

Google Analtics is just one tool to help you gauge these site choices but it is certainly not the only one. There are a number of tools out there that can help you take the guess and grunt work out of measureable changes on your site.

One of these tools is heatmaps, which can be overlaid on your site to show the “hot spots” of where your visitors are clicking. There are a multitude of other tools available to help you increase so you don’t get overwhelmed when you are just getting started.

 

Graphic: What Changes Have You Made Based on Google Analytics?

Posted by Chris on October 17, 2011 - 9:02 am
Do You Make Changes Based on Google Analytics Reporting?

Do You Make Changes Based on Google Analytics Reporting?

SeeVolution did a little research and found that a lot of people have installed Google Analytics on their website but not a lot have used the service proficiently. If you are reading this post you are probably in the IT industry in some way or another.

I’m curious, have you ever made changes to your own website based on your Google Analytics reporting? And, if so, what changes did you make specifically?

How to Use Scroll Maps to Increase Conversion Rates

Posted by Chris on October 13, 2011 - 10:05 am
Use Scroll Maps to find your site's fold and increase conversion rates

Know where your site's fold is

When see a new book that comes out do you look at the top or the bottom of the cover? What about magazines or newspapers? It is obvious that more people look at the top of things they read than the bottom. Websites are no exception. Only, with websites, there is usually some kind of buy, sign-up, or like button at some point on the page.

Your website’s fold is where there is a sharp drop-off in eyeballs to your website based on vertical scrolling.  Looking at SeeVolution’s homepage below, we can see that there is a 21% decrease in eyeballs after the fold.

SeeVolution's Fold

SeeVolution's Fold

Had our sign-up button been just an inch lower, we would be loosing about 21% of our conversion rates. Thankfully we know what we are doing, but you would be surprised at how many site managers don’t.

The simple act of moving your call to action button up could have a significant impact on your conversion rates.

Why Managing Analytics is like Coaching in the NFL

Posted by Chris on October 07, 2011 - 8:42 am
Methodical Coaching and Site Management Go Hand in Hand

Mike McCarthy Coaching his Star Quarterback Aaron Rodgers

I have always felt like being a head coach of any sport is a lot like being the C.E.O. of a company. They’re both in charge and they both have to manage not only people, but money and publicity as well. They are the face of their respective organizations.

When a football coach trots his team out onto the gridiron every Sunday he is marching his best performing players that, in the coaches opinion, give his team the best chance to win.

When I was in middle school we used to have athletes from the University of Wisconsin come and talk to us as part of a community outreach program. One stuck out in my mind when he told us that the top 1% of high school athletes get to play in college and the top 1% of college athletes get to play at the professional level.

If you have ever seen the NFL draft, you know how much these players are measured and tested before pro teams make a decision to invest their time and money in them.

In order to start and actually play, these athletes have to go through months of grueling two-a-day practices. Each position, from quarterback to kicker, is looked at under a microscope before a decision is made. There is competition every week to see who gets to start so now job is ever considered safe.

The same way a head coach measures and tests his players, you should be measuring and testing your website. If it works, keep doing it. If it doesn’t, try something new.

Coaches always test new plays and different combinations of players. You should be trying out new products or services, or different value propositions.

Coaches set goals or milestones for their team to achieve. You can set goals for your conversion rates – keeping in mind that you should always be striving to exceed your previous numbers.

The NFL and Analytics, who would have thought?

(Photo by ESPN)

2011 in Analytics: Analyzing the Trends

Posted by Chris on September 19, 2011 - 5:34 am
Web Analytics Trends

The Future of Analytics

A big thanks to Paige Taylor for contributing today’s post.

More so than in a number of different markets, the digital marketing realm seems to always be moving at a fast pace. A popular trend one month can be outdated and improved upon by another tool right after. Even with better tools always being developed for business and analytics, there have been some popular trends and tools that have stood out this year.

When it comes to web analytics, there has certainly been a swing towards the importance on optimization and user experience. As social media platforms have continued to gain popularity in the last few years, companies are always looking to explore improved ways to connect the user with the organization. Companies seem focused on allowing the experience to be easier for the user and themselves through the adoption of new trends.

The importance of proper results and a full scope is more important than ever when it comes to web analytics. Companies have been exploring the use of new testing platforms that aim to provide a fully implemented view of the entire business.

Provided the fact that a number of companies and businesses are just now beginning to expand their online presence, means that many organizations are opening up to new tools for their business. The social media presence of many companies has allowed a better connection between the users and the organizations. Companies that have had little interest in the digital aspect have begun to dabble in social media, expanding their view and plans in the process.

There are a ton of new tools and platforms that are floating around the analytics world in 2011. While there is probably an endless list of new tools that companies are taking advantage of, a few can be spotlighted for being adopted by a number of companies. Social media analytics have begun to really take off in the last few years, more so in 2011 than ever. With companies placing more and more value into social media, the need to measure results is crucial as well. Social media analytics are beginning to phase towards the integration with company websites, social media and offline behavior.

Aside from helping out users, companies are also looking for analytics tools that allow them to manage their results, protection and analytics easier. Many organizations have spent time searching for tools that help them to properly implement their data from all streams together as companies are experiencing too much data to oversee. Tools like intrusion detection, anomaly detection, tag management and behavioral analysis are being taken on by many companies in an effort to manage their different assets easier.

Data will continue to grow in the near future and companies will not only attempt to get a better view of their data streams, but also try and make managing data easier with new tools. In the past, there’s been a failure to achieve proper implementation with a number of companies. In the end of 2011 and into 2012, look for even better tools of data implementation as well as continued focus on user experience and optimization.

(Photo: Web Promo Experts)

Mouse Movement: SeeVolution’s Best Kept Secret

Posted by Chris on September 13, 2011 - 9:34 am
Mouse Movement on SeeVolution's homepage

SeeVolution's homepage under Mouse Movement

Why should you care about where people move their mouse on your website? Because analytics have shown us that people move their mouse over places on your site they are interested in.

Looking at SeeVolution’s homepage we can see that there are four different explanations for various features offered by SeeVolution: Real-Time Analytics, Works with Google Analytics, Live Heatmaps, and Live Traffic Sources. Since white represents the highest hovered area of the mouse we can see that our visitors are scrolling most over the Real-Time Analytics, Works with Google Analytics, and Live Heatmaps sections, but there is a drop off in Mouse Movement over the Live Traffic Sources section.

Live Traffic Sources is one of our most important features which allows a user know what traffic sources yield a higher value for their site in real-time. This lets a client know whether to focus more effort on a specific traffic source like a niche blog or a smaller search engine or scale back effort in a particular traffic source that is not generating traffic.

Since Mouse Movements has shown us that there is a slight drop off here we may need to either change the Live Traffic Sources heading or change the copy below it.

Site Analytics Offer Insight, Edge

Posted by Seevolution Web Analitics on February 28, 2011 - 12:19 pm

Website AnalyticsFor those looking to take their web presence to the next level, site analytics offer the insight needed.  With SeeVolution you can cater your message to your individual users, and use information provided by them about how they use your site, and what they expect from you to grow your business.  We gather pertinent information about where on your page is the most viewed.  What links are the most clicked and where is the best place for exposure and words that draw the most attention to your site.  All of these things can be used to cater your message to your target audience.  We offer site analytics in real time.  Site analytics that you can use, and site analytics that are easy to understand.

SeeVolution can bring you to the next level.  We offer tools that you can actually use and see in action.  There is nothing theoretical about our product; you can see it in action.  Get site analytics and get to the next level.