tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-181632342024-03-23T14:29:00.501-04:00Increasing your website's conversion rateWebsite conversion and web analytics (and using your web analytics to increase your conversion rate) are my blog's primary topics.LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.comBlogger255125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-59708406906549676462007-04-18T11:02:00.000-04:002007-04-19T07:43:10.252-04:00This Blog Has (Finally) MovedIt only took forever, but <span style="font-weight:bold;">I moved my Conversion and Web analytics blog to <a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/blog">www.lunametrics.com/blog</a></span>. You can go there and <a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2007/04/17/best-practices-in-conversion-our-new-site/">read about all the changes we made at the same time to improve our conversion rate</a> (which ironically, doesn't matter now that we are so busy. My spouse wants to know when I get a life again.) <br /><br />I moved to WordPress because being on Blogger got more painful every day. I was getting all sorts of link love here, and really wanted it at the LunaMetrics site. <br /><br />I have a ton of kinks to iron out. The biggest problem will be that Blogger doesn't support 301 redirects, so I will lose all that link love, and have to build it up again. I hope my friends will change my url in their blogrolls. <br /><br />Just about everyone who has subscribed to the blog will automatically get the new blog (Thank you, John Zeratsky -- what do bloggers do when they don't have personal friends at Feedburner? And I really do plan on being in Chicago soon and taking you out for a drink again.) If by chance you subscribed using the very basic feed string (whatever that is called), lunametrics.blogspot.com/atom.xml, then you really do need to resubscribe, http://feeds.feedburner.com/lunametrics-blog. (But you can just click on the buttons on the blogsite, that will do the trick.) <br /><br />Finally, late last night, I called my hosting company. "I think your Apache server is down," I said to them. "I can't get my new blog or my new site, just the old .asp one." Well, the guy said, I see it just fine. Ultimately, I had to reboot. I'm sorry. Thanks to <a href="http://www.benry.net">Benry</a> for pointing this out (I thought it was just me.) I'm sure that Steve will tell us why. <br /><br />Robbin<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com">Lunametrics</a><br /><br />ps I really do have that next filters post written.LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-34378868765918852052007-04-14T13:49:00.000-04:002007-04-27T16:58:39.813-04:00The Ultimate Hero Shot: Your pictureDo you ever start to leave question and then delete it?<br /><br />(Technically speaking, <a href="http://www.futurenowinc.com/">Bryan Eisenberg</a> posed this question to me in a bar two weeks ago. But he was really talking about user engagement, and I am talking about getting customer service sites to convert.)<br /><br />So it is Saturday, and I am supposed to be doing financial stuff for my company and my family. Quicken and Quickbooks are not always my friends, though. For the first time, I decided to leave a comment about how unhelpful the Quicken help can be. I was absolutely shocked to click on the "Did this help you?" button and get this picture:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqgo3YzwVOrkAIhy6gPjSAJ5a_XUJRJl5pNduFqwXhZ5CjrRv67Wh6fmve2nLIVqqz_j6cRO1l0b6KR6MkDN4hU8Ig7uQaYX5vHa_-YPhPDl4ctmzG2XYWckPi8nRx0GZTmUDezQ/s1600-h/intuit-helpers.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqgo3YzwVOrkAIhy6gPjSAJ5a_XUJRJl5pNduFqwXhZ5CjrRv67Wh6fmve2nLIVqqz_j6cRO1l0b6KR6MkDN4hU8Ig7uQaYX5vHa_-YPhPDl4ctmzG2XYWckPi8nRx0GZTmUDezQ/s400/intuit-helpers.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5053343925259590002" border="0" /></a><br /><br />... with the words, "Hi, we're responsible for your feedback." And it really made me feel like someone was going to read and care about it. I especially love the way they did the photography, it was just a group photo of colleagues. Prettier and more professional isn't always better, I think (would have loved to see the results of that test.)<br /><br />Robbin<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a>LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-41565426500807885612007-04-12T08:14:00.000-04:002007-04-27T16:58:29.122-04:00Filters for GA, part 2: What do we have here?Filters are hard when you don't know why to use them, when you don't know how to use them, and when you don't know which ones to use. I'll start with the end, which ones to use when. Even understanding what you have available can be confusing. Note: even though this may seem like an easy topic, there are some interesting things here.<br /><br />At the "top level," are three predefined filters plus the ability to create custom filters:<br /><ol><li><b>Exclude all traffic from a domain</b></li><br /><li><b>Exclude all traffic from an IP address</b></li><br /><li><b>Include only traffic to a subdirectory</b></li><br /><li>Custom</li></ol><br />Then, within custom filters, there are five other kinds of filters:<br /><ol><br /><li>Include</li><br /><li>Exclude</li><br /><li>lowercase</li>,<br /><li>UPPERCASE </li><br /><li>Search/Replace</li><br /><li>Advanced</li></ol><br />But wait! you are saying. What about Lookup table? Sorry, it is not supported at this time. Don't you think the idea of showing something you can't do is ridiculous? But no one asked me.<br /><br />In any case, not all custom filters are advanced filters. (I can't wait to get to Custom Advanced filters, but that is not today.)<br /><br />I put the first three in boldfaced to point them out. They are the most predefined (or if you like, out of the box) filters that we have, and the ones I will write about today.<br /><br />Now, let me go through them and talk about when you would use them. (By the way, <a href="http://www.roirevolution.com/blog/2006/01/filtering_your_data.html">Michael Harrison at ROI Solutions wrote a nice summary of filters for GA in January.</a><br /><br />Exclude all traffic from a domain and exclude all traffic from an IP address are two different ways to not include traffic. Mostly, I see them used to get rid of your own traffic, your web developer's traffic, your website marketing firm's traffic. So why use one versus the other?<br /><br />Well, I'll use me as an example. Although my company is lunametrics.com, our domain is really our ISP, Speakeasy. And I don't want to exclude all Speakeasy traffic, because that means, I will have excluded everyone else from there.<br /><br />So IP address would seem to be a better choice. (To get your IP address, type "what is my IP address?" into Google, and you'll probably get the answer in the first hit.) On the other hand, every time I log in at Starbucks, my IP address changes. And my domain still wouldn't be <b>LunaMetrics</b>, it would probably be T-Mobile. Or something like that.<br /><br />So on the off chance that I haven't already given enough publicity to this workaround: my favorite answer for a small company is to <a href="http://www.epikone.com/blog/2006/07/11/count-me-out/">use this workaround, called "Count me Out!</a>. <br /><br />However, the Count me Out! workaround is not where you want to go with large companies. It's hard to get 25 people to go to a site and type in a specific word (I even had a customer who reprogrammed it so that the word was already there and all they had to do was hit "enter", and I still don't think I have everyone out of the data. Imagine doing it with a 25,000 person company?) With a large company, you might as well get the IP addresses and take them all out of the data. (But wait, you are thinking, they are a large company, can't I just use domain name? Well, do a domain lookup [type in "domain lookup" to get a tool), and give the tool one of the big company's IP addresses. Do you get their company name or do you get Verizon?)<br /><br />Finally, in the category of "out of the box" filters is: <span style="font-weight: bold;">Include only traffic to a subdirectory.</span> That enables you to see just the traffic that is going to just a part of your website. You could also achieve the identical results with a custom include filter, but that one has to wait until tomorrow.<br /><br />Of course, you should try all your custom filters on separate profiles, like I wrote about earlier in the week. And a separate profile is just about required for the <span style="font-weight: bold;">include all traffic to a subdirectory, </span>because if you put it on your good, "prodution" profile, you will lose all the information about the traffic not going to that subdirectory.<br /><br />Many thanks to Nick and Helen for their help. They didn't read any of this, so the mistakes are mine, mine, all mine. Coming next: when to use custom filters.