Released in October of 2008, advanced segments for Google Analytics did more to bring the free tool up to speed with established paid tools like Omniture and Web Trends than any other single previous feature.  It gives users the ability to define audience segments quickly and easily, and then apply those segments to any report in Google Analytics.   The result is vastly more actionable reports.

Now you can quickly know:

• The percentage of “branded” search engine traffic (visitors who reached your site by searching for you by name) and their specific activities
• The traffic sources that are delivering quality traffic such as those that demonstrate engagement or directly convert
• The top content viewed by members of a specific audience segment such as visitors from California or New York, new visitors or repeat visitors, paid search or organic search visitors, or those driven via a specific email blast.
• The behavior of visitors who access your site via an iPhone or other mobile device
• The most common actions taken by those who access the site directly
• The most popular products across each key audience segment mapped to traffic source or landing page

The above is just a small sample of what can be revealed.  Examples of criteria used to set up a segment might include, page title, organic keywords, paid keywords, internal search terms, network location, campaigns, entry page or exit page, product categories or even individual product purchases.

Fully utilizing advanced segments provides true context to your data so you can easily evaluate your site’s ability to communicate to and convert specific groups.  It should be among the first steps of any web analytics initiative.  Your segments should be regularly reviewed and updated to take into account new abilities to more clearly identify a segment.  However, when updating segments, be sure to keep track of when those updates took place and factor this in as data totals may shift up or down.  For instance, adding a new traffic source to a segment can markedly increase visit totals.

Start using advance segments today and watch your reports take on a whole new meaning.

Internet Marketing, Web Analytics Google Analytics, Internet Marketing, Web Analytics

The Old Way
Web design in small, medium, and large companies alike has traditionally been driven by the loudest voice or the highest-paid person’s opinion (HiPPO).  The Big Cheese steps into the meeting, and lays down the law, dictating what the next month’s web development priorities will be.  Websites can also driven by committee with the end result resembling a camel when the original design called for a horse.

While these approaches can keep things moving, it usually does little to ensure that an organization is directly responding to the needs and wants of its customers and enhancing the website with the express purpose of advancing key performance indicators (KPIs).  Today, with sophisticated web analytics tools (including inexpensive and even free ones), companies have more access than ever before to the data that reveals customer behavior and very specifically, how the website is performing.

The Better Way
Yet, even with these web analytics tools, information overload is a common experience for companies.  Their first foray into the tool, finds them wandering from report to report and thinking, “This is nice, but what do we DO about it?”

The key is to formulate a methodology around that data which is informed by organizational goals and guided by KPIs.  With a plan in place, you’ll have a specific agenda as you review, and even customize the reports to give you exactly the numbers you need to gauge performance.  This becomes especially important when a company has multiple tools in their internet marketing arsenal such as, blogging platforms, video websites, Twitter account, Facebook account, email marketing tools, RSS feeds, and more.  Each of these tools may offer crucial data in relation to a KPI, but if that KPI isn’t specifically in mind when accessing the reporting, insights can easily be missed.

For each key business goal, consider across all your tools which ones can offer insight for a specific KPI.  For instance, how many email sign-ups are we getting off of a specific landing page?  How many views and/or shares are we seeing for relevant blog posts?  What relevant terms are being searched for via our internal search?  What is the bounce rate for our key landing pages?  Which external marketing campaigns are driving quality (not just high quantity) traffic?

Map business goals, to measurable business activity, to appropriate metrics.  Group all related metrics together and track them month to month.  Be sure to keep notes on how these metrics are devised, which tools they come from, and what configuration needs to occur to coax out the right figures.

Then, each month, review your web analytics data and KPIs, and use this data to identify the low-hanging fruit.  For instance, from your membership page, you notice that there have been a large number of internal searches related to membership renewal. It’s obvious that page doesn’t make it clear how to renew your membership and doesn’t provide clear calls to action.  You now have a top-priority task for the month.  Review the metrics around each conversion event on your site and continually optimize.

Your web analytics efforts will only be successful if someone owns the process.  Someone needs to ensure on a regular basis, that KPIs are reviewed and adjusted according to organizational goals, the data is properly collected and analyzed, and insights are summarized and clearly communicated to stakeholders and implementers.

