Archive for the ‘Web Analytics’ Category

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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Eye Opening Analytics Research From Adobe

Posted by Chris on December 01, 2011 - 11:03 am

Adobe Analytics Research Report

So here is the thing, every now and then research comes out from an awesome company that helps your business tremendously. In this case, we stumbled onto Adobe’s 2010 Analytics Overview report.

Even though the report is from 2010 I feel like someone from Adobe has been reading my blog posts and compiling empirical data that supports what I have griped about for the past several months: measuring analytics takes too long.

Adobe Analytics Report Figure One

How survey responders rated the importance of their ability to measure the above metrics

The respondents to the survey reported primary focuses that included online lead generation (42%), selling products via e-commerce (41%), and generating ad revenue (9%).

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How to Make Data Driven Decisions Based on Customer Feedback

Posted by Chris on November 04, 2011 - 10:43 am
Jar Jar

Sorry to single you out Jar Jar

You should know your users inside and out. If they’re constantly asking for or about something, why not give it to them? If they are constantly complaining about something why not take it way? Anytime you can give your users something they want while cutting your down your own workload is a win-win.

An example of this was when my users kept asking about Google Analytics and whether or not it worked in conjunction with our own analytics service, SeeVolution.

We finally added it on our home page in big bold lettering: Works With Google Analytics. And from then on I saw an increase in conversion by about two percent. If you’re not familiar with conversion rates, two percent is a substantial gain. No more questions and an increase in conversion; problem solved.

Odds are there is something that your users are pining either for or to get rid of. Don’t look at this as more work, but an opportunity to increase your conversion rates and lessening your daily customer service workload.

If it worked for us, it can work for you.

Another example of using customer feedback to make an educated website change is with the startup trycapsule.com where my brother Omri is a lead developer. Capsule combines the best parts of Evite and Facebook events while giving their users privacy for each event.

Prior to receiving any customer feedback, Capsule was described as somewhere where you can “Plan, Share, and Remember.” But once they released the beta version they were getting all kinds of questions about the service and what it did. Based on this feedback they came up with a new value proposition: “Capsule is sorta like a Evite or Facebook group the same way an espresso is sorta like a cup of coffee” by taking their own responses to the questions they were getting asked the most and combining them into one fluid sentence they were able to coin quite a catchy value proposition.

Capsule

Capsule

Innovative companies are always great examples of learning from customer feedback because the product or service always has to be explained since there is nothing else like it.

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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?

Infographic: Hollywood Goes Digital

Posted by Chris on October 10, 2011 - 10:13 am
Hollywood Goes Digital

Hollywood Goes Digital

 

Web Analytics Made Simple

Posted by Seevolution Web Analitics on February 17, 2011 - 11:57 am

website analyticsAt SeeVolution we offer web analytics made simple.  This means that we can use our software with your existing site so you do not have to make complicated and expensive changes.  It also means that we offer you data that is useful and user friendly.  The way our web analytics are presented can be understood with no web analytics training.  Our web analytics are even delivered right to your email so you can have updates in real time.

This means that you have real time feedback about the performance of your website.  You can immediately get your site back to parameters that are acceptable to you once you get an alert they have gone below that threshold.  SeeVolution offers you the latest in technology with the easiest to use interface anyone could ever hope for.  Use SeeVolution for all of your web analytics needs.