<br /><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=Filters+for+GA+Part+2" border="0" height="0" width="0" /><br />Robbin<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a>LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-69825356570627718482007-04-11T17:28:00.000-04:002007-04-27T16:58:16.979-04:00Thank yous, blogging lunch and moreSome quick notes: if you are going to be at the Emetrics Summit, we are having a table for WA bloggers on Monday. Any WA bloggers are invited, although we might need more than one table...<br /><br />IE6 can be pretty bad for blogs with lines that go over the margins, I learned. Many thanks to Chris at <a href="http://www2.blogger.com/www.economy.com%20">Moody's Economy.com</a> and Joe at <a href="http://www.morevisibility.com/">More Visibility</a> for pointing out the problem to me. I was just kind of lazy when Chris wrote me (because I go home every night and work on rethreading almost 300 posts on Wordpress, it is hard to worry about this blog too.) So Joe, you were just the fire I needed to fix the blog.<br /><br />Coming soon, the next part of the multi-part series on GA filters. If you are having trouble with a filter, send it to me, I am doing so many tests that I might as well include yours too.<br /><br />Robbin<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=Thank+yous+Blogging+Lunch" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-65599424168344757582007-04-10T10:57:00.000-04:002007-04-27T16:58:06.913-04:00SEO and Web AnalyticsJust imagine what it must be like to be the lone SEO working in a company that is devoted to conversion science and web analytics.<br /><br />That's the situation that LunaMetrician Taylor Pratt faces. And wouldn't you know it, we have made him drink our Kool Aid. So he wrote his article for <a href="http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/search-engine-marketing-scholarship/">Marketing Pilgrim</a> (they are having another SEO contest) about <a href="http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/04/creating-an-sem-sidekick-that-would-make-batman-jealous.html">how much your web analytics can bring to your SEO/SEM.</a><br /><br />I hope you will <a href="http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/04/creating-an-sem-sidekick-that-would-make-batman-jealous.html">check out his article</a> (especially because I think they rate based on traffic. I wonder if they include engagement. Comments? Diggs? Can't you wait to go to the Summit and talk more about visitor engagement? Ooh, but I digress, let's support SEOs who care about WA.)<br /><br />Robbin<a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/"><br />LunaMetrics</a><br /><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=SEO+and+WA" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-26905817962529822942007-04-08T23:13:00.000-04:002007-04-27T16:57:56.923-04:00Filters for GA, Part I: Get Ready with Profiles and RegexI promised to write about Google Analytics (<a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2007/04/google-analytics-training-video.html">in this video</a>). But first, I want to talk about profiles and Regular Expressions, because they will make your work so much easier.<br /><br /><b>Profiles.</b> So you're learning about filters, and you'll probably make some mistakes. Join the crowd. But why make mistakes on the data that you've been using for a year now? Keep that "production data" holy, and experiment on a sandbox profile. Even if you think you are an expert at GA, always have at least once sandbox profile, and preferably two.<br /><br />(Need to understand what profiles are? Well, certainly, you can use a profile within an account to measure a second website. But here, we aren't talking about profiles for a new website, we're talking about profiles for the same website. This is one of those concepts that is hard to understand at first, but is trivial once you get it. The idea is, you have multiple copies of your web analytics, all measuring the same thing, and if you set them up exactly the same, they will look exactly the same. However, you don't have to set them up the same -- you can keep one as your "good" copy, and the others can be used to learn. <a href="http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=43864">Need to learn how to configure a second profile?)</a><br /><br />Having two clean (i.e. no filters) sandbox profiles will help you in a variety of ways: First, you don't need to worry that the <i>other</i> filters on that profile are messing you up somehow. Second, they both start (one with and the other without the filter) at the same time, so when you write me and ask me why your filter doesn't work, I promise I won't ask if you chose a time period that pulled in unfiltered data. Third, since you won't have taken yourself out of the data (because most people use filters for that, all except those who build special cookie workarounds), you can test it yourself doing all the strange things you'd like to check out.<br /><br /><b>Regular Expressions.</b> Most filters require regular expressions. <a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2007/01/intro-to-ga-regular-expressions-part.html">Now that I've gone through fourteen posts on Regular Expressions (RegEx) for Regular People</a> (and specifically, for GA), I will be referencing that data. And if you already know it, you'll think that this filter stuff is easy, easy.<br /><br />Robbin<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=Filters+for+GA+Part+I+Profiles+and+RegEx" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-18042440847554633422007-04-04T22:30:00.000-04:002007-04-27T16:57:46.265-04:00Website Optimizer: 5 non-conversions requiredDid you know that you needed five non-conversions for each of your combinations in Google's Website Optimizer? Yeah, me neither.<br /><br />When I was at Google last week, I was showing the results of a 72 way test to Eric, one of the engineers who is behind Google's Website Optimizer product. (In case you are not familiar with WO, it is Google's free multivariate software. It enables website owners to test multiple pieces of a page and even a funnel or series of pages to see which combinations of the variables convert the best. <a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/aboutus/archives/multivariate-testing.asp">Read why multivariate testing is like a game of Clue</a>.)<br /><br />Well, anyway, I showed it to Eric, and he pointed out that even though we had a few combinations with greater than a 97% chance to beat the original, one variation was't even showing up in the Combinations tab. "And that's your best one so far," he said. It converted 14 out of 17 times, the dashboard proclaimed. The reason that the combination data didn't show, he explained, was that there needed to be enough data in general for that test, and there needed to be at least five conversions and (here is the part I didn't expect) <b>five non-conversions.</b> In the case of this particular combination, there were only three non-conversions. (17-14, right?)<br /><br />So why the need for non-conversions? After all, the more conversions, the merrier, right? Well in fact, no. "It does best when the conversion rate is 50%" Eric emailed to me.<br /><br />In order to begin to wrap your head around this (assuming you aren't a statistician), you have to stop thinking that conversions are good. Instead, there are two states here, a or b. Conversion or non-conversion. Heads or Tails.<br /><br />So let's say that we take a finite, maybe only 20, visitors and estimate the conversion rate based on the fraction of the 20 that converted. Is that a good estimate of the true conversion rate? The holy "Law of large numbers" in statistics says that the average conversion of a finite set of visitors becomes a good estimate of the true value as the number of trials becomes large. But, the fine print in this law states that the number must be <b>really</b> large when the true mean (the true conversion rate) is very small (very few convert) or large (nearly all convert). In fact, for the estimate based on finite visitors to be good you need to have enough counter examples. "Counter examples" are non-conversions when the conversion rate is high, or conversions when the conversion rate is low.<br /><br />I know, you want to know where they got the number five from, and why it's an absolute number and not a percent. Me too. I'm thinking that the issue is, it <b>can't</b> be a percent, because if you have only 20 visits, you need a high percent, and if you have 100 visits to that combination, you need a low combination. By fixing a specific amount, you make sure you get <b>something</b>, for both conversions and non-conversions. For both heads and tails. But that last part is speculation. Now if you want to learn something really cool about WO, go over to ROI Revolutions's blog and read <a href="http://www.roirevolution.com/blog/2007/04/google_website_optimizer_and_google_analytics_use.html">Shawn Purtell's magnificent piece on the marriage of GA and Website Optimizer.