Effective web analytics requires a fundamental shift in the way companies approach website updates and internet marketing efforts, but the process has a wonderful way of keeping everyone aware of, and focused on, key organizational goals, drastically reducing internal arguments, and increasing conversion rates across the board.  That’s something even the HiPPOs can appreciate.

Internet Marketing, Web Analytics, Web Strategy Consulting Internet Marketing, Web Analytics

With Twitter’s popularity exploding as of late, it’s no surprise that many start-ups are popping up to expand upon the service and introduce ways of measuring its performance.

One such tool is Twitalyzer.  Nearly 20,000 unique Twitter users have tried the service which summarizes your usage and provides a number of interesting measures of success (influence, generosity, velocity, clout, and the signal-to-noise ratio.)

Some are already calling it “Google Analytics for Twitter” and indeed, the tool even offers integration with the hugely popular Google tool.

A breakdown of the major features:

• Measure of Influence: A combination of number of followers, number of “retweets”, generosity (number of times you “retweet” others), number of references, velocity (number of updates per week)
• Signal to noise ratio: A measure of the tendency for people to pass information, as opposed to anecdote.  This basically means that you tend to pass on useful information rather than just promote yourself.
• Separate measurements for generosity, velocity and clout (the number of references to you divided by the total number of possible references (as governed by the Twitter Search APIs).
• View the Twitter top 100 most influential as well as the 100 Most Signal-Rich, 100 Most Generous, 100 Most Prolific, 100 Most Referenced, 100 Most Recent Analyses
• Compare your Twitter performance with others via benchmark reports
• Twitalyzer Search demonstrates how applying measures of influence to a standard Twitter search can offer more meaningful results.

Keep an eye on this tool as it appears to be the most robust out there and is actively updated.  Plans are in the works for an expanded Twitter Professional service tier as well.

Social Media, Web Analytics Internet Marketing, Social Media, Twitter

By now, you’re probably on board with the idea that your company should start blogging if it hasn’t already.  Or, if you’ve already begun, you may be reconsidering where your blog should live.  Questions have arisen internally such as: Are we getting the best SEO exposure?  Do we have enough control over our data?  Do we have a regular, automated backup routine with a schedule we set?  Could our blog be better integrated with our company’s web presence and domain?

At the risk of over-simplification, there are essentially two ways to publish a blog. The first is hosted, which means hosted somewhere other than your server.  Blogger by Google, TypePad, by Six Apart, and WordPress are the three most popular hosted blogging platforms.  WordPress also offers a fully integrated option (WordPress.org).

The hosted solutions offer a feature called domain mapping, which will essentially mask the hosted solutions domain (i.e. myblogname.typepad.com) and instead display a domain that you control (i.e. myblogname.com).  This can be a nice middle ground if you don’t have a server of your own or the technical resources to administer an integrated solution.

Integrated, means the blogging platform is installed on your own server and is part of your company’s domain either at a subdomain or a subfolder.  This is the best option when possible, for the following reasons:

• The blog appears to your users to be a seamless part of your website.  In many cases, the blog is actually part of the main website navigation.  The visitor may be hopping from static pages to your blogging platform, but the switch is invisible.  In the best cases, your website’s CSS is deliberately applied to each style class of your blog (body font, headings, dividers, leading, kerning, etc.).
• A blog can even serve as a content management system for your website, again seamless to your visitors, such as the Programs solution we implemented for Discovery World (see link below).
• Your blogging data is 100% yours and the server uptime/downtime/speed is dependent on no one but yourself.
• You can relatively easily merge the backup of your blog data with your normal automated backup routines.
• The blog is most closely associated with your website  as far as the search engines are concerned.  This of course, is because it truly is a part of your website.  Domain mapping mentioned above while helpful for hosted solutions, but doesn’t pack the same SEO punch as full integration.

So, while a hosted solution may get you up and blogging within minutes, take some time to consider if a fully integrated solutions is important to your company and your website visitors.

Hosted Blogging Platforms

• Blogger
• TypePad
• WordPress.com

Hosted Blog Examples

• http://david-mcmahon.blogspot.com
• http://lotusreads.blogspot.com
• http://www.jaffejuice.com/ (uses domain mapping)

Integrated Blogging Platforms

• WordPress.org
• BlogEngine.Net

Integrated Blog Examples

• The Molstad Consulting Blog (this one!)
• Discovery World Programs
• 37 Signals Product Blog
• Exact Target

Internet Marketing, Social Media Blogging, Internet Marketing