</a><br /><br />Robbin Steif<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=5+nNon-conversions+Required+for+WO" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-47681413848048632432007-04-03T11:16:00.000-04:002007-04-27T16:57:31.675-04:00Google Analytics Training: VideoLast week, I was at Google Analytics Approved Consultant training. It was so wonderful; I got all sorts of tips and tricks. As always, one learns the best stuff in between the sessions, from the other consultants. (Yet another reason to go to the Emetrics Summit.) A special thank you to Caleb Whitmore from <a href="http://www.pop.us/">POP </a>-- if you divide his IQ by his age, he is absolutely the smartest yearly analyst around. (Did I just create my third KPI in the last six weeks??)<br /><br />By the end of the training, we were so wiped that <a href="http://www.epikone.com/blog">Justin </a>and I just sat down to create this video. (You might have to click through to the blog site to actually see this. That's always been my own experience with other peoples' videos.)<br /><br /><embed style="width: 400px; height: 326px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-5677098506126584801&hl=en" flashvars=""></embed><br /><br />Robbin Steif<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a>LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-43411845948648557102007-03-31T01:19:00.000-04:002007-04-27T16:57:20.945-04:00Judah Phillips on Rich Internet Apps for Beginners, Part III of III: UnicaThis is Part III of a three part guest post series on how to measure Rich Internet Applications.<br /><br />Judah Phillips, web analyst for Reed Publications, is joining us here to write about measuring rich internet applications (RIAs). In Part I, <a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2007/03/judah-phillips-on-rich-internet-apps.html">he wrote about what is Rich Internet?</a> In part II, he wrote about <a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2007/03/judah-phillips-on-rich-internet-apps_28.html">measuring RIAs with Google Analytics.</a> Tonight, he writes the final chapter, measuring RIAs with Unica. I pulled this into three pieces and so had to edit [see my notes inside square brackets like these] in case you hadn't already read his other pieces. Plus, I am somewhat comatose after taking the red eye back from Google Analytics training last night, so forgive me if I copy his work upside down. In any case - here is the famous Judah Phillips on measuring Rich Internet:<br /><blockquote>For those fortunate enough to have made a major investment in Web Analytics, you could [measure rich internet powerfully], if not as simply [as with Google Analytics], and within a much more focused context using a tool like Unica NetInsight. Unica NetInsight is an advanced web analytics tool for cross-channel data integration and current awareness of online behavior and demographics. It’s really neat!<br /><br />Tracking RIA with NetInsight is straightforward; however, you need to page tag. What that means is that you’ll need some basic fluency in web programming or some geeks on your team. I’d recommend that you work with your developers from “phase zero” making web analytics endemic to the site development process. Ain’t that right, Eric Peterson?<br /><br />A best practice for page tagging is to ensure that you have some way to centrally manage your tags, whether via a content management system (CMS), master template, include file, global footer, universal header, galactic widgetizing optimizer and so on. That way, you don’t have to manage change across the inevitable mess and disorganization caused by hard-coded page tags.<br /><br />Here’s a glimpse of Unica’s page tag:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9JdKlRp_fMVGuN9ACLsdPi14Hwa2KTCoAu01P74pyc17OhAV-sDC_7RmjO2w_tWBuQQP8EhgcXRdt7dn0EF28wxkQKdMN_hVpgkncZ1w4Z8qujIpN6mQzAjJ1sw4i03cz9M7soA/s1600-h/unica+page+tag+sample.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9JdKlRp_fMVGuN9ACLsdPi14Hwa2KTCoAu01P74pyc17OhAV-sDC_7RmjO2w_tWBuQQP8EhgcXRdt7dn0EF28wxkQKdMN_hVpgkncZ1w4Z8qujIpN6mQzAjJ1sw4i03cz9M7soA/s400/unica+page+tag+sample.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5048192021797352130" border="0" /></a><br /><br />To tag a browser “event”, use a javascript function (MyEventHandler) and call the Unica NetInsight function ntptLinkTag() passing the name of the event (myevent) and any values you want (‘color” and “red” in ntptAddPair below), like this:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb9VzJvpWrwl2t02JSaafE93idCa3P8p7kgllFYO3ekpehu8yKeyq0TRdg_FB_L-3eFaS0joSQrYWteA2oyoYcRblg3sZWOn9ty3CijwdKZYIDx3SFds7QYKS_5umMb3IZDr9TJg/s1600-h/unica+page+tag+sample.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb9VzJvpWrwl2t02JSaafE93idCa3P8p7kgllFYO3ekpehu8yKeyq0TRdg_FB_L-3eFaS0joSQrYWteA2oyoYcRblg3sZWOn9ty3CijwdKZYIDx3SFds7QYKS_5umMb3IZDr9TJg/s400/unica+page+tag+sample.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5048192704697152210" border="0" /></a><br />To track a Rich Internet Application (RIA) event, use the same procedure for tagging a standard JavaScript browser event. You’d call the ntptEventTag API function and pass extra event value information as parameter to ntptEventTag, using the ntptAddPair and ntptDropPair helper functions as necessary. Here’s what I mean:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrjRfWkcsre9J5TaIlivfd0r056qLQDoGb1FKrnc6qEED5AgZmejtvvNVVFIkcuMgRbkAxH1aXx41HsAPnpSkQI-V9w01U63ZlwPpENy7YzjfZKcjG1wMWo82GmPGzdwkRMPg6ng/s1600-h/unica+pagetag+sample.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrjRfWkcsre9J5TaIlivfd0r056qLQDoGb1FKrnc6qEED5AgZmejtvvNVVFIkcuMgRbkAxH1aXx41HsAPnpSkQI-V9w01U63ZlwPpENy7YzjfZKcjG1wMWo82GmPGzdwkRMPg6ng/s400/unica+pagetag+sample.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5048202063430890290" border="0" /></a><br /></blockquote><blockquote>Using NetInsight to track Flash is little more complicated. First you want to make sure the Flash is published with support for FSCommands. Talk to the geeks to find out. Then, add the Unica Page Tag to the HTML container. Now add the Unica FSCommand command handler logic to HTML. Check it out:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1r4RGEJxkyK18RzbetT6ka8BcMx3o9MLzGbZpXkSult9HrzdahJSl_Zy5CwA9zStjehPpL-UNC3jXed2F5AysJURH9JzFKmps59N3P_O98CF9NqK0v3-1v9mYfaqQlwAJo3kIsA/s1600-h/unicafinal.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1r4RGEJxkyK18RzbetT6ka8BcMx3o9MLzGbZpXkSult9HrzdahJSl_Zy5CwA9zStjehPpL-UNC3jXed2F5AysJURH9JzFKmps59N3P_O98CF9NqK0v3-1v9mYfaqQlwAJo3kIsA/s400/unicafinal.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5048202600301802306" border="0" /></a><br /><br />NetInsight enables tagging RIA in FLASH FLEX. First, call the ntptEventTag API function through fscommands. Pass extra event value information as parameter to ntptEventTag. If you want, you can use the ntptAddPair and ntptDropPair helper functions through fscommands. Here’s an example:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2-vCTYYl_xaL4RG42t2FlAC4be6TNvYXIQ4XwKuNGWB7ygjvJeBwpoyemgpjRnckp_lsNvnaob0JcsOnHIBCw_PxfKSkLtkqIQoi1VD4Pqq2Ld01WTKu5qNJDkkYoAmknwpgO5A/s1600-h/unica+page+tag+sample.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2-vCTYYl_xaL4RG42t2FlAC4be6TNvYXIQ4XwKuNGWB7ygjvJeBwpoyemgpjRnckp_lsNvnaob0JcsOnHIBCw_PxfKSkLtkqIQoi1VD4Pqq2Ld01WTKu5qNJDkkYoAmknwpgO5A/s400/unica+page+tag+sample.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5048197691154182930" border="0" /></a><br />So there you have a few examples of measuring events and RIA using various methods <a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2007/03/judah-phillips-on-rich-internet-apps_28.html">in free</a> and not-so-free software. Advanced web analytics stuff isn’t magic, it’s just the application of interdisciplinary concepts in action look magical.<br /><br />To less technical web analysts, all the code may read like science fiction runes and hieroglyphics, but study up on this event tracking stuff for awhile. Ask questions to your geeky friends and colleagues. Contact your vendor (they all should be able to do something like this). Make event tracking and (and event pathing!) part of your web analytics practice and process. Use the data to reconcile engagement measures, understand content effectiveness, and drive user experience and strategy in the Web 2.0 world.<br /></blockquote><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=Judah+Part+3" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-34914129640625891472007-03-28T07:31:00.000-04:002007-04-27T16:57:08.298-04:00Judah Phillips on Rich Internet Apps for Beginners, Part II of III: Google AnalyticsYesterday, famous guest blogger Judah Phillips of Reed Publishing wrote Part I of a three-part guess post for this blog. <a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2007/03/judah-phillips-on-rich-internet-apps.html">Part I was, What are Rich Internet Applications?</a> Today, we have Part II, How to measure them with Google Analytics. (And the follow up will be, <a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2007/03/judah-phillips-on-rich-internet-apps_31.html">how to measure them with Unica</a>.)<br /><br />Before you read this post, you might want to read a post that Justin Cutroni published on Saturday night. <a href="http://www.epikone.com/blog/2007/03/23/tracking-clicks-with-ga-pt-2-basic-implementation/">He wrote about tracking clicks to pages where you make the name up</a>, because you can't put the code on the page. Links that take you off the page, .pdfs, etc. It is a good basis for what Judah is going to talk about: creating page names out of thin air and then using the pretend pages to track events (and hence, rich media) in GA. So here we are, lucky again to have <span style="font-weight: bold;">Judah Phillips</span>:<br /><br /><blockquote>Since we all know about page tags, let's get down to business with "the Google" and how it tracks "the Rich Media:"<br /><br />Google Analytics enables tracking of any browser event, such as Javascript and Flash events. Those smart folks at Google have a little JavaScript function called urchinTracker() that enables event tracking. Use the JavaScript function with an argument specifying a name for the event.<br /><br />For example, the function:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">javascript:urchinTracker('/mysite/flashrichmedia/playbutton');</span><br /><br />logs each occurrence of that Flash event as a page view of<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">/mysite/flashrichmedia/playbutton. </span><br /><br />Some caveats:<br />1) Always use a forward slash to begin the argument.<br />2) Actual pages with these filenames do not need to exist.<br />3) You can organize your events into any structure or hierarchy you want.<br /><br />Important: Google says to place your tracking code "between the opening tag and the JavaScript call" if your pages include a call to urchinTracker(), utmLinker(), utmSetTrans(), or utmLinkPost().<br /><br />For example, if the page view is the major event and the "play" event a minor event; then, your hiearchy would be Page View > Event, where the page contains an event, such that:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">/mysite/ria_bittons/playbutton<br />/mysite/ria_bittons/pausebutton<br />/mysite/ria_bittons/playbutton<br />/mysite/ria_clips/clip</span><br /><br />Some example of the code (from Google Help):<br /><pre><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">on (release) {<br />// Track with no action<br />getURL("javascript:urchinTracker('/folder/file');");<br />} </span><br /></pre><br />This one above tracks when you click and release (although technically, it just notices the release) of a flash button (and records the file you specify as a page view).<br /><pre><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">on (release) {<br />//Track with action<br />getURL("javascript:urchinTracker('/folder/file');");<br />_root.gotoAndPlay(3);<br />myVar = "Flash Track Test"<br />}<br /></span><br /></pre><br />The second one is the same, but by using a function,<br />passing it a parameter, and<br />identifying the instance you want to track, you can measure when your file was used<br />in a specific scene in a little flash movie. So it is a more specific<br />method for handling event tracking in Flash.<br /><pre><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">onClipEvent (enterFrame) {<br />getURL("javascript:urchinTracker('/folder/file');");<br />} </span><br /></pre><br />And the third one repeats the action throughout the movie so that each time the file is loaded, it gets tracked as an event. If you were to pass a unique file at the end of the movie, you could recognize it using this method (or the other methods) to know that the whole movie was watched (as long as your session doesn't time out).<br /><br />Now wait until Google updates your analytics to see if it all worked.<br /></blockquote><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=Judah" ga="" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-25393115343363552002007-03-27T11:07:00.000-04:002007-04-27T16:56:52.733-04:00Judah Phillips on Rich Internet Apps for Beginners, Part I of III: What is it?Before I introduce our famous guest blogger, Judah Phillips, let me explain why I wanted a beginner's intro to Rich Internet Applications.<br /><br />Rich Internet (which will be defined below, I promise), is all the rage. But (IMHO) it seems like everyone says, "Here's what Rich Internet is - then some magic occurs -- now we can measure it." So I wrote Judah Phillips, one of the people who is making a name for himself in this space, and asked if he would do a guest post for this blog that really showed how to do the measurement. Today, we'll start with, what is Rich Internet? (and will get to real coding by tomorrow.)<br /><br />Judah is Director of Web Analytics for Reed Business Information, an enormous publishing company. He is an active member of the Boston Internet and non-profit communities and a member of the WAA's marketing committee (that's how I know him). He will be speaking at the <a href="http://www.emetrics.org/">Emetrics Summit</a> in San Francisco with <s>fellow analytics geek</s> <a href="http://www.visioactive.com/">Ian Houston</a>. So here is Judah on RIA:<br /><br /><blockquote>For Web Analytics beginners, it's not easy. All this talk about "the death of the page view," "AJAX," "rich media," "engagement," and "events" is enough to make even the most savvy Web analyst think twice about what we’re measuring these days.<br /><br />So what is a Rich Internet Application (RIA) anyway, and why is it so important? RIAs are very interactive applications or web sites. Flash is a rich application. AJAX is rich. A familiar use of these kinds of technologies is Google Maps. And notice – when you use Google Maps, the name of the page doesn't change. (So now you see where all that page view death conversation comes from.) "Traditional" web analytics care about when the page name changes – they see that as an important event. Suddenly, that's changed.<br /><br />It is true that with new client-side technologies, the page view is no longer the holiest of holy metrics anymore (personally I've always liked to see increases sessions and in "page views per unique visitor"). But the page view is far from dead. Rather the page view is evolving to become a type of "major" event in the Web 2.0 experience. <br /><br />Now before I go on, let's remember that I don’t take the word "event" lightly. Everything that happens on a web site is an event. You click, it's an event. You fill in your name, that's an event. Measuring events is the heart of web analytics – and with Rich Internet, that event becomes harder to measure.<br /><br />So, let's think of the page view as a "major" event. After all, for RSS consumers, an RSS "feed request" is just as important as a page view. The feed request is another "major event" providing our information-hungry audience with the content they need. In this "Event" paradigm, technologies like AJAX and rich media create "minor events" subordinate to the page view. These minor events could conceivably engage our visitors for longer durations (for example, the minor event of "play" on rich media video), thus maximizing opportunities for generating profitable revenue from a visit. And for maximizing our potential for analysis.<br /><br />I'm hypothesizing that page views are major events in Web 2.0 and provide the <span style="font-weight: bold;">context </span>for understanding "minor events" created from widgets or AJAX or Flash or whatever.<br /><br />In other words, in Web 2.0, it could be said: the page view is dead, long live the page view!</blockquote><br />Coming tomorrow: Part II, <a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2007/03/judah-phillips-on-rich-internet-apps_28.html">measuring rich applications using Google Analytics</a>.<br />And the next day: Part III, <a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2007/03/judah-phillips-on-rich-internet-apps_31.html">Part III, measuring RIA with Unica</a><br /><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=Judah+Phillips+Part+I+" rias="" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-71461350825828991422007-03-24T10:41:00.000-04:002007-04-27T16:56:39.764-04:00How to Get a Job in Web AnalyticsEveryone knows that there aren't a lot of web analysts out there, so the idea of having to write a great cover letter to land a job might seem ridiculous. On the other hand, since there aren't a lot of web analysts out there, we want to find some great people and train them. One of our customers did that, I am so jealous of him; his analyst is incredible, with just the "teach it to me" attitude I look for.<br /><br />But to cut to the chase - I am reading cover letters and resumes all the time. And, as you might guess, I write job descriptions just like I blog. Same tone. That's why I am awed at the stilted prose that comes back to me, mostly from the intern wannabes. Like this: "I am confident my experience, educational background and career goals will be an asset to your organization in achieving its objectives." The writers, especially the young ones, try so hard to act professional that it truly backfires on them, and they just end up looking ridiculous. Or perhaps just as bad, they look identical to the rest. (How do you sort out which of the many people who are sure will be assets to your organization will actually be assets?)<br /><br />However, I got one cover letter that was just so great, I had to share it. This particular job description describes a for-credit summer internship where the student doesn't need to already have an analytics background (who does?). You should know that in the job description, I wrote, "In your cover letter, please explain why you love analytics and point to something in your background that makes it clear what a 'measurable marketing person' you are." So here is what the student wrote:<br /><blockquote>A personality trait of mine that I think would suit this job is my habit of analyzing everything. I like to analyze things for fun and I analyze everyday life without a choice. I usually don't like to make a decision about anything unless I have every detail I need and I can weigh out my options properly. When I was a kid I used to read the stock market section of the newspaper with my dad and compare his mutual funds, individual stock prices, their 52 week highs, and so on. ... I used to have a girlfriend that constantly complained that I over analyzed everything about our relationship. The point I am trying to get at is I pay close attention to detail and have the ability to compare and analyze information provided.<br /></blockquote><br />What a breath of fresh air. I hope the interview goes well. I'll keep you posted.<br /><br />Robbin Steif<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a>LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-38840973876628855402007-03-22T17:07:00.000-04:002007-04-27T16:56:29.676-04:00Your best conversion (and SEO) resourceYour best conversion resource may be just one person, or an enormous group of people. Perhaps you are a tiny company with an admin who answers the phone (or you answer it yourself). Perhaps you are Lands' End, with a room the size of a football field, filled with CSRs talking to customers. Either way, you have an amazing resource that you may not have tapped.<br /><br />Your customer support staff knows what keywords people use when they call, looking for a product. They know what products customers love. They know what things about your website drives customers crazy (both crazy good and crazy bad.) They understand why people can't convert and abandon carts, preferring to pick up the phone.<br /><br />Hey, I did it when I made the reservation for Starwood Hotels. I already blogged once about the problem with that shopping cart, but the really awful problem was, the cart didn't recognize my Starwood number, which I had cut and pasted from Starwood's email. "Oh, it always misbehaves on the weekends," the CSR told me. Well gosh, why doesn't her boss ask her opinion?<br /><br />Not that long ago, I was working with a customer on some multivariate testing. "Why don't you ask the customer service reps what they think needs to be fixed?" I asked. "We're really good about being an inclusive company," he replied (and they are, they just won an award for some kind of inclusiveness.) But after he asked them, he was suddenly snowed with ideas from the front lines.<br /><br />Not only will your admin or your customer service reps have a lot of ideas (free for the taking) -- they will probably love that you asked for their help. Oh sure, someone will say, "That's your job, not mine." But I bet that for every one person who has that attitude, ten more will be flattered that you care. Just about everyone likes to know that they make a difference.<br /><br />I sure do.<br /><br />Robbin Steif<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics<br /></a><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=Your+Best+Conversion+Resource" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-47977473476037574342007-03-20T17:37:00.000-04:002007-04-27T16:56:13.064-04:00Regular Expressions question and GA: Search/ReplaceThis weekend, someone send me a Google Analytics Regular Expression (RegEx) question. The answer is pretty basic but interesting, and there is something to be learned about one of my favorite tools, the <a href="http://www.epikone.com/tools/regular-expression-filter-tester">Epikone RegEx Tester</a>.<br /><blockquote>Q: Hi,<br /><br />I've read most of your posts about RegEx, but I still can't manage to find the right RegEx for one of my filters in GA.<br /><br />I'd like to use a "search and replace" filter for all the pages whose URLs are either / OR /index.asp (which are in fact: www.my-domain.com and www.my-domain.com/index.asp). Basically, I'd like to have all the pages with both URLs displayed as "the page name I gave" in GA reports. <i>This is why he wants to use the search and replace filter - to give the pages his chosen name. Robbin</i><br /><br />I have tried several expressions on the <a href="http://www.epikone.com/tools/regular-expression-filter-tester">RegEx filter tester</a> but none of those seem to work. <i>Note to Epikone: Notice that your tool is now elevated to "the" tester of choice. Robbin</i><br /><br />I tried this one below, but I'm not sure that what the RegEx filter tester tells me means the filter is correct or not (I don't fully understand how this tool works, especially for the "input string" and "result" fields). <i>Here is the RegEx he is interested in:</i><br /><br />^(/|/index\.asp)$<br /><br />When I enter / in the input string, then click submit, the displayed result is Match: /,/<br /><br />When I enter /index.asp in the input string, then click submit, the displayed result is Match: /index.asp,/index.asp<br /><br />I don’t know what this result does mean exactly.<br /><br />Could you tell me if this RegEx (^(/|/index\.asp)$) is correct regarding what I’m after, or if it’s wrong and then could you suggest me a working one ?</blockquote>And here is my answer:<br /><blockquote>Robbin: Why don't you first change your default page to be <b>just</b> index.asp. You can do this in settings > edit > then edit again. Telling GA that your default page is index.asp will stop you from getting a page like this / . This will help you with the search and replace AND help you read your analytics more easily.<br /><br />Then you can do it the simpleton's way: ^/index\.asp (You really don't need the dollar sign unless you have urls that end aspx, for example.)<br /><br />I think if I were wanting to keep both / and /index.asp (a bad idea), my regex would be ^(/index\.asp)|/<br /><br />It is really the same as yours, just a little simpler and easier to read.<br /><br />The reason that the Epikone RegEx tester acts the way it does when you write it with parenthesis is that parenthesis tell GA, "I've created a variable." And here, you can read what Justin the Man said about their RegEx tester and creating variables, I found this in old email from him:<br /><br />Justin's email: "Why our reg ex tester behaves the way it does. Our tester is pretty smart. If your expression matches the input string, then the tester will return the word 'Match' along with the part of the string that the expression matched. Now, if you are using parenthesis to store some part of the expression in a variable, the tool will return the value stored in the variable in addition to the part of the string that the reg ex matches."</blockquote><br />There is at least one other way to do this, too. You could go into the part of the code that reads urchinTracker(), on the homepage and make it urchinTracker('homepage').<br /><br />In the process of writing this, I found that <a href="http://www.epikone.com/blog/2006/12/06/regular-expression-testing-tool/">there is a whole piece on the Epikone blog about how to interpret their results.<br /></a><br />Robbin Steif<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=RegEx" replace="" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-27174519593864437182007-03-19T20:32:00.000-04:002007-04-27T16:55:52.301-04:00US Politics and conversion analysesAfter I saw <a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117426203668540945-FrFzs2fkccZL9PcnmfM_9Sf0Cg4_20070417.html">this Wall Street Journal article</a>, I decided it was time to find out what web analytics packages all these US presidential candidates and non-candidate were using. (Apologies to non-US readers.) I just used the candidates that were in the center column of the WSJ article, so that I didn't have to make decisions about who is really running and what order to put them in.<br /><br />On the red side:<br /><br />John McCain: No pagetagging WA<br />Tom Tancredo: No pagetagging WA<br />Rudy Guiliani: Google Analytics<br />Mitt Romney: SiteCatalyst<br /><br />On the blue side:<br /><br />Hillary Clinton: Google Analytics<br />Barack Obama: Google Analytics<br />John Edwards: Google Analytics<br />Dennis Kucinich: No pagetagging WA<br />Joe Biden: No pagetagging WA<br /><br />Joe Biden gets really low marks for having a splash page. (If I hear one more customer say, "But they can click past it," I am going to be sick.) Rudy gets low marks for requiring too many fields in the email sign up (and who ever heard of a horizontal email signup?) He also wins the "hardest to find his navigation" award. Obama wins the "busiest web site" award, although he is the only person pushing social media, besides John Edwards. (Edwards has a feed on his site but Obama doesn't on his. That I could find.) Hillary's "en espanol" is very nice, and I do like her homepage (I didn't go past homepages. Too much time for no money.) I couldn't figure out why her GA was in the head if she wasn't doing anything interesting on the page. I thought it was very nice that John McCain had different sized typefaces on his site, for everyone who doesn't know that you can change your type in your browser. It didn't help change the size of his tiny, thin navigation, since it is a picture.<br /><br />I went out of my way not to show my own colors on this post. Apologies if I slammed your candidate, I tried to slam them equally. And speaking of slamming -- while I can pick on little things, I was surprised at what a good job they did of making their specific values come through. Whether you like those values or not, of course.<br /><br />Robbin Steif<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=US+Politics+and+Conversion+Analyses" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-1173652837686548962007-03-11T19:29:00.000-04:002007-04-27T16:55:34.288-04:00Conversion Analysis: Shopping carts that create doubtShopping carts should make customers feel secure about more than just their credit cards. One of the jobs of a shopping cart is to make the customer feel that he is actually paying for the product he thinks he selected.<br /><br />I continually have this same problem (i.e. website-induced doubt) with shopping carts -- either they don't tell me what I am buying (so I wonder, "Gee, did I click the right button?") or they give me just enough extraneous information to put some doubt into my mind.<br /><br />For example, about a month ago, I got the Quicken 2007 upgrade in the mail. It was time to upgrade, and so I started to. But when I got to the last screen, I got this screenshot:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3972/1770/1600/968534/quicken2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3972/1770/400/374827/quicken2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />I probably would have been okay with the "unlock" of Quicken 2007, if it weren't for the free download they threw in of Quicken Willmaker. As soon as they called Willmaker a download, I knew that the other -- the one I really cared about -- wasn't a download. In fact, only when I started writing about it that day did I figure out that I was only getting an "unlock" because I already had the software in my hands. I had to think too hard -- they needed to call it an "unlock code for your software upgrade" or something more descriptive.<br /><br />Here, this one is even worse. I was making my registration at the hotel for the <a href="http://www.emetrics.org/">Emetrics Summit</a>. It looks like a gorgeous hotel on Nob Hill, so I really wanted to stay there. I just didn't want to spent $900. So I'm going to share a room with someone, to cut costs. But, when I got to the last screen, I was told that I would pay $40 per extra person per night. Eventually, I made my reservation the old fashioned way, and the customer service rep told me that the extra person charge applied to rooms with three or more people. So either the hotel needed to remove that information, or make it clear that the information only applied to rooms with 3+ people.<br /><br />Robbin Steif<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a>LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-1173330726579065722007-03-07T22:55:00.000-05:002007-04-27T16:55:23.104-04:00Google Sprawl, and My Big WA News<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3972/1770/1600/517132/GAAC%20logo%20bad%20copy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3972/1770/320/216557/GAAC%20logo%20bad%20copy.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />My company, <a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a>, became a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant (GAAC) last week. When I told the news to Jim Sterne, he wrote back something like, "Is that the sound of your phone ringing off the hook?" Which pretty much sums up the situation.<br /><br />So it seems only appropriate that I talk about one of my favorite topics tonight (and soon it will be, this morning): Google Sprawl. (Stephen Colbert, I just want you to know that this is <b>MY</b> Word.) Google Sprawl is when you have way too many Google Accounts, and they are all intertwined. This happens a) because you started with Analytics back when it was hard to get an account. Now, you are measuring your customers using profiles on your own account instead of on their accounts. Then, you let one of those customers invite you into his AdWords using that email account. Oh what a mess. b) Google Sprawl also happens when your customers have a My Client Center (MCC) on Google AdWords and they invite you in to their Client Center before you get one of your own. Then, you take the test to become an AdWords professional using that Client Center (all the while thinking, "I don't remember thinking ahead and setting this up!") Suddenly, you are stuck with the task of kicking one of your best customers off of her own account. ("You can still get at the data," and "MCC is really for consultants" don't feel like great excuses when confronting that kind of task.) c) It happens when you stupidly tell Google to put your Website Optimizer in your MCC (it doesn't work there). d) It happens when the customer invites you into their AdWords using one email name, but you, unfortunately, change the email address you want to use. Which may make it hard to access their Website Optimizer.<br /><br /><b>So take it from someone who has made every Google Sprawl mistake in the book.</b> There is an easy way, three-step way around this all if you plan it out. Step #1. Use one, not-very-well-known email account and put all your <b>own</b> Analytics, AdWords and Website Optimizer under that account. #2) Use your well-known email name to create a My Customer Center (MCC) where you can invite customers in and access both their Analytics and their AdWords. Step #3) When your customer gets Website Optimizer, always use his account instead of your own, because then you can both look at the data. But you won't be able to use your MCC (see Google Sprawl Mistake C above), so go create another gmail account, like customername@gmail.com, and get a "hard" addition to their account. The better to access WO.<br /><br /><br />Robbin Steif<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a><br /><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=Google+Sprawl+and+My+Big+WA+News" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-1173186707258380522007-03-06T08:02:00.000-05:002007-04-27T16:55:04.739-04:00Read my guest post (on Eric Peterson's blog)I loved Eric Peterson's recent <b>excellent</b> post about <a href="http://blog.webanalyticsdemystified.com/weblog/2007/02/gradual-building-of-context.html">the gradual building of context</a>, but disagreed with his conclusions. I worked with him on the phone to discuss the issues and then tried to write something here. However, it required too much background for any of this blog's readers who might not already be following what he writes about.<br /><br />So, <a href="http://blog.webanalyticsdemystified.com/weblog/2007/03/guest-blogger-robbin-steif-from-lunametrics.html">I hope you will read my guest post on Eric's blog</a>. (We even named a metric in my honor...)<br /><br />Robbin Steif<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=Read" blog="" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-1173158335323911582007-03-05T23:51:00.000-05:002007-04-27T16:54:32.293-04:00Anatomy of a ConversionWhenever a potential customer converts into a lead, I always look to see, how did they find out about us? (Well okay. Sometimes I am better than others. Especially when a lot of customers convert and then I just want to see trends.)<br /><br />But it was a weekend. Quiet. So when one of the conversions came through, I went to my Google Analytics to learn who he was and how he found out about us. I started by looking at Marketing> visitor segment performance> geo location and saw that the conversion was in the US (go figure.) I kept drilling down by hitting the plus sign until I learned that the conversion came from Delray Beach. (Notice the 100% under the G1, Goal 1, next to Delray Beach.)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3972/1770/1600/749681/delray%20beach.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3972/1770/400/882520/delray%20beach.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Then I segmented by Source to see where he came from, and it was a link from my blog! So I went into my blogalytics and did the same analysis, looking for the Delray Beach visitor, but this time, when I segmented by referring source, it was a search from Google.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3972/1770/1600/262104/delray%20beach%202.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3972/1770/400/306528/delray%20beach%202.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Above you see how I do the segmentation, and below you see the result:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3972/1770/1600/343244/delray%20beach3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3972/1770/400/827494/delray%20beach3.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />So I did the same keystrokes, looking at all the visitors from Florida, but this time, segmented the Delray Beach visitor by keyword. He had typed in, "website conversion funnel."<br /><br />Hmm, I thought, I didn't even know that LunaMetrics ranked for that term. So I tried it in Google, and after I signed out, I saw that my blog (but not my site) came up on page one.<br /><br />At this point, I felt like I was on a mission. I went over to ClickTale, which I installed on my blog but almost never use. (For those of you not familiar with it -- it tapes the user session.) I rarely use it because I don't learn much from it and it takes a lot of time. Mostly, I watch people scroll and it gets very tiresome, very quickly. But this particular one was fascinating, not because he did so much (he mostly scrolled), but I was able to see where he scrolled quickly (not interested) and where he took his time.<br /><br />So now, I know that the customer is from Delray Beach, Florida, he is concerned with website conversion funnels, he read my six most recent posts on my blog as well as my post on "What Do Web analysts Do All Day Long?," he completely skipped all the fun parts in my "Dear Sexy Web Analyst" post and went right to the Google Analytics. What he read was interesting enough to check out my site, and what he saw on my site was interesting enough to submit a form. And then I met him on the phone today. Sort of like <a href="http://www.pkwc.com/exec/index.php">Phil Kemelor's</a> 2x2 matrix -- here was someone that I know both online and offline.<br /><br />Robbin Steif<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=Anatomy+of+a+Conversion" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-1172950332778466352007-03-03T14:14:00.000-05:002007-04-27T16:54:20.160-04:00eBook: Intro to Web AnalyticsEric Peterson's <a href="http://www.marketingpower.com/webcast332.php">free webcast for Web Analytic beginners</a> is coming up, this Tuesday, March 6. So this also seemed like a good time to (finally) write about Phil Kemelor's almost free ($25) e-book, <a href="http://www.pkwc.com/exec/index.php">Intro to Web Analytics</a>. Phil, remember that most PR is good PR. And then when you get to the end of this post, remind yourself again.<br /><br />I couldn't get ten pages into the .pdf without strongly disagreeing with some of Phil's basic premises:<br /><br /><b>1) I disagree when you write: "For your organization’s Web site, there is only one metric that matters: How much money is it making?"</b><br /><br />Yes, Phil, you are often right -- most websites are ultimately about making money or saving money, directly or indirectly. But more and more, people create websites just to change the world. Look at <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a>. Sure, you can argue that they accept donations now and need to measure that. But their donations are ancillary to their real goals. I'll bet that their website's most important metric is, "Did we help people today?" or "Did more Wikipedians feel like they are a member of our community?" OK, maybe you don't like that example. So, how about <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</a>? Sure, they have a few revenue streams too, but I'll bet that they use them only to stay afloat and pay for their server and executive directory. Like Wikipedia, the vast majority of their "employees" are volunteers, and their goals are not financial. So, Phil, when you write, "The purpose of your web site is to make money or save money," I just have to disagree.<br /><br /><b>2) I disagree when you give a list of ten lousy reasons for people to avoid measuring and testing their site.</b><br /><br />Yes, you are right -- there are no good reasons to avoid <b>measuring</b> your site. At a very basic level -- with the server side analytics package provided by your web hosting company -- it is simple and free. But testing is different. I created this post on <a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2006/09/increase-your-conversion-rate-for.html">Increasing your Conversion rate for $1524</a>, and the largest cost went to testing. Sure, you can do user testing for an hour or so (one day I user tested a landing page through three airports and two plane rides). You get awesome qualitative data and it helps you locate major problems. On the other hand, there are lots of things people just won't tell you. Plus, how significant can it be when you are doing user testing with five people?<br /><br />So when someone says (and now I am quoting from your e-book), " "It will cost us too much to measure and analyze site use," they are really saying, "We don't get enough value from our website to invest a thousand (or ten thousand) dollars in it." This is exactly how I feel about my company's brochure. Resources are always constrained, and companies have to invest where they get the highest return. Websites make <i>your</i> business happen. Websites make <i>my</i> business happen. But one size doesn't fit all.<br /><br />On the other hand, I read all the way to page 70 without disagreeing again, and by that time, it was just a technicality. So, for twenty-five bucks, <a href="http://www.pkwc.com/exec/index.php">pick up a copy of Phil's ebook</a> and see if I am wrong.<br /><br />Robbin Steif<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=eBook+" analytics="" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-1172877510022787882007-03-02T18:08:00.000-05:002007-04-27T16:54:08.236-04:00When your AdWords don't talk to your AnalyticsSo you did <a href="http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=26789&query=link+adwords&topic=&type=">everything Google told you to do</a>, but you can't get your AdWords to talk to your Google Analytics.<br /><br />This question came our way this week, and it was interesting, because I just went through the same problem myself. So here is some advice.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Problem #1) You want to link AdWords and Analytics, but when you follow their directions, you don't get an "I already have Analytics" option.</span><br /><br />I learned this one the hard way. Because you can only have one AdWords account associated with your GA account (even though you might have multiple Analytics profiles and even be able to look at multiple Analytics accounts), you have to unlink the old AdWords account so you can get the one you really want. However, unlinking is fraught with problems. (Thanks <a href="http://www.epikone.com/blog">Justin</a>, for teaching this one to me.) In fact, Google even says, <a href="http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=30322&query=unlink+adwords&topic=&type=">if you want to unlink, contact us</a> (use their contact form, they are pretty responsive.)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Problem #2) You successfully linked AdWords and Analytics, but you don't see your campaigns.</span><br /><br />This can be caused by autotagging turned off. You might have your autotagging turned off so that you can tag your AdWords just the way you want, but you have to tag them <b>all</b>. If you want to turn it back on, it is in AdWords, under My Account > Account preferences.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Problem #2a) You successfully linked AdWords and Analytics, you have autotagging turned on, but you still don't see your campaigns. Or maybe, you see some of them, but not all of them.</span><br /><br />When you see some but not all (and you have autotagging turned on), that's a red flag -- you don't have Google Analytics installed on the landing page. "But wait," I can hear you say, "I have my Analytics in a file that automatically gets copied to every page on my website." Yes, I work with a customer like that, and two (count 'em, one-two) of her campaigns landed on very specific landing page, stripped of all navigation and include files. Hence, stripped of Google Analytics.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Problem #3) No, none of those are the problem.</span> Your account was never linked to another AdWords Account, you have auto-tagging turned on, you have analytics on your landing pages. This was the problem that came to me this week. Finding the problem was real gumshoe work and it was exciting to discover it.<br /><br />Here's what happen. I was getting ready to send it to someone on high, but decided to have one last look. I wanted to be sure he had GA on his landing pages. And then I noticed that he <b>did</b> have code installed -- but he was running two different Google Analytic accounts. The account that was used from his landing pages was nothing like the account for the rest of his site. (I mean, the numbers, like this: uacct="UA-10005-8") So yes, there is a Google Analytics account somewhere, someplace, that is reading the AdWords, but the other account, the main one, can't see that the clicks are coming from AdWords. And isn't the whole idea to be able to see it in one place and then make decisions based on your data?<br /><br />Robbin Steif<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=AdWords+Talking+to+Analytics" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-1172636413895734082007-02-27T23:01:00.000-05:002007-04-27T16:53:51.532-04:00Wanted: WA jargon and acronymsI recently had this conversation with a friend who doesn't do the Internet for a living -- reminding me that I have to do a post on jargon (and need your help -- read on):<br /><br />Robbin: You know that whole series of posts I wrote on Regular Expressions and Google Analytics?<br />Friend: Right, I remember you telling me about it.<br />Robbin: I just got the nicest email, telling me how helpful the posts were to learn about RegEx.<br />Friend: What's RegEx?<br /><br />So, I am going to create a lexicon of web analytic words. Not real words, like "conversion" and "page views" and "hits." No, you can get all that in <a href="http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/about_wad.asp">Web Analytics Demystified.</a> Instead, I'd like to put together the phrases you hear all the time and just don't understand. They <b>should</b> make sense, they just don't... (For example, one person sent me "WOW" and told me that it meant "Week over week." Someone else sent me "clickstream analysis" vs. "pathing analysis." That kind of stuff.)<br /><br />So please send me <span style="font-weight: bold;">any </span>gobbledygook (sp?) that you hear. I'm especially interested in slang, or two ways of saying something that sometimes seem the same and sometimes seem different. Acronyms. You don't have to show off what you don't know in public; you can just send email to my last name at lunametrics.com or to info.<br /><br />Robbin Steif<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a>LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-1172549688240884462007-02-26T23:12:00.000-05:002007-04-27T16:53:25.286-04:00"Dear Sexy Web Analyst"Even web analytics have "their moments."<br /><br />When I got to work today, I turned on my laptop and started reading my email. The subject line was very tame, "Status: miniFEA users." (FEA stands for Finite Element Analysis.) But this is how the email message went:<br /><blockquote>Dear Sexy Web Analyst,<br /><br />I will be submitting a report to the National Science Foundation. If I could include a sentence or two on the use (and growth of use) of the <a href="http://engineering-education.com/miniFEA/">miniFEA program</a> that would be great.<br /><br />Can we look at it briefly tonight?<br /><br />I am sure that appropriate compensation can be found.<br /><br />Your appreciative client.<br /><br />Professor Paul S. Steif</blockquote><br />I spent quite a few minutes trying to come up with a response that was equal to his email message. Finally I wrote, "Yes, we can do both of those things tonight."<br /><br />However, the analytics took longer than I thought. As soon as I got into them, I saw that the page I had designated as a goal page looked like this over time: <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3972/1770/1600/97663/engineering-education.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3972/1770/400/213684/engineering-education.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Clearly a broken tag -- it broke on August 8, six months ago. I had to do all sorts of Excel exporting and graphing of less important pages to get a proxy for the traffic.<br /><br />From this we learn, look at your web analytics fairly often (so that you can catch stuff like this.) Lecture your web developer that you will one day care about your WA, so <b>please</b> don't break tags, and be especially careful (dear web developer) with sites and pages that don't allow you to just throw the analytics into an include file. And finally, don't send email like this to your wife if she is a blogger.<br /><br />Here was the final comment of the evening:<br /><br />My spouse: <span style="font-style: italic;">I can't believe you are going to publish that. I am supposed to be a serious academic. My cover will be blown. That wasn't even what I was shooting for.</span><br /><br />Gotta go --<br /><br />Robbin Steif<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a>LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-1172288144416121152007-02-23T22:26:00.000-05:002007-04-27T16:53:10.159-04:00Regular Expressions for Google Analytics: OK, I did itI was finally inspired by Alan, who reads this blog using his Blackberry on the Paris Metro. (Truly a world wide web.) Also inspiring were the comments of an anonymous poster, who wrote that all the Regular Expressions (RegEx) posts were incredibly helpful, but couldn't I please make them easier to access? So I did it, they are all beautifully threaded now. I even fixed awful typos in the Summary/Intro post and the ^ post (and you know, typos are the worst when you are a newbie learning a technical topic, you can spend hours trying to understand a topic, only to finally learn that the author was just lazy.)<br /><br /><a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2006/08/regular-expressions-part-i-escaping.html">Backslashes \</a><br /><a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2006/08/regular-expresions-part-ii-dots.html">Dots .</a><br /><a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2006/09/regular-expressions-part-iii-anchors.html">Carats ^</a><br /><a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2006/09/regular-expressions-part-iv-ending.html">Dollars signs $</a><br /><a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2006/09/regular-expressions-pt-v-question.html">Question marks ?</a><br /><a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2006/10/regular-expressions-part-vi-or.html">Pipes |</a><br /><a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2006/10/regular-expressions-part-vii.html">Parentheses ()</a><br /><a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2006/10/regular-expressions-part-viii-square.html">Square brackets []and dashes -</a><br /><a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2006/11/regular-expressions-part-ix-plus-signs.html">Plus signs +</a><br /><a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2006/11/regular-expressions-part-x-stars.html">Stars *</a><br /><a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2006/11/regular-expressions-part-xii-now-lets.html">Regular Expressions for Google Analytics: Now let's Practice</a><br /><a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2006/12/regular-expressons-part-xii-bad-greed.html">Bad Greed</a><br /><a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2007/01/regular-expressions-part-xiii-good.html">RegEx and Good Greed</a><br /><a href="http://lunametrics.blogspot.com/2007/01/intro-to-ga-regular-expressions-part.html">Intro to RegEx"</a><br /><br />Robbin<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=GA+RegEx:+OK+I+Did+It" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18163234.post-1172079069692274542007-02-21T12:24:00.000-05:002007-04-27T16:52:58.921-04:00Web Analytics for Beginners, Part II wrote an article for the Pittsburgh Technology Council on WA for Beginners -- it was just published. Even though I wrote it, I think they own the copyright, so I will just start it here and let you click through if you are interested:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Use those Boring Web Analytics to Improve your ROI</span><br /><br />Web analytics are the statistical packages that measure your Web site traffic. You may think of them as boring or useless. However, data-smart companies are using their analytics to increase their Internet traffic and to turn more browsers into buyers (or into leads).<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Where do I get Web analytics from?</span> Chances are, you already have them.... {<a href="http://news.pghtech.org/teq/teqstory.cfm?ID=1647">Read the rest of the article on their site</a>.}</blockquote><br />Robbin Steif<br /><a href="http://www.lunametrics.com/">LunaMetrics</a><br /><img src="http://web1.webanalyticsdemystified.com/zag.gif?Log=1&vs_b=Lunametrics+Blog+by+Robbin+Steif&vs_p=WA" i="" border="0" height="0" width="0" />LunaMetrics Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13538948049554909679noreply@blogger